Little tip. Lay down some Saran wrap. Enough to cover the part. Spray it down with oven cleaner and then wrap the Saran Wrap around it enough to cover the wet parts. Let it sit for a while. The Saran wrap keeps the cleaner from drying out and allows it to work more. Then clean the part. You’ll be amazed how much better it works.
As a truck driver for the past 30 years, one thing that I've learned is that MOST generic brands come from the same places that the name brands do. They're essentially the same product. They just don't have the same amount of advertising and the packaging isn't as fancy. If you buy 2 cans of the dollar store cleaner for $2.50 (plus tax), you actually get a few oz. more for about $4 less.
I saw two brands of window AC units in Ollie's. GE and Toshiba. The only difference was Toshiba had a sticker on the box covering the GE logo. Everything else identical. I also counted two dozen brands of tomato sauce in a Contandina canning plant. Made in the same place, but some cooked down thicker than others and a few changes in ingredients.
Agreed . I worked at walmart super centsr for 8 months in grocery dept . people would snubb Great value stuff including the milk. the dairy came from the same place = Hiland Dairy .
I have a few crock pots from the thrift store I fill with dollar store degreaser and just toss all my parts in while i work on stuff. Really works well, its like a miniature hot tank. Another trick is to buy milkstone remover from tractor supply, its a solution of phosphoric acid that makes rust water soluble. You just get all the grease off the parts and drop them in for a couple days, the rust turns black and practically falls off. Then you throw them in some baking soda water to neutralise the acid, and spray them quickly with WD40 to prevent rust. Works great, doesnt do a thing to the base steel from what ive seen and isnt hazardous. Works a lot better than vinegar.
I just let parts soak in 55 gallon drum half full of 25% vinegar to water for 5-7 days and theyre rust free. Restored a whole car that way. Vinegar is as easy and cheap as it gets IMO
Decades ago, I found the old formula "Easy-Off" worked best on carbon deposits, like combustion chambers, valves, and ports. Also did well on piston tops, but don't wait too long. The grease cutting did a great job of dissolving varnish inside the engine too. Pro tip: don't wait to start drying. Get in there right away with the compressed air, in all the small passages, then follow up with a fog of WD-40 to prevent flash rusting on cylinder walls and deck surfaces. Also, place cardboard on the floor to catch all of the drips, or you will be walking it around the shop.
@@TheBrokenLife I can't count the number of times I've looked around for several minutes trying to find where I laid me sunglasses down only to remember that they're perched on my forehead. 🙄
Lol exactly everything you said about the glasses is a picture of what I have figured out to do too. For the same reasons. You hear that "crunch" sound of stepping on your glasses and you shrug your shoulders saying "There goes the grand total of $1.00" and then just grab another pair.
I used to use a steam genie when I worked at a car lot cleaning cars, I used purple power 80-100%on greasy car parts , but the steam genie, I typically cleaned it with about 200°F water, then cranked it to about 300°F to do the final rinse, especially when it's warm dry weather, everything would be dry almost instantly, because it's already warm from the water, then at 300° it's steam coming out the pressure washer! And it cleans everything!! Having it instantly dry after washing is awesome!
Yeah man ,working in an engine shop I'd have to clean an occasional intake or something and threw it in the small hot tank for a few mins. Come back and rinse it off with this crazy contraption that had a hot water line and a air line. Blast water and air at once for a final rinse and it was hot enough it dried off in a minute by itself. I'd really like to get one of those guns,it's just as good as a pressure washer I figure.
I use high pressure high temperature water blasting whatever its called in the US. The 100 bars of water blasts off a lot of gunk even without soap etc. With industrial cleaner first for 25 minutes on the parts .....its clean AND dry within minutes. Works great.
Best I found has been a yellow concentrated degreaser called totally awesome. Works great. Especially when not diluted. About $5 for a gallon jug. Buy a $.99 spray bottle, and you're golden.
A pleasant lemon scent.....say no more......SOLD! While I'm not a "fan" of cleaning parts there is a certain feeling of accomplishment taking a nasty greasy dirty part and making it clean again.
I've known about that for years! Here's one I believe I came up with. After spraying and scrubbing the parts, hook up a hose & spray nozzle to the drain on your hot water heater. Then spray off the gunk with hot water, and air dry guickly before it has time to rust.
I use dollar store stuff, too. Only thing I do differently than you did here is I let it sit much longer. Maybe 15-20 minutes depending on the application. Always works great for that initial deep cleaning and gunk removal.
If the oven cleaner didn't clean the heads id think the heads were lying and take Uncle Tony's advice! Uncle Tony has forgotten more than Chuck Norris will ever know!!!
Remember back then the Coin Car Wash had a seperate bay and we would do our best to clean engine before we started wrenching. I drove Tow Trucks and we would get calls for people that couldn't get the car started again after doing so.
@GMAN S I once soaked a 1980 something Audi 5000 and after drying the distributor inside and out and all the plug wires, it wouldn't run until it sat out in the sun for 5 days.
A good alternative to simple green is mean green from dollar General. $5 a gallon. Works good on about anything. In a comparrison test last night on Muscle Car solutions, Simple Green came out on top. Don't think he tested any oven cleaner though.
Tony, I've used oven cleaner for the last 35 years. Do yourself a favor, go find a thrift store electric oven. The kind with the broiler on the top. Hose the parts down with easy off, throw them in the.oven and set her on broil for a half hour. You will be AMAZED. As a side note, you can fit about half a block in at a time, altho you're gonna need a jackstand to hold up the half the sticks out.
I love it. A video by a hot rod guy with hot rods going by! Sound like a dollar store trip is in the near future. I have got to give this stuff a try. A friend told me about soaking his engine block in a tank of water with some molasses mixed in to remove rust. No info on the mixture strength though. That will be another try when the snow and mud seasons are over. Thanks for the heads up!
