Putting your engine in the dishwasher?
 

Has anyone tried it?
And more importantly does it work...especially with cylinder heads, blocks rocker covers etc.

I have a few engine gubbins left over that I need to shift on ebay, if they were nice and shiny I could get a few more quid. :D

So far I've:-

Tried the degreaser at work, with little success

Also tried the steam cleaner and neat truck wash, which was OK, but a bit messy.

Oven cleaner works very well on cylinder heads, but would the dishwasher do any better?

I'm not going to take all teh bits to the chemical cleaners as that would eat into my profits :D

I feel sorry for your dishwasher!
You could be the guinea pig and if it works, great. Thing is will gunge etc. upset gubbins?

It'll be fine. No probs at all.

But just out of interest, please post the results here. ;)

I'm not sure why a dishwasher would be any better than a steam cleaner and some de-greaser / detergent as that's essentially all a dishwasher is, just in a handy little box in your kitchen.

Spoilsport :D

Oven cleaner typically contains sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) which will eat into aluminium alloy very easily! :eek:

I was thicking the dishwasher detergent was a bit more potent. I suppose I could dissolve some dtergent in some warm water and put in a spray bottle, spray it on an leave it to work a while before getting the steam cleaner on it.....but the dishwasher sound like the lazy way.

Perhaps I should add my dad has an old dishwasher that he never ever uses. It's got a knackered seal on the pump, so it leaks, but if I can replace the seal then he said I would be free to use it, as he wouldn't use if it worked anyway! :D

Just I'm tempted to try it on my own dishwasher to see if it's worth bothering.

It's a case of moderation I would think. I used to do metal work and after we had heated metal up we'd drop it in dilute sulphuric (after quenching) for a few seconds before taking a scrubbing brush and pumice powder to it. The acid just losened up the stuck on oxides etc.

Now in the same vein NaOH should be OK if sprayed on and washed off throughly a few seconds later, but I wouldn't go putting it on precision machined components, the outside of a cylinder head may be OK though.

You need to make sure the baskets can take the weight and don't deform on to the spray arms, if they get jamed up they aren't going to do anything for you.

...including the net outlay of a replacement dishwasher, yes?

EDIT - ah, it's your dad's old one. OK.

I know, so does aluminium cleaner - but that doesn't shift the grease or varnish. Still if the aluminum is oxidised already what harm can it do :D

I should add this is prior to re-skimming the head surfaces ;)

Might as well go the whole hog and use the washing machine and then tumble dryer for perfect results :) :)

I had visions of you spraying on Mr Muscle foam and leaving for an hour or two! :eek: ;)

Wazz some alloy wheel cleaner on! :cool:

What a bunch of cowboys :rolleyes: Spend a few quid and get the parts vapour blasted. It's a non agressive treatment that brings engine bits up like brand new.

Memo to self. Do not buy engine bits from ALi-B. Goodness knows what chemicals they have been subjected to!
:)

I have a large device in my workshop thats called the "buppy", its just a massive dishwasher that brings up engine bits like new

[QUOTE=ALi-B]I was thicking the dishwasher detergent was a bit more potent. I suppose I could dissolve some dtergent in some warm water and put in a spray bottle, spray it on an leave it to work a while before getting the steam cleaner on it.....but the dishwasher sound like the lazy way.

QUOTE]

Dishwasher tablets/powder is primarily an abrasive. Yes it contains detergent and other crap but about 50% of it is basically sand type stuff that gets blasted at the pots and pans for about an hour hence the reason it doesn't take long for wine glasses to lose thier clarity 'cos they're all scratched.

Paul

I used to wash motorbike bits in the dishwasher - Only way I've ever figured out to get the pegs looking like new. (Until the wife came home early and caught me :eek: )

Yep -- in hi-fi circles there's a phenomenon known as the WAF or "Wife Acceptance Factor".

FYI, engine bits in the dishy scores VERY low on the WAF scale ;):D

Good grief! Am I the only one who has a dishwasher in his garage for this very reason:)

FWIW, It's worked a treat on everything I've ever tried it on, sump pans, cylinder heads, gearbox & diff casings, the lot:) It even brought my old V6 Sierra's rocker covers up like new, and they had 18 years/220k miles of old oil & crap well & truly baked on to them:)

i cant belive people are putting engine bits into dishwashers LMFAO

I got the idea from a "4x4 is born" Apparently the presenter had problems with the WAF too :lol:

At least I'm not sandblasting my engine bits! :D How long would an engine last with the oilways full of sand? :eek:

That's why you need the dishwasher, obviously, to get the sand out of the oilways;)

the guy on discovery that is always building things, planes, helicopters ec ect Mark someone. i watched some of the series of him turning a old landie v8 into a monster truck 4x4 thing.

he put the block and other bits in the dishwasher very early in the morning whilst his wife was asleep. Did come out pretty clean but i think he still had it chemaically cleaned and then coted with something as it was matt grey in the next shot.

Supposedly his wife chucked him out of the house and he was sleeping in the workshop near the end of the series !!!.