I've had good luck with this Gunk Soaking Parts Cleaner stuff over that last forever number of years since it went from a strong carcinogenic toxic solution to this more tame but effective soaking parts cleaner solution:

https://gunk.com/product/gunk-...th-drip-basket-cc3k/

My current batch has reached end of life, but before I replace it, have you guys found anything better ?

I've never done a test comparing this with another soaking parts cleaner. I've used paint thinner for gun parts in the past, but I can't remember how it went.

But for this thread specifically, we're talking greasy, grimy, dirty, nasty, car parts and automotive assemblies and tools.

Please cast your vote or other recommendation.

Thank you.

When I did the head gaskets on my duramax, This what I used to clean all the parts up before reassembly (aside from the heads as the machine shop took care of them).

https://www.tractorsupply.com/...r-5-gal?cm_vc=-10005

Mineral Spirits

quote:

Originally posted by Excam_Man:
Mineral Spirits

Yep. The same thing as Stoddard solvent or what they call PD-680 in the military.

quote:

we're talking greasy, grimy, dirty, nasty, car parts

I just use gasoline in a large tin pan with a few sizes of cleaning brushes outside the garage.

quote:

Originally posted by houndawg:

quote:

Originally posted by Excam_Man:
Mineral Spirits

Yep. The same thing as Stoddard solvent or what they call PD-680 in the military.

Man, PD-680 used to be be trich…dry cleaning solvent. They changed it to mineral spirits in the late 90s. We used it to clean the big gun aboard ship..hell we used it for cleaning everything 50s, 20mm cannon, 76mm, small arms. It was the best !

Then they linked it to cancer.

/drift

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:

quote:

Originally posted by houndawg:

quote:

Originally posted by Excam_Man:
Mineral Spirits

Yep. The same thing as Stoddard solvent or what they call PD-680 in the military.

Man, PD-680 used to be be trich…dry cleaning solvent. They changed it to mineral spirits in the late 90s. We used it to clean the big gun aboard ship..hell we used it for cleaning everything 50s, 20mm cannon, 76mm, small arms. It was the best !

Then they linked it to cancer.

/drift

PD-680 was never trich. Trich is trichlorotrifouroethane. Trich would never sit in a parts cleaning tank as it would evapoarate in minutes. We were using PD-680 in the 80s to clean jet engine parts and the smell was obviously mineral spirits.

The best stuff has been gone for a good while. The Gunk is as good as anything else on the market that I have found and the basket container is easy to use.

Naphtha or nothing for me

quote:

Originally posted by houndawg:


PD-680 was never trich. Trich is trichlorotrifouroethane. Trich would never sit in a parts cleaning tank as it would evapoarate in minutes. We were using PD-680 in the 80s to clean jet engine parts and the smell was obviously mineral spirits.

I stand corrected, per this series of specs PD680 was in fact made of three substances, or there were three different “types” that could be procured and used.

“Type I - Regular (Stoddard solvent) (Military Symbol SD-1)
Type II - High flash point (Military Symbol SD-2)
TyPe III - Odorless with very high flash point (200”F rein)”

(P-D-680A (INTERIM AMENDMENT 3), FEDERAL SPECIFICATION: DRY CLEANING AND DEGREASING SOLVENT (13-JUL-1990) [S/S BY MIL-PRF-680])

http://everyspec.com/FED_SPECS/P/P-D-680_36948/

I was going off my memory when I said it was trich. We did use trich in cleaning guns, but never used it in vats or containers like houndawg did. We used it on rags straight from one gallon metal containers, and aerosol cans. We also used PD680 as it was recommended on the PMS card.

Slight hijack. What kind of cleaner would be best for an old P220 that has some surface rust or discoloration? I will probably send it to CCR for a refinish, but kind of want to see what I can do with it first.

Gasoline with lead. That's what we used in the '60's. We also walked to work, smoked tobacco and drank water from a garden hose.

I believe the standard mid twentieth century Army solvent(or maybe just one of them) was 50% acetone and 50% benzene. I made some and used it for years and it worked extremely well on a wide variety of petroleum based contaminants. However that solvent mixture was abandoned circa 1970 following the discovery that benzene was carcinogenic.

Naptha(a lighter fraction of petroleum) itself was a branded, cheap, and widely used commercial solvent which sold for $0.10 / gallon in the 1970s. Auto and truck shops widely used it with compressed air to pressure wash items such as oil caked engine blocks and transmissions, etc. If iron rust is involved then after the organic crud is removed the iron part's surfaces can be and are selectively de-rusted with weak organic acids(including vitamin C) such as oxalic acid(which is hazardous).

For small parts off the shelf pressurized cans of carburetor cleaners are quite good and usually contain several different lighter petroleum derived solvents that are more or less 'safe' but I miss the old standard Berryman B-12 carb cleaner which once was terrific but is now replaced with a far less effective formula that is compliant with contemporary regulatory rules.

I guess that cleaning such stuff depends on how thick the crud is, how big the parts are, how much one is willing to spend, how clean you wish to get the part, and how comfortable one is with working with possibly hazardous solvents. Steam works pretty darned well!

Not the question that was asked in the OP, but if you can justify the expense, a recirculating pump cleaner ala Safety-Kleen blows away any soaking solution.

Another former favorite of mine was cyclohexanone but it is also now avoided due to toxicity matters.
Just to bring the solvent issues into currency i.e., up-to-date, there have been significant organic chemical engineering efforts to replace hazardous solvents with far safer products. One such enterprise has been that of Vertec although there are others of course. Here is a starting link for some additional insight into such solvents. Identifying safe solvents most suitable for a given need is the next step and the one you are confronting and such companies can always provide assistance in that search.
See https://www.vertecbiosolvents.com