TSP for paint prep ( house ) works SUPER GOOD for removing old paint from plastic. Mix the powder tsp ( tri sodium phosphate ) with water drop in the plastic part and let it sit a couple of days. Amazing results. Even 50 year old lead based paint just melts off. Fine clean the details with a tooth pick. Rinse with cool water and dawn detergent and the painted plastic is like new again.
Funny you mentioned not using it on aluminum (aluminium in the rest of the world) I recall using a brand name automotive degreaser, intended for purpose. Bulk bottle, not pressure pack, so I filled my degreasing gun, used it on an engine, great result. I left what was left in the gun for next time I needed it. When I did use it, nothing came out, gun was still over half full. The degreaser had completely eaten away the pickup tube in the gun. 😅🤣
isnt it just the English that say Aluminium? All of North America says Aluminum...only hear British say Aluminium and it sound like they are stroking out!
What's stopping you from doing it? Why does someone else have to do what yo want? Or why don't you send them some money to by the product and money for there time?
@@sheldonmcclaflin8904 I’m thinking because UTG has a popular channel and made the statement oven cleaner works as well as auto parts store stuff. I don’t think Uncle Tony is losing sleep over the request.
The only thing you have to do is read the ingredients! I know you need content. I tend to like to use Dawn to clean a greasy oily engine block and then use my pressure washer afterwards. Seems to work well. Dawn usually works pretty well getting rid of the grease and oil. Oven cleaner works great for taking carbon off combustion chambers.
@@tchrisou812 I use Dawn dishwashing liquid in my soap cannon and I spray it on and let it sent and soaking for a about 10 minutes. Then I take the pressure washer and strip to block clean. It does a good job of getting the grease and oil off. Depending if it's built up you might have to do it a couple times.
Dawn is great stuff on grease! I use it on greasy parts and on oil leaks in the driveway concrete-just use it full strength and let it set until the next rain!
As a single dad and a shade tree mechanic, I can tell you that Dawn dish soap isn't all it is cracked up to be. Ajax works the best in my opinion. If it's really hard on your skin, it works better. Go with the Ajax. Leave the Dawn dish soap for cleaning oil off of ducks. Also, Ajax works better than Dawn on actual dishes. Just saying
Lots of stuff can be used for things other than its stated purpose, such as a certain 'horse' medicine. Oven cleaner is actually a degreaser, grease is a large part of what needs cleaning out of an oven. The lye reacts with aluminum, and not in a good way. I have a big jug of Castrol Super Clean degreaser. Even the label says it can be used as a laundry presoak. I just add in a little to my laundry. It removes body oils from fabrics. There is no scent remaining after rinsing out.
aerosol paint remover makes a great vinyl restorer, like on an old motorbike seat thats hard as a rock, spray some on a rag and start rubbing it in, gets soft as new and stays soft for years, good idea to try it on something you don't care about first.
thats what i keep saying to tony ,its oven cleaner (sodium hydroxide) but in a gallon form its so good it can even be perfect car wash (thunderbolt truck wash ) 1 qt to 2 gallons on a clear coat paint it rinses dirt right off like you hand washed it
The NaOH (sodium hydroxide) in the oven cleaner converts the greases into soap, the same as in a hot tank. Some oven cleaners don't have it, so read the ingredient list. Make sure you wash of any of this stuff that gets on your skin or it will do you damage.
Both forms of lye work pretty well. KOH is more common in industrial decreasing, it's what's used in the big shipyards in the pacific northwest. I use a 5% solution if KOH on lots of things, it's nothing scary. I have both compounds in dry form, I'll mix up both and do a side by side in the next week or so
I get oven cleaner by the gallon and/or 5 gallon jug at my restaurant supply store (smart and final where I’m at) and use a Hudson pump sprayer to apply it
Great comparison vid man 👍🏻. I've used it to clean up aluminum briggs engines that have lawn/oil baked on grime. Works fantastic. Good to know I can go to dolla general now lol
I always wondered about those cleaners. Did most of mine back in the day with a siphon, air compressor and diesel along with a brush. Works alright but I recall lots of fumes. On the math - the smaller one is 2/3rds the size of the larger one so 1/3rd less but the bigger one relative to the smaller one is half again as much (10 v.s. 15oz) so 50% more.
It works awesome. My mom's mechanic husband turned me onto this trick probably 20 years ago. The dollar tree brand specifically. I use it all the time on all sorts of greasy stuff even if when it has plastic and rubber parts.
I’ve used oven cleaner to clean cast iron pots. I saturate them with the cheap stuff and put them in a black trash bag to bake in the sun. It works very well. I’ve never thought about using it in place of a degreaser. Thanks for sharing.
I use that stuff basically cleaning charcoal grills. The inner housing and grates. What I have found and continue to do so is use the cheap stuff on light cleaning. But easy off is the only stuff to work on the hard baked on charred stuff. And yes, you need to cover it with plastic bags and let it soak. Even so, elbow grease with a brush and scraper is still needed.
been useing dawn dish liquid since the 90's on engine bays or other some what oily places.i paint brush and old kethup bottle .they advertised works in cold water and it did.
Yeah oven cleaner is the best thing I've found for cleaning up an old greasy engine. A lot of dollar store stuff comes from big name brands it just doesn't get the same amount of advertising thrown at it so its cheaper. I've also switched to buying brake clean by the gallon instead of by the can. I bought a sprayer off Amazon that you fill with brake clean out of a gallon jug and then hit it with a little compressed air and it works great. It eventually will save you money over time especially if you go through a lot of brake clean.
I encourage you to try Scrubbing Bubbles sometime. It's way cheaper than oven cleaner, it doesn't harm aluminum or stainless, and works remarkably well. I've only had to scrub on the nastiest of the nasty with that stuff and a can is enough to do many jobs. I do let it sit for awhile, though. That said, a dollar store toilet brush is about the best automotive cleaning brush you can buy. I'm ashamed it took me so long to try one. Getting up on top of installed bell housings and starters and such is great with one.
