Excellent Part Cleaner
 

I try to add value here every once in a while. We are building a 3.4 911 motor here at home and it came out of a 100K mile car. I HATE scrubbing and scraping caked grease off of engine parts for a thousand reasons :-) I decided to buy an Ultrasonic Cleaner that would fit the largest part I would be taking off. On a 911 top end build, the cam towers are the largest parts to be cleaned and they usually have a shed load of grime and stuck gaskets. Lots of little nooks and crannies to dig 25 years of crap out of....

My first mix was tap water, Dawn dish soap and Simple Green. The tank holds about 5 gallons in it so I added a cup of Dawn and Quart of SG. It worked GREAT!! Today I did the cam towers since they have small oil passages that I didn't want to deposit some of the gunk into. Today I used water and Dawn. No SG in the mix. I can't express how well this worked!!! Just as good as the SG added and these parts are SPOTLESS now. No work on my part but the time worked to earn the $$ to buy them :-) This is an excellent parts cleaning investment and would recommend it to any hobbyist. The cost landed at my home was $375.00 and I figure I can always sell it once done if I fond no more really dirty greasy projects to get involved with. Yeah....right!! As a hobbyist, saving on this built quite literally many thousands, this is a small investment.

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That is cool. Did you order it?

I am interested to know the make and model. Also where/how did you purchase it?

110 or 220?

Yep... Spill the beans!!!! Make, model, and place to buy!!! LOL

Heres a link

This vendor has many sizes so pick the one that fits yer parts best. No, not those parts, engine parts....

You must use a basket, and it comes with one. This is to keep the parts suspended in the solution while the magic is happening. I have been reading and there are many tricks to cleaning all different parts, little baskets with individual components, like carb parts, to ball jars with special cleaners in them with the parts inside and the UT cleaner only filled with water.

5 Gallon Solid Tech 20L Stainless Steel 400W Ultrasonic Cleaner Heater Basket | eBay

110 volt. Has a heating element that does a very good job of getting the cleaning juice up to 140 for added cleaning help.

This is awesome -- a "no touch" wash for parts, and much smaller than, say, a dishwasher. Thanks so much for sharing.

I would love to have one large enough to do a crankcase half.

Excellent stuff! Thanks for the write-up...another gadget to get :D

I had a medium sized floor standing degreaser tank a few years ago, sold it on the basis that as a home user you couldn't buy decent chemicals to effectively clean stuff...all this namby-pamby eco friendly rubbish, which then goes mouldy when left.

For some inexplicable reason, I went and bought another one a couple of years ago for my project; smaller bench top but have used it once. Waste of money...should've got an ultrasonic cleaner and save weeks of my life!

For the UK guys, when investigating DRO's a while back, I found this company who also sell U/S cleaning tanks

Ordered one immediately. Thanks for the tip. I hate cleaning parts.

Tom, I have one like this at work. Ita a 15gallon unit. We also have a larger one that is about twice the size that ran about $10K. The smaller unit was about $5K. They can be found cheap used but are rare as hens teeth. I scour the online gov auction sites but when they pop up cheap they are non close enough to make it an economical buy.

The cam towers were 30 min per side. 30 min does about 75% of the work, but a quick swish back and forth removes the settled gunge and then I flip them over. Have a beer, come back and take them out. Swish them around and then up to the kitchen sink for a quick rinse and dry. These are the parts where it really pays off. Looks at all the crap in and in there. Standing over a stinky wash tank with mineral spirits running and splashing around... Fugly.....

Some other parts run thru it.

Lower valve cover into first cleaner batch: Tap Water, 1qt Simple Green and 1/2 cup Dawn Dish Detergent

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Switched on, you can see the "fog" on the right as the magic is happening. This was immediate. Those scrubbing elves got busy!

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Valve cover coming out. 45 minutes in the bath. Didn't know how long it will take so just let it go. Look at to color of the water!!

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Cam chain housings going in. Water looks bad but still very effective.

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Chain housing coming out. Filthy water

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Chain housing done. It even loosened 90% of the epoxy on the backs of the housing that was leaking.

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Dag nammit...right, I'm off to rebuild my rebuilt motor now I've seen this! Thanks Jon, you've just set me back 4yrs!! :D :D :D


...is the Maxwell House in the background your secret recipe ;)

I looked and looked for awhile for a parts cleaner for my rebuild. In the end, I ended up using a speed shop near my home. Two boxes of engine parts ended up costing me $100 to clean so it was worth it to me to do that. I looked at everything from the cheap Harbor Freight stuff to the real nice Northern Tool equipment. Real nice find, especially if you get regular use out of the thing.

That's pretty awesome for $375. Does it have a 100% duty cycle?

I wish I had seen that before going through a few cases of brake cleaner trying to get parts decently clean. :(

I have a smaller cleaner that I have used with great success for a few years.

I have found that Simple Green will etch aluminum if you leave it in too long - be careful. I have also found that you can readily remove the plating from fasteners and other parts if left in too long.

Pinesol seems to be safer on aluminum and plated parts. I have a "dirty bucket" of straight Pinesol that I will soak parts in for a few days and then rinse in the ultrasonic cleaner (usually with just hot water - the carryover from the bucket usually supplies enough soap).

