gunk won't work!

[TD]

My bell housing had years of oil slung on the inside and then it sat for years. I tried soaking it with gunk (several times) and a pressure washing it but you'd think I was never there. Any suggestions on getting stubborn grease out to expose the shinny metal underneath?
Terry

[Tinker]

I used dollar store oven cleaner on engines before and it worked very well.

There is always mineral spirits and a wire brush.

[Aerocraft]

I use my pressure sandblaster after using a putty knife to get most of the junk off. Gar Williams

[Bruce Rossiter]

Try Castrol Super Clean.

[Kevin in NJ]

I just cleaned one.

Started with some safety clean to get the loose stuff off.
Then some Plain old hand scraping.
Followed by some time in the glass bead booth. I have scrapper in the booth and scraped some problem areas cause it can take forever to get some crap off the metal.

I like to do manual scrapping at times cause it just goes faster and does not need nasty chemicals.

[Peter J]

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After scraping, I've used Purple Power which works well, eco. friendly and pretty cheap.

[harleyjj]

i second the oven cleaner suggestion

[Mike V. Florida]

Scrape as much as you can first.

[H. L. Chauvin]

After scraping with putty knife & wire brush, apply water based POR 15 "Marine Clean" mixed with "hot" tap water. With coarse steel wool, rub greasy areas with 1:3 mix of "MC" to 3 parts "hot" water. (Wear rubber gloves). Solvents & mineral spirits will melt grease, make grease thin, & allow thinned grease to penetrate porous metal. "Marine Clean" will emulsify grease & remove it so one can see bare "cleaned" metal.

[Dodge]

Gasoline.........plenty of venalation, then gunk once the stuff in emulsified

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

I've used LYE, It'll strip down to the metal, it seems to be stronger than oven cleaner.

[jkeesey]

Putty knife and brakleen

[Clem Clement]

When you use oven cleaner, put the part in a garbage bag and seal it for 24+ hours.

[Doug in NJ]

Easy-Off oven cleaner works great for this!

You can also bake it off: Put it an oven, and run the self-clean cycle. It will definitely work. When the fire department arrives, they will be fascinated.

Doug

[Dave Boyer]

Marine Clean, from POR 15. It's safe, and works awesome.

[James Rogers]

You are all going to think I am crazy (that's the general consensus anyway)but, I use a weed burner from harbor freight. I just hook this up to a bottle of propane and start blasting whatever I am cleaning. I most always use it on cast iron but it works well on steel but I stay away from aluminum. I heat the part up to about 350 degrees and let it smoke till it quits. Once the part cools I blow it off and scrape the worst off then pressure wash it. The burner is 29.95 and a tank of propane will last a long time.

[TD]

I sure do appreciate all the good ideas - I'm going to try the oven cleaner and then the marine clean - and Doug - you just plain cracked me up - I read your advise to my wife!
thanks all - this weekend I'll dive back in

['29wagon]

try electrolysis .

[allen]

close to what James said I use a torch don't hit the oxygen this burns the junk off then just blow the burnt dust off works every time

[Milton]

Originally Posted by James Rogers

You are all going to think I am crazy (that's the general consensus anyway)but, I use a weed burner from harbor freight.

Yes sir, and if you're crazy, then welcome to the asylum. I use either my acetylene torch (low flame) or a propane torch. God I love the smell of smoking oily crud in the morning.