Oven cleaner will remove anodizing from aluminum on contact. It's great for cleaning aluminum trim before polishing -- if you're willing to re-polish regularly, or paint it with a 2K clear coat.
Great video my favorite one since you were eating cabbage in your garage with your dogs. I use go go hand cleaner on parts sometimes it works great you wash it off your hands and the parts and your hands are cleaner when you finished than when you started
I use the go go and similar hand cleaners also and minor clean-up issues (but not the hand soap with the sandy bits mixed it). Used on my chrome Direct Connection valve covers decades ago.
I've been using oven cleaner for 20+ years, best results are have them in direct sun light and the warmer the material the better, plus wire brushing it before spraying helps to break the oil & grease loose, another way I've cleaned cylinder heads is a 5 gal bucket of Berryman parts cleaner just stick one half in the bucket 3 days later switch to the other half comes out looking new
Uncle Tony, I can’t remember where I saw it now, but a very good mix to clean hard baked on carbon on crowns of pistons and greasy Parts is a 50-50 mix of acetone and automatic transmission fluid. It melts carbon on the crown of a piston like a stick of butter in a frypan it’s unbelievable.
I don't know where this is being filmed but the number of cool sounding vehicles going by is awesome, its like living next to an airport but for performance cars. LOL at throwing the glasses, I said to myself ooh he's gonna need those in a sec, and bingo 😂
I just love it when UT throws things 00:59... Laugh so hard I'm coughing... "that has a pleasant lemon scent" UK - there's your t-shirt right there! Speaking of which, whilst you guys are sorting out your supplier etc, could I ask that you also consider international shipping on the site also??? Australia please!! Stay gold.
I use oven cleaner to strip aluminum anodizing off parts and then polish them. This can make old aluminum trim look better than new when polished back up, but will need more upkeep, as you took off the protective layer. You certainly don't want is on any aluminum you care about finish wise, as far as polished or anodized that you want to stay the same.
I discovered this when I was a teenager back in the 80s, cleaning a three speed out of a Duster. I raided under the sink looking for something, and stole my mom's oven cleaner. It worked great. A couple of warnings, though... Keep it off your skin and out of your eyes, and be prepared for it to remove paint.
I used oven cleaner on a seriously oily and grimy stock Ford truck air cleaner housing yesterday. It took the grime off and most of the paint as well but I sprayed it down again with some of this orange based foaming aerosol cleaner that was in the garage since I was a little kid you cannot buy off the shelf at a grocery store anymore. It melted the grease and grime off even better than the oven cleaner did. I remember my mom using that stuff around the house a lot until you couldn't buy it anymore. I get the feeling it's not good stuff to breathe in or get on your hands.
When I was about 12 I wanted to clean some gunk off my Dad's 81 Honda. I asked my Mom if she had oven cleaner. I figured it cleaned greasy nasty ovens. It worked great. Although it did attack the edges of the aluminum rims. All was not lost as I just ran over the edges of the rims and put back a brush finish with some sandpaper. Oven cleaner works great. I figured that out forty years ago, myself.
Looking at the time you posted this, you where doing hotrod science while I was removing a bent dust shield that started to scrape my flex plate in my 74 charger spring special. Little did I know while you where turning on your power washer, I was arcing the starter to a trans line frying my starter brushes, now I gotta wait for the new starter to come in. Glad I had a new video to watch, its the little things Tony, thanks for giving us all of this content!
lol, you didn't skip that glasses part;) I discovered this trick a good decade ago, saved tons of money. The dollar store / easy off work great as long as you aren't cleaning motor parts where you want to preserve the paint underneath the grease. Some scrubbing required for caked on grease. They and the store brand version of Gunk will leave streaks and dull the paint. name brand Gunk for paint preservation.
Used to use that stuff to clean radiators on the drilling rigs. Mud, oil, etc cake those things up pretty quick. Had leaking valve cover gaskets. Used it to clean off the oil from the block. EZ mode unlocked
One thing that has helped me is to get a smaller cement mixer pan at Home Depot. You can find Big jugs of Pine Sol and I fill the cement mixing pan then soak parts in that for a few days and it really works well. You can add distilled water to add to the volume of the pine sol. You can fit things like upper and lower control arms in the cement mixer pan. After that I use the stuff Tony is talking about then I just throw it in the Sand blaster cabinet to prep for painting.
Heh, usually the difference when actually cleaning the oven with the stuff is just about how obnoxious the smell is, (I'm pretty sensitive to chemical smells and all so it can matter,) ...which isn't a big concern outside on cold parts. :)
I think the main active ingredient is sodium hydroxide. (I'm not a chemist) It's really cool stuff, and the main ingredient in Drano or other cheap crystalized drain cleaner. I've made solutions to clean out the inside of old propane takes of the skunk smell (Mercaptan) before converting them to air tanks. Next time I need to clean something greasy, I want to make a solution of that marvelous substance and some corn starch as a thickener so it sticks.
I've been cleaning all of my parts with oven cleaner, specifically a product called Break Up. Nozzle on it sucked but I just swapped it with a brake cleaner nozzle.
Hello UT. Cleaning engines and parts must be on everyone's mind. I just watched a video on Muscle car solutions channel. He tested 8 or 10 cleaners including muractic acid and bleach. The best cleaner he used that cleaned and restored some shine was "Simple Green" from a spray bottle. He did however, hit the surfaces with various brushes. The ZEP cleaner and degreaser did very well also. Acetone left a very dull finish.
I spent 3 days cleaning the engine parts and 3 hours putting it back together cleaning cost almost the same as the entire gasket set for the engine LOL
The bigger one is 1 and half bigger. Price wise. You get 50 ounces for 6.25 of the dollar tree stuff. You get 15 ounces for 6 bucks and change. So you get 3 times and a little for the same price of the dollar tree stuff. Great video and thanks for the tip. I'm going to Dollar Tree !!
