Grit and Grime removal ???

[Gerhard_South_Africa]

Hi all

Any ideas on how to clean a boxer engine ???

What can one do to remove the grit and specially the brownish grime from tar and rain. I do wash the engine, but never seem to be able to get it looking clean/new.

I am a bit scared to use certain cleaners as it might remove the gloss of the alliminium


Thanks


Gerhard

PS - Just had an awesome 47 R1100s's track weekend on Kayalamy ------- AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What you need is Gunk.

[Neil Paterson]

Just bought some genuine 'Original BMW Motorradreiniger' (that's motorcycle cleaner to you and me).

You spray it on to a dry (cold) bike, leave it for a while then hose off. Recommended by my dealer (well, he would) and especially suitable for the engine.

To be honest, yet to try it but will report back (mine will probably be the dullest thread yet).

[rickmbmw]

I dilute Mr. Clean 50% with water and spray it on a cool engine. I think take a paint brush (tape over any metal parts on the brush handle with duct tape) and clean in the more difficult spots.

Then take a care hose without the nozzle and spray off the grime. Use Q-tips to get into the tight areas. Afterwards the bike will look like new.

I normally save this for a rainy day when I'm not riding.

Rick

[mryan]

Of course alot of these product-based comparisons don't travel well, but here goes anyway. I use something called 'Simple Green' which is the only 'eco-friendly' item I've tried that actually works (and smells like pine trees). I spray it on a wet engine, usually after I've cleaned the rest of the bike, let it sit for a awhile, and get in there with a stiff-bristled paintrush (of course this allows getting into the little nooks, crannies, cooling fins, etc). It's adequate for the common road grime, baked-on chitinous material and bug-guts, but not much good on tar. This requires a Bug and Tar remover, applied sparingly with a soft cloth, works like a damn, and doesn't mess with the metal finish. I then re-soap the de-tarred area, and rinse to ensure complete removal of residuals.
I occasionally get a piney whiff at stoplights, as an added bonus.

Mike R
(who really believes the engine runs better when clean and shiney...)

[sdobbs]

Anybody use S100? I was recommended this stuff but don't know anything about it?

[Mrmerlin]

Hi All , I would like to add to this a lil bit, I have found that the best thing for the engine is called Engine Gunk, spray it on a warm engine and hose it off, I strongly reccommend that you use the simple green to clean your floors and other non metal things as it is a corrosive and will eat the cad plating off the engine bolts...... my friend loves the stuff but his 99 looks like it has been to the ocean and back from all the corrosion on the bolts
Also a flying magazine has made similar warnings to not use Simple Green to clean your airplane as it will start corrosion forming in all of the rivet holes and such............Stan

[Kristian,CO]

I've used S100 several times, seems to work very well. Road grime, insect debris, brake dust, and just about everything else just rinses away!! Any other opinions?,, not sure if there is a corrosive factor-the instructions state that it does not corrode.

Kristian

[mryan]

Originally posted by Stan Kolen
Hi All , I would like to add to this a lil bit, I have found that the best thing for the engine is called Engine Gunk, spray it on a warm engine and hose it off, I strongly reccommend that you use the simple green to clean your floors and other non metal things as it is a corrosive and will eat the cad plating off the engine bolts...... my friend loves the stuff but his 99 looks like it has been to the ocean and back from all the corrosion on the bolts
Also a flying magazine has made similar warnings to not use Simple Green to clean your airplane as it will start corrosion forming in all of the rivet holes and such............Stan

All I can tell you is that my S still looks new (bolts included), after using the stuff consistently. According to Simple Green's website, it's completely non-corrosive, to the point where you don't even need gloves to use it. However, after an exhaustive web-search, I've found numerous references to it's corrosivity to aluminum. According to one source:
"In one test conducted by the U.S. Air Force, results from which were published in 1989, aluminum alloy samples were immersed in Simple Green for a week then removed, cleaned and weighed. The results indicated that the approximately 3.5-gram aluminum alloy samples experienced a material loss of about 31 milligrams in a diluted solution and a whopping 295 milligram loss after spending a week in the undiluted liquid."

Do they make a pine-scented S-100?

[gherardini]

yea, this was a big topic on the ibmwr list last year, i read the whole report on simple green [like 12 pages!!] and, yes, if immersed in full strength simple green for several hours and *not* properly [read fully] rinsed off, simple green *will* cause pitting on aluminum bearings [as well as any other aluminum parts i imagine].

however, proper automotive use of simple green, meaning scrub the living heck out of your bike with it, get all the nooks and crannies with a tooth brush/paint brush, and fully and *completely* rinse it off with water will result in nothing more than a very well maintained motorcycle. i would codocil that with 'i wouldn't let it dry on the bike before fully rinsing' though.

best
robert

[Mike Gehl]

I use S100; recommended to me by a Harley friend.

I reasoned that no group tends to be more obsessed about appearance than the Harley RUB crowd (these bikes are meant to be parked and admired, not ridden) and they tend to have a LOT more pretty metal that's gotta shine, than we have to deal with.

S100 is fantastic; 99% is spray on and hose off without scrubbing at all. I have no idea why and have tried many other high-powered cleaning products - nothing has come close. They are not kidding about the 10 minute bike wash. It is VERY important, though, to use it on a COLD bike. It causes some sort of deposit when it evaporates, so must be hosed off quickly. It removes engine grime very well, too; I use a soft old toothbrush to get to the caked-up nooks.

Does anyone know of a more reasonably priced source than a bike dealer ($11-12 spray bottle = 6 washes)

[Roger Justus]

I would ditto the good reports about S100. Haven't found a bargain source though. Comes in larger sizes though which works out a little better.

[D.Carmichael]

Dat's a fact jack

You should save between $10-15 if you buy
the 5-liter size, I believe it's $40-43
and the 1 liter bottles vary from $9-12 from what I've seen.

Mike Gehl...10 minutes to clean a dirty S I am impressed.

It usually takes me 30 minutes plus, after the cleaning I use 303 aerospace protectant on all the Carbon fiber,black plastic and rubber it works great.

Shine on you crazy diamonds

[jgrm1]

Coincidence or not, engine fasteners on my two bikes corroded shortly after I began to use Simple Green to clean the engine. Yes, I did rinse it off completely. That being said, I now use S100. I cleans just as well as Simple Green, although it is a bit more expensive.

-Jeff