best cleaner/degreaser to get engine oil off?

[pratapox]

Hi all. So what's your best cleaner/degreaser to get engine oil off? The 80 has a fair old leak from somewhere but not sure where so need to get it all cleaned off. Have seen the likes of Gunk in Halfords but what else does everyone use

[slater]

We use Jizer in our parts cleaner and i just use the old stuff out of that normally.

About 20 years ago had a drum of Comma Hyperclean which was pretty much the same stuff and worked well. Brush on and agitate as much as possible then wash off with water.

In my experience avoid water based degreasers.

[BritBrick]

White spirit. Effective, dirt cheap.

[jmsheahan]

Bilt Hamber's Surfex HD degreaser used neat is pretty effective. A follow up with a douse of brake cleaner gets most things pretty spotless.

[nickwheeler]

A strong mix of basic TFR works just as well as any fancy branded miracle fluid. And you'll get 20litres for the same price as a posh 1litre bottle. If there isn't an industrial chemical supplier near you, try a truck factor or agricultural supplier.

[ChasR]

I used to use, and still do:

-Carb Cleaner ; But not on plastics, after I had a set melt
-Petrol

But until I bought another cleaner, that has almost taken over

Jul 10, 2023 16:10:55 GMT jmsheahan said:

Bilt Hamber's Surfex HD degreaser used neat is pretty effective. A follow up with a douse of brake cleaner gets most things pretty spotless.

This stuff is superb. It's cheap, it mixes well, and if you get the dilution ratios right, it can form a

-grime cleaner in tricky parts of the car
-Maintenance wheel cleaner
-interior cleaner

As a result, it's very cheap. I bough 5 litres, but I have barely touched it.

At near 10% (I think I'm at around 7ish now), it cleans an engine bay brilliantly, along with the tyres when cleaning the car. It really made my E91 engine bay clean. I did use it with the Touchless Snow Foam from Bilt Hamber as well for a full engine bay clean, but I was happy with the result. Main reason for that I admit was that the oil change had oil leak onto the undertray, which I decided I didn't wish to remove. So I decided to clean the engine bay and make it spotless, which Surfex HD did at 7% dilution (93% of it was water).

AutoSmart's G101 is a good alternative.

TFR should be good, but some are caustic, which is where the problems can begin with marring things. In theory, if the dilution ratios are good, it should be fine, but given previous car washes marring paintwork on a car of mine years ago, I just don't use it as a rule now.

[slater]

Yeh TFR is caustic. (That's all it is really caustic and soap. You can make it yourself easily enough!) That said I regularly wash the engine bay of my daily with caustic as I run it on veg and other than a slight etch to ally parts (which quite frankly are already very etched from road salt) its not hurt anything. Won't get mineral oil grime off tho.

[crockpot]

Screwfix no-nonsense degreaser works well. Not expensive.

[Jonny69]

What is TFR?

[jmsheahan]

Jul 11, 2023 9:26:55 GMT Jonny69 said:

What is TFR?

Traffic Film Remover

[Jonny69]

Gotcha