I've used the stuff for ages and household cleaning vinegar for years. Even aluminium , for diesel intakes, egr valves, gear boxes, blocks, I've not had issues for letting it sit for ages.
Made a living in commercial cleaning. Degreasers are a dime a dozen and most work perfectly fine. Usually the only difference is dwell/soak time. On the other hand, I cleaned a set of Ford 302 heads with lemon Ajax dish liquid and borax in hot water in an overnight soak and they looked like new. Even had some old school guys light some kero/gas mixture and rinse it off with hot water. Whatever works is the right thing...
That extra strength oven cleaner works wonders on iron blocks and heads .. it will even remove loose paint. Makes a good stripper for pre paint prep. Be careful on aluminum parts tho, it leaves them with a hazy finish in my experience . Great info thanks for your channel .
Tony! That’s a good way to to get the EPA or other government and state agency to fine your business or even shut you down. You should be doing that in a containment area where the run off does not go into the ground.
I think you were lighter with your left hand spraying the heads, but I would also call the results dead even. Good stuff, used sparingly not often. Rinse very well
I've used this trick for 20 plus years . I always buy the chlorinated v/s non chlorinated as it works much better .As far as scented , just means a higher price to me .
I used oven cleaner to remove exhaust stains on aircraft. It did a better job and was a lot cheaper than any product that had "aviation" in the name. Also used Pledge for plexiglass windshields, again much better and cheaper than specialty products. Also, dollar store toilet cleaner cleans stains from boat hulls. So the lesson I learned was that products "designed" for specialty uses are more expensive and less effective than dollar store products 🤔
I've gotten some strange looks buying 12 cans at once..Lol. Tip; always get the one with the red warning label "heavy duty" the standard one is just soap. They downsized the cans about a year ago...used to be full size.
I see those heads have the rotating exhaust retainers like my 82 318. Makes it interesting finding new exhaust valves to work with my comp cam kit springs.
Is your 318 a car or a pickup truck? I have a theory that cars never came with them but even half ton pickup trucks had them. I am not sure about vans.
I used to use oven cleaner to strip anodized aluminum parts so i could polish them to a mirror finish, it was a lot of work but the end justified the means
Little tip. Lay down some Saran wrap. Enough to cover the part. Spray it down with oven cleaner and then wrap the Saran Wrap around it enough to cover the wet parts. Let it sit for a while. The Saran wrap keeps the cleaner from drying out and allows it to work more. Then clean the part. You’ll be amazed how much better it works.
Great tip?! I guess you could also do this with rust penetrant so it won't dry out and gravity will keep the liquid at the bottom to unseize.
It eats through the wrap, dummy!
@@WickedG5150 no it doesn’t. Even Aurikatarina on TH-cam does it on her stoves and ovens she cleans.
When you get done with all that, fix me a sandwich...thankx
Trash bag
Hell yeah I use that foaming oven cleaner to clean all kinds of stuff, it just works. I’ve never actually cleaned my oven 😂
That's for the wife to do. 🤑
It cleans ovens too??! 😂😂
Wifey: Oh yeah he cleans the oven so OFTEN!!!! He is always out of IT!!!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
As a truck driver for the past 30 years, one thing that I've learned is that MOST generic brands come from the same places that the name brands do. They're essentially the same product. They just don't have the same amount of advertising and the packaging isn't as fancy. If you buy 2 cans of the dollar store cleaner for $2.50 (plus tax), you actually get a few oz. more for about $4 less.
I saw two brands of window AC units in Ollie's. GE and Toshiba. The only difference was Toshiba had a sticker on the box covering the GE logo. Everything else identical.
I also counted two dozen brands of tomato sauce in a Contandina canning plant. Made in the same place, but some cooked down thicker than others and a few changes in ingredients.
@@debluetailfly So what was the price difference between GE and Toshiba?
@@stuborowski5301 I think they were the same. Wasn't in market for ac, so didn't check too closely.
Agreed . I worked at walmart super centsr for 8 months in grocery dept . people would snubb Great value stuff including the milk. the dairy came from the same place = Hiland Dairy .
Worked at a place that made liquid laundry soap.
Many brands have the same formulation; difference is the dye coloring & perfumes added.....
I have a few crock pots from the thrift store I fill with dollar store degreaser and just toss all my parts in while i work on stuff. Really works well, its like a miniature hot tank. Another trick is to buy milkstone remover from tractor supply, its a solution of phosphoric acid that makes rust water soluble. You just get all the grease off the parts and drop them in for a couple days, the rust turns black and practically falls off. Then you throw them in some baking soda water to neutralise the acid, and spray them quickly with WD40 to prevent rust. Works great, doesnt do a thing to the base steel from what ive seen and isnt hazardous. Works a lot better than vinegar.
Powdered lye. Mix with water in your crock pot. Nothing to neutralize just keep it off your skin and outta your eyes.
Crock pot is a great idea... 👍
@@robertdinicola9225 Have wanted to try this, just worried about playing with something that caustic
@@allurared9029Coca-cola has phosphoric acid in it
I just let parts soak in 55 gallon drum half full of 25% vinegar to water for 5-7 days and theyre rust free. Restored a whole car that way. Vinegar is as easy and cheap as it gets IMO
Decades ago, I found the old formula "Easy-Off" worked best on carbon deposits, like combustion chambers, valves, and ports. Also did well on piston tops, but don't wait too long. The grease cutting did a great job of dissolving varnish inside the engine too. Pro tip: don't wait to start drying. Get in there right away with the compressed air, in all the small passages, then follow up with a fog of WD-40 to prevent flash rusting on cylinder walls and deck surfaces. Also, place cardboard on the floor to catch all of the drips, or you will be walking it around the shop.
"I need my glasses to find my glasses" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I remember Fred Sanford rummaging through a drawer full of glasses looking for the glasses he used to find his glasses.
