Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

Hi all,
I am just taking an ex racing engine apart for sorting and cleaning it has been run on methanol and Castrol R and the bearings and crankcases are really difficult to clean the oil has gone thick and clingy and grease like, what I need is a really good cleaner I have tried Gunk white spirit and petrol but nothing seems to touch it is there a cleaner off the shelf that somebody could recommend that would do the job, Regards Clive.

hi you need to get them put in a industrial parts washer that gives them a hot wash with a cleaner it's like a big dish washer that how we clean all our engine gearbox parts etc and all the big parts that can't fit in the washer we stoke them with gunk the old type and them steam clean them

charvey wrote: Sat Feb 01, 2025 6:03 pmis there a cleaner off the shelf that somebody could recommend that would do the job,

I have a 5-gal. bucket filled with Gunk+diesel fuel that has yet to fail to degrease anything I've soaked in it.

Thanks both of you, I will try your suggestions and see what happens hopefully they will clean off the residue that has been left a real gunky hard greasy mess, Thanks again Clive.

I've had these 5-gallon buckets set up outside my garage door for at least seven years, during which time scores of parts have passed through the Gunk+diesel degreasing bucket and the molasses derusting bucket.
I started with just the plastic buckets, but they became brittle and cracked after a little over a year, which I blamed on the sun (I live in the desert). I put the replacements in the steel pails to protect them from the sunlight, which they do, but the molasses bucket still cracked after about two years (hence the staining on the walkway). So, the metal pails serve as both sunscreen and secondary containment.

I've yet to find something greasy on a motorcycle that doesn't fit in the 5-gallon bucket, but a few rusty parts required pouring the molasses in wide, flat pans. The molasses is a food supplement for livestock, so it's relatively inexpensive from a feed supply store. Although I've never come across such a store in central London, it's possible they exist outside the M25.

Castor is a vegetable based oil that oxidises easily especially in the presence of numerous catalysts and at high temps. Paraffinic solvents are near useless as mineral oils and castor do not mix. Alcohol does and things like ACETONE and a few BAD things like MEK. Any BATH you have will have to be covered to avoid the volatiles doing you harm.. Don't use any alkalies near aluminium or magnesium alloys. IF you do enough of this I would seek out makers of a "cold"bath solvent. I clean the outside of my speedway bikes with GENTHIN thinners mixed wit a bit of thin oil to stop it evaporating too fast. . Nev

use gunwash thinners , its basically cellulose thinners , you can get 5 gallons for about £30 from local car paint supplier .

If you have it in a container with a lid that seals you can leave it soaking for a long(er) time and a stiff brush should remove it. easily. Nev.

I had exactly this problem a year or two ago with a 4G which had been run on Castrol R and then left for many years. Cellulose thinners was the only thing which would touch it.