This is a great price for a large ultrasonic cleaner.

I had a large one at my old job that I could borrow when needed. I miss it.

Ordered one, this will work great on the nasty dirty harnesses people send me. :)
I have a smaller on about 1/3 the size and it just isn't big enough.
Price is great. Thanks for posting about it.

I wonder how many of the 35 units sold by this seller are a result of this thread. :D

I should be getting a piece of the sales!!!

Will it fit the CV axle? I hate cleaning CVs

I doubt the full length of the axle, but one end laid in at an angle and it would be good. Wipe out most of the gunk and blast it in there for 30 min you would be good to go.

There are a few diy articles online to build your own. Is anyone here knowledgeable enough to say if I could actually damage a part by using an incorrect frequency? (Or something else I do not know about)

How hot do you set the temp ?

and do you blow out the loosened junk that gets in the oil passages etc

I have been using 140F as it is what I read somewhere on the interwebs, must be right :-) Temp is important because things clean easier with some temp in the mix, especially if you are using mostly water. You need the atoms moving....

I use Brake Kleen to blow out the oil galleries and then compressed air. The cam towers were my first part with oil galleries and they went in with a fresh mix of water to avoid the gunk. Most of the junk seems to settle pretty quick to the bottom. there is no agitation or circulation in the tank. just the bubbles that are bursting at the surface.

A video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5Ec7dCZSto

I'm not an expert just a user. Do your own research!!!

Thanks for the pointer to an excellent looking ultrasonic cleaner!

I would suggest as a precaution to pull the aluminum plugs from the ends of the cam housing spray bar bores. No need to remove the spray bar itself. Just remove the plugs and replace with new to ensure nothing gets trapped at the "dead ends."

Someone, maybe Spenny, aluded to the days of life saved by the chemicals i/ we all use for our hobby and maybe work. Ageing is going to be bad enough without the extra damage from toxins. That line of reasoning sure makes $375 seem like a total steal, even before realizing you'd never have to do the old mineral spirits / Safety Kleen scrub again. John in CT.

...meant to say, days of life that could be saved, or improved, by NOT using the chemicals we employ in our garages....

Looks like a tremendous time saver. I just finished a 3.0 rebuild and this would have been very helpful!

It's still working like a dream and I'm continuing to clean parts...

Here is the fan done last night. #0 minutes and she was clean as a whistle!!

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I have a pressure plate that was completely caked in decades of oily clutch disc material. I was able to dig long worms of oily solids out of it.

It barely fits in the 5 gallon model, laying horizontally. I gather that this is the kind of part that requires that you clean it for awhile, then flip it over to let the sludge drain out of the other side during a second bath.

I'm using Meyer's dish soap and water, but I can't recommend this combination as I don't think it has enough grease cutting power.

So far, I'm pretty pleased. I think the cleaner will work much better on simpler components such as brake calipers, hubs, valve covers, bearings, etc.

For that kind of grease the best bet is water, dawn and some simple green. You need to really break down the grease.

The UT gets right into small holes (so I have read) and that is one main Bennie of the tech but not if the hole is plugged with grease. I can see that taking quite a bit longer

Arrived today, very nice unit.
I dropped a '76 912 engine harness in it already. :)
Can't wait to see the results.
Edit: harness came out very clean. Especially the connectors. :)

My old tiny cleaner is on the left...


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I'm partial to using citrus solvents (diluted), as they won't attack cad plating or aluminum finishes in the same way that caustic degreasers do.

Can you recommend an effective citrus solvent that won't remove the plating?

Thanks,

Soy degreasers are really good too and they aren't as smelly/strong like some of the other favorites- Simple Green or Oil Eater. I've been really pleased with Franmar's Emerge.

Emerge *Concentrate* [DF] - $10.95 : Franmar Chemical Inc.

However, DO NOT use it on aluminum parts. Your parts will grow a white fuzz if you soak them in it for extended period of time like overnight. If I clean aluminum parts with Emerge I rinse them in a soapy water solution (Dawn dishwashing detergent is fantastic) afterwards to neutralize the soy cleaner.

They also make parts washing solutions but i've not tried them yet.

PARTS WASHERS : Franmar Chemical Inc.

I have one of the ultrasonic cleaners coming my way as well- shipped today. Thanks again for the link to a nice price on a great looking medium size ultrasonic cleaner.

I don't know any name brand citrus degreasers, as I use one that my parents make (they own a small janitorial supply business).
But as far as I know, pretty much all citrus based degreasers use the solvent d-limonene, an extract of orange peels.
You do need to watch out with delicate plastic, rubber, or painted parts when using it.

silly question, but what do you do with the liquid afterwards? do you need to clean the cleaner at some point?

Dennis, you are dropping the full harness in??? How are you getting it dry or you don't care, as you are building a new one and just don't want to handle the filthy old one...

As for cleaning, I have changed out the fluid one time. It has a nice low drain so the draining part is quite easy and not messy. Drained into a Spackle bucket, I let it settle and separate. Then pulled off the oily stuff on top and took it to recycling. The rest is still in the bucket waiting for a good idea. It appears to be water and dirty sludge but I'm not 100% certain.

Hi Jon,
You guessed it, I don't care as I am just using them as a pattern. :)