I have more than once had to go out to the car to get my sunglasses to find my regular glasses. 😄
I resemble that remark.
Done there, been that!!!
@@TheBrokenLife I can't count the number of times I've looked around for several minutes trying to find where I laid me sunglasses down only to remember that they're perched on my forehead. 🙄
Nice to see this mechanic is complying with the Clean Water Act.
"No water was killed in the making of this video". :)
"Oh God I need those glasses"
"I need glasses to find my glasses!"
Lol made my night
Lol exactly everything you said about the glasses is a picture of what I have figured out to do too. For the same reasons.
You hear that "crunch" sound of stepping on your glasses and you shrug your shoulders saying "There goes the grand total of $1.00" and then just grab another pair.
I used to use a steam genie when I worked at a car lot cleaning cars, I used purple power 80-100%on greasy car parts , but the steam genie, I typically cleaned it with about 200°F water, then cranked it to about 300°F to do the final rinse, especially when it's warm dry weather, everything would be dry almost instantly, because it's already warm from the water, then at 300° it's steam coming out the pressure washer! And it cleans everything!! Having it instantly dry after washing is awesome!
It's awesome when you heat your parts enough during cleaning that they turbo dry afterwards
Yeah man ,working in an engine shop I'd have to clean an occasional intake or something and threw it in the small hot tank for a few mins.
Come back and rinse it off with this crazy contraption that had a hot water line and a air line. Blast water and air at once for a final rinse and it was hot enough it dried off in a minute by itself.
I'd really like to get one of those guns,it's just as good as a pressure washer I figure.
I do not have heated steam so I dry it the Redneck way with a leaf blower.
I use high pressure high temperature water blasting whatever its called in the US. The 100 bars of water blasts off a lot of gunk even without soap etc. With industrial cleaner first for 25 minutes on the parts .....its clean AND dry within minutes. Works great.
I know someone who uses an old dishwasher for washing part's,,thanks for sharing, all the best to yous and your loved ones
Best I found has been a yellow concentrated degreaser called totally awesome. Works great. Especially when not diluted. About $5 for a gallon jug. Buy a $.99 spray bottle, and you're golden.
A pleasant lemon scent.....say no more......SOLD! While I'm not a "fan" of cleaning parts there is a certain feeling of accomplishment taking a nasty greasy dirty part and making it clean again.
The way he threw the glasses 🤣🤣
Good one.
He Velma'd himself
And then needed them 20 seconds later 🤣
@@sivartimus4222 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I've known about that for years! Here's one I believe I came up with. After spraying and scrubbing the parts, hook up a hose & spray nozzle to the drain on your hot water heater. Then spray off the gunk with hot water, and air dry guickly before it has time to rust.
I use dollar store stuff, too. Only thing I do differently than you did here is I let it sit much longer. Maybe 15-20 minutes depending on the application. Always works great for that initial deep cleaning and gunk removal.
If the oven cleaner didn't clean the heads id think the heads were lying and take Uncle Tony's advice! Uncle Tony has forgotten more than Chuck Norris will ever know!!!
I've used oven cleaner for degreasing engines since the early 70's. WAY cheaper than automotive degreasers. Great paint remover, too.
Probably the same stuff anyway
Remember back then the Coin Car Wash had a seperate bay and we would do our best to clean engine before we started wrenching. I drove Tow Trucks and we would get calls for people that couldn't get the car started again after doing so.
@@gmans7859 one time my boss cleaned off an oil covered starter and it quit working.
@GMAN S I once soaked a 1980 something Audi 5000 and after drying the distributor inside and out and all the plug wires, it wouldn't run until it sat out in the sun for 5 days.
Dollar Store oven cleaner has NEVER let me down!
A good alternative to simple green is mean green from dollar General. $5 a gallon. Works good on about anything. In a comparrison test last night on Muscle Car solutions, Simple Green came out on top. Don't think he tested any oven cleaner though.
Dollar Tree has good aerosol glass cleaner too. Tint safe. I buy a lot of stuff there. Can't beat the price
Been using the dollar store oven cleaner on car parts for years. Awesome brand cleaner too.
Tony, I've used oven cleaner for the last 35 years. Do yourself a favor, go find a thrift store electric oven. The kind with the broiler on the top. Hose the parts down with easy off, throw them in the.oven and set her on broil for a half hour. You will be AMAZED. As a side note, you can fit about half a block in at a time, altho you're gonna need a jackstand to hold up the half the sticks out.
3:13 "That (cheap one) has a pleasant lemon scent!" 3:33 "So we got a nice satisfying foamy action." I love this softer side of Uncle Tony!
Oven cleaner and simply green are my go to. I find if you preheat the parts and then spray oven cleaner it works even better
Can't find "simply green"
I love it. A video by a hot rod guy with hot rods going by!
Sound like a dollar store trip is in the near future. I have got to give this stuff a try. A friend told me about soaking his engine block in a tank of water with some molasses mixed in to remove rust. No info on the mixture strength though. That will be another try when the snow and mud seasons are over.
Thanks for the heads up!
Nice to hear all the neighbors driving by to let Uncle Tony see what they got.
Another thing the cheap oven cleaner is good for is removing paint from plastic parts. Learned that in my model building days.
And strip chrome off plastic too
And it won't eat the styrene?
TSP for paint prep ( house ) works SUPER GOOD for removing old paint from plastic. Mix the powder tsp ( tri sodium phosphate ) with water drop in the plastic part and let it sit a couple of days. Amazing results. Even 50 year old lead based paint just melts off. Fine clean the details with a tooth pick. Rinse with cool water and dawn detergent and the painted plastic is like new again.
If you ever want to strip anodizing use that but don't leave it on too long
I had a neighbor tell me to use greased lightning oven cleaner and that stuff works great! I've used it ever since as a degreaser.
I've only found Easy-Off (Heavy Duty) spray to dissolve carbon in combustion chambers and around valves. You have to let it work, can't rush it.
Put parts in plastic garbage bag & let sitting over night, won't dry out, evaporate.
Funny you mentioned not using it on aluminum (aluminium in the rest of the world) I recall using a brand name automotive degreaser, intended for purpose. Bulk bottle, not pressure pack, so I filled my degreasing gun, used it on an engine, great result. I left what was left in the gun for next time I needed it. When I did use it, nothing came out, gun was still over half full. The degreaser had completely eaten away the pickup tube in the gun. 😅🤣
isnt it just the English that say Aluminium? All of North America says Aluminum...only hear British say Aluminium and it sound like they are stroking out!
@@01trsmar USA/Canada = aluminum, rest of English speaking world = aluminium.
My step-dad is from England and does the same thing I think it's only the English that you said that say it that way
So now I want to see Oven Cleaner VS Gunk Degreaser from an auto parts store to see if it really does as good a job. Loved the glasses toss!
This isn't "Project Farm" .....
@@peterdarr383 If UTG can see what concoction frees rings he can do oven cleaner hack vs auto store stuff.
What's stopping you from doing it? Why does someone else have to do what yo want? Or why don't you send them some money to by the product and money for there time?
@@sheldonmcclaflin8904 I’m thinking because UTG has a popular channel and made the statement oven cleaner works as well as auto parts store stuff. I don’t think Uncle Tony is losing sleep over the request.
All these suggestions are well taken. I sometimes use powedered laundry detergent/water as an initial "degreaser" and take it from there.
Bar Keepers Friend or Comet works too, especially if you use a brush .
Dish washer pods are good degreasers. (Non Foaming also) Use them in my power washer.
The only thing you have to do is read the ingredients! I know you need content. I tend to like to use Dawn to clean a greasy oily engine block and then use my pressure washer afterwards. Seems to work well. Dawn usually works pretty well getting rid of the grease and oil. Oven cleaner works great for taking carbon off combustion chambers.
So, just cover it in Dawn? How long do you let it work, ballpark?
@@tchrisou812 I use Dawn dishwashing liquid in my soap cannon and I spray it on and let it sent and soaking for a about 10 minutes. Then I take the pressure washer and strip to block clean. It does a good job of getting the grease and oil off. Depending if it's built up you might have to do it a couple times.
@@frankc1430 Hey thanks! I'll try this method out.
Dawn is great stuff on grease! I use it on greasy parts and on oil leaks in the driveway concrete-just use it full strength and let it set until the next rain!
As a single dad and a shade tree mechanic, I can tell you that Dawn dish soap isn't all it is cracked up to be. Ajax works the best in my opinion. If it's really hard on your skin, it works better. Go with the Ajax. Leave the Dawn dish soap for cleaning oil off of ducks. Also, Ajax works better than Dawn on actual dishes. Just saying
true Science is "Try it and take good note". I think you nailed it Tony.
Lots of stuff can be used for things other than its stated purpose, such as a certain 'horse' medicine.
Oven cleaner is actually a degreaser, grease is a large part of what needs cleaning out of an oven. The lye reacts with aluminum, and not in a good way.
I have a big jug of Castrol Super Clean degreaser. Even the label says it can be used as a laundry presoak. I just add in a little to my laundry. It removes body oils from fabrics. There is no scent remaining after rinsing out.
aerosol paint remover makes a great vinyl restorer, like on an old motorbike seat thats hard as a rock, spray some on a rag and start rubbing it in, gets soft as new and stays soft for years, good idea to try it on something you don't care about first.
thats what i keep saying to tony ,its oven cleaner (sodium hydroxide) but in a gallon form its so good it can even be perfect car wash (thunderbolt truck wash ) 1 qt to 2 gallons on a clear coat paint it rinses dirt right off like you hand washed it
I inherited a bottle of Castrol Super Clean and it still works great all these years later too
@@rctopfueler2841
Won't that degrade the paint over time?
I see what you did there. 🐴
I've got an old deep fryer to use as a make shift mini parts cleaner. Works great for small stuff.
What kind of oil do you use?
Peanut
Yes. I need my glasses to find my glasses. Gold!
The NaOH (sodium hydroxide) in the oven cleaner converts the greases into soap, the same as in a hot tank. Some oven cleaners don't have it, so read the ingredient list. Make sure you wash of any of this stuff that gets on your skin or it will do you damage.
Spot On. There are differences in "oven cleaner." Always wear glasses.
Both forms of lye work pretty well. KOH is more common in industrial decreasing, it's what's used in the big shipyards in the pacific northwest.
I use a 5% solution if KOH on lots of things, it's nothing scary. I have both compounds in dry form, I'll mix up both and do a side by side in the next week or so
I get oven cleaner by the gallon and/or 5 gallon jug at my restaurant supply store (smart and final where I’m at) and use a Hudson pump sprayer to apply it
Great comparison vid man 👍🏻. I've used it to clean up aluminum briggs engines that have lawn/oil baked on grime. Works fantastic. Good to know I can go to dolla general now lol
Good ol' Dawn dish soap is about the best you can get for cleaning greasy auto parts!
try varsol
Brake clean... dish soap does jack sht
I always wondered about those cleaners. Did most of mine back in the day with a siphon, air compressor and diesel along with a brush. Works alright but I recall lots of fumes. On the math - the smaller one is 2/3rds the size of the larger one so 1/3rd less but the bigger one relative to the smaller one is half again as much (10 v.s. 15oz) so 50% more.
"So what we have here....... oh God, I need those glasses."
"Do I need the glasses to find my glasses?" Thanks Tony. I'm glad I found your page!
"Do I need my glasses to find my glasses?" Haha! I love watching, thank you.
It works awesome. My mom's mechanic husband turned me onto this trick probably 20 years ago. The dollar tree brand specifically. I use it all the time on all sorts of greasy stuff even if when it has plastic and rubber parts.
I’ve used oven cleaner to clean cast iron pots. I saturate them with the cheap stuff and put them in a black trash bag to bake in the sun. It works very well. I’ve never thought about using it in place of a degreaser. Thanks for sharing.
I use that stuff basically cleaning charcoal grills. The inner housing and grates. What I have found and continue to do so is use the cheap stuff on light cleaning. But easy off is the only stuff to work on the hard baked on charred stuff. And yes, you need to cover it with plastic bags and let it soak. Even so, elbow grease with a brush and scraper is still needed.
I use dollar store Awesome cleaner on everything.
Same here, best cheap degreaser I have ever used.
That stuff really is Awesome!
been useing dawn dish liquid since the 90's on engine bays or other some what oily places.i paint brush and old kethup bottle .they advertised works in cold water and it did.
Yeah oven cleaner is the best thing I've found for cleaning up an old greasy engine. A lot of dollar store stuff comes from big name brands it just doesn't get the same amount of advertising thrown at it so its cheaper. I've also switched to buying brake clean by the gallon instead of by the can. I bought a sprayer off Amazon that you fill with brake clean out of a gallon jug and then hit it with a little compressed air and it works great. It eventually will save you money over time especially if you go through a lot of brake clean.
I encourage you to try Scrubbing Bubbles sometime. It's way cheaper than oven cleaner, it doesn't harm aluminum or stainless, and works remarkably well. I've only had to scrub on the nastiest of the nasty with that stuff and a can is enough to do many jobs. I do let it sit for awhile, though.
That said, a dollar store toilet brush is about the best automotive cleaning brush you can buy. I'm ashamed it took me so long to try one. Getting up on top of installed bell housings and starters and such is great with one.
varsol paint thinner works amazing at removing grease and it doesnt affect anything except some types of plastic
Oven cleaner will remove anodizing from aluminum on contact. It's great for cleaning aluminum trim before polishing -- if you're willing to re-polish regularly, or paint it with a 2K clear coat.
Great video my favorite one since you were eating cabbage in your garage with your dogs. I use go go hand cleaner on parts sometimes it works great you wash it off your hands and the parts and your hands are cleaner when you finished than when you started
I use the go go and similar hand cleaners also and minor clean-up issues (but not the hand soap with the sandy bits mixed it). Used on my chrome Direct Connection valve covers decades ago.
I've been using oven cleaner for 20+ years, best results are have them in direct sun light and the warmer the material the better, plus wire brushing it before spraying helps to break the oil & grease loose, another way I've cleaned cylinder heads is a 5 gal bucket of Berryman parts cleaner just stick one half in the bucket 3 days later switch to the other half comes out looking new
Uncle Tony, I can’t remember where I saw it now, but a very good mix to clean hard baked on carbon on crowns of pistons and greasy Parts is a 50-50 mix of acetone and automatic transmission fluid.
It melts carbon on the crown of a piston like a stick of butter in a frypan it’s unbelievable.
Loctite SF 790 is pretty good at taking off carbon. what type of ATF do you use?
@@Videoswithsoarin
Dextron III is OK
any standard ATF
Also makes a good penetrating oil👍
Would this take the carbon off burnt frying pans?? (the outside-bottoms)
@@peterdarr383 Dunno - probably would.............. acetone not a food grade chemical..... so there's that....
I don't know where this is being filmed but the number of cool sounding vehicles going by is awesome, its like living next to an airport but for performance cars. LOL at throwing the glasses, I said to myself ooh he's gonna need those in a sec, and bingo 😂
I just love it when UT throws things 00:59... Laugh so hard I'm coughing... "that has a pleasant lemon scent" UK - there's your t-shirt right there! Speaking of which, whilst you guys are sorting out your supplier etc, could I ask that you also consider international shipping on the site also??? Australia please!! Stay gold.
I use oven cleaner to strip aluminum anodizing off parts and then polish them. This can make old aluminum trim look better than new when polished back up, but will need more upkeep, as you took off the protective layer. You certainly don't want is on any aluminum you care about finish wise, as far as polished or anodized that you want to stay the same.
Love the senior moment with glasses!!
I use it all of the time! I love telling young guys about this and they look at me like I’m crazy, until they try it!
You crack me up with the glasses …
I know EXACTLY where you’re coming from
Cheers
I discovered this when I was a teenager back in the 80s, cleaning a three speed out of a Duster. I raided under the sink looking for something, and stole my mom's oven cleaner. It worked great. A couple of warnings, though... Keep it off your skin and out of your eyes, and be prepared for it to remove paint.
I used oven cleaner on a seriously oily and grimy stock Ford truck air cleaner housing yesterday. It took the grime off and most of the paint as well but I sprayed it down again with some of this orange based foaming aerosol cleaner that was in the garage since I was a little kid you cannot buy off the shelf at a grocery store anymore. It melted the grease and grime off even better than the oven cleaner did. I remember my mom using that stuff around the house a lot until you couldn't buy it anymore. I get the feeling it's not good stuff to breathe in or get on your hands.
When I was about 12 I wanted to clean some gunk off my Dad's 81 Honda. I asked my Mom if she had oven cleaner. I figured it cleaned greasy nasty ovens. It worked great. Although it did attack the edges of the aluminum rims. All was not lost as I just ran over the edges of the rims and put back a brush finish with some sandpaper. Oven cleaner works great. I figured that out forty years ago, myself.
Looking at the time you posted this, you where doing hotrod science while I was removing a bent dust shield that started to scrape my flex plate in my 74 charger spring special. Little did I know while you where turning on your power washer, I was arcing the starter to a trans line frying my starter brushes, now I gotta wait for the new starter to come in. Glad I had a new video to watch, its the little things Tony, thanks for giving us all of this content!
I've used the cheap oven cleaner for years. Simple Green and Totally Awesome cleaner is great for the light stuff.
THIS MUST BE THE "PROJECT FARM" ADDITION OF UTG.
lol, you didn't skip that glasses part;) I discovered this trick a good decade ago, saved tons of money. The dollar store / easy off work great as long as you aren't cleaning motor parts where you want to preserve the paint underneath the grease. Some scrubbing required for caked on grease. They and the store brand version of Gunk will leave streaks and dull the paint. name brand Gunk for paint preservation.
Good stuff Tony. I enjoy all your videos. The old school mechanics have great knowledge, and I appreciate you.
Used to use that stuff to clean radiators on the drilling rigs. Mud, oil, etc cake those things up pretty quick.
Had leaking valve cover gaskets. Used it to clean off the oil from the block. EZ mode unlocked
One thing that has helped me is to get a smaller cement mixer pan at Home Depot. You can find Big jugs of Pine Sol and I fill the cement mixing pan then soak parts in that for a few days and it really works well. You can add distilled water to add to the volume of the pine sol. You can fit things like upper and lower control arms in the cement mixer pan. After that I use the stuff Tony is talking about then I just throw it in the Sand blaster cabinet to prep for painting.
Heh, usually the difference when actually cleaning the oven with the stuff is just about how obnoxious the smell is, (I'm pretty sensitive to chemical smells and all so it can matter,) ...which isn't a big concern outside on cold parts. :)
I think the main active ingredient is sodium hydroxide. (I'm not a chemist) It's really cool stuff, and the main ingredient in Drano or other cheap crystalized drain cleaner. I've made solutions to clean out the inside of old propane takes of the skunk smell (Mercaptan) before converting them to air tanks. Next time I need to clean something greasy, I want to make a solution of that marvelous substance and some corn starch as a thickener so it sticks.
I've been cleaning all of my parts with oven cleaner, specifically a product called Break Up. Nozzle on it sucked but I just swapped it with a brake cleaner nozzle.
Hey that was a pretty good show thanks man , good looking out on that oven cleaner. Great tip......
This is getting like Project Farm!
I feel you bro. Where's my frickin" glasses?!!
Hello UT. Cleaning engines and parts must be on everyone's mind. I just watched a video on Muscle car solutions channel. He tested 8 or 10 cleaners including muractic acid and bleach. The best cleaner he used that cleaned and restored some shine was "Simple Green" from a spray bottle. He did however, hit the surfaces with various brushes. The ZEP cleaner and degreaser did very well also. Acetone left a very dull finish.
I spent 3 days cleaning the engine parts and 3 hours putting it back together cleaning cost almost the same as the entire gasket set for the engine LOL
Ya need a cheap leaf blower for drying your parts, great video I use the cheap stuff because I'm cheap my wife doesn't think so, but I am.
The bigger one is 1 and half bigger. Price wise. You get 50 ounces for 6.25 of the dollar tree stuff. You get 15 ounces for 6 bucks and change. So you get 3 times and a little for the same price of the dollar tree stuff. Great video and thanks for the tip. I'm going to Dollar Tree !!
Love it Tony. Now I need to figure what milkstone is and pick up a toilet brush. Never did like that 10 dollar parts brush..🤔😁
“That has a pleasant lemon scent”😅 ut for president!!!
For aluminum parts I use Lime Away, Works awesome at getting parts back to original as cast look.
I need those glasses. That was classic.
I've used the stuff for ages and household cleaning vinegar for years. Even aluminium , for diesel intakes, egr valves, gear boxes, blocks, I've not had issues for letting it sit for ages.
Made a living in commercial cleaning. Degreasers are a dime a dozen and most work perfectly fine. Usually the only difference is dwell/soak time. On the other hand, I cleaned a set of Ford 302 heads with lemon Ajax dish liquid and borax in hot water in an overnight soak and they looked like new. Even had some old school guys light some kero/gas mixture and rinse it off with hot water. Whatever works is the right thing...
That extra strength oven cleaner works wonders on iron blocks and heads .. it will even remove loose paint. Makes a good stripper for pre paint prep. Be careful on aluminum parts tho, it leaves them with a hazy finish in my experience . Great info thanks for your channel .
Tony! That’s a good way to to get the EPA or other government and state agency to fine your business or even shut you down. You should be doing that in a containment area where the run off does not go into the ground.
Thanks uncle T, super helpful! Although oven cleaner and other degreasers work much better on warm metal.
Would be interesting to see how they work on the combustion chamber carbon.
I think you were lighter with your left hand spraying the heads, but I would also call the results dead even.
Good stuff, used sparingly not often. Rinse very well
I've used this trick for 20 plus years . I always buy the chlorinated v/s non chlorinated as it works much better .As far as scented , just means a higher price to me .
I used oven cleaner to remove exhaust stains on aircraft. It did a better job and was a lot cheaper than any product that had "aviation" in the name. Also used Pledge for plexiglass windshields, again much better and cheaper than specialty products. Also, dollar store toilet cleaner cleans stains from boat hulls. So the lesson I learned was that products "designed" for specialty uses are more expensive and less effective than dollar store products 🤔
My paint store recommended using "aviation paint stripper" for built up paint. It
works much better, use less.
My glasses, I can't see a thing without my glasses! Maybe Scooby and shaggy can find your glasses! 😆
I've gotten some strange looks buying 12 cans at once..Lol. Tip; always get the one with the red warning label "heavy duty" the standard one is just soap. They downsized the cans about a year ago...used to be full size.
I see those heads have the rotating exhaust retainers like my 82 318. Makes it interesting finding new exhaust valves to work with my comp cam kit springs.
Is your 318 a car or a pickup truck? I have a theory that cars never came with them but even half ton pickup trucks had them. I am not sure about vans.
1:35 now there is a guy that thinks ahead........ you got a laugh out of me, good stuff.
I used to use oven cleaner to strip anodized aluminum parts so i could polish them to a mirror finish, it was a lot of work but the end justified the means
Don't breathe that pleasant lemon scent! That's like enjoying the smell of bug spray!