Parafin

[Dubstar]

Everytime I look at the Haynes manual, it says to strip whichever bit down I'm contemplating fixing, and washing it with parafin. Is there anything else I can use instead,ie petrol, turps, white spirit etc.
I only ask because I gonna change my autobox oil soon and it says to clean the filter housing type thing, once you've took off the sump, with parafin.
It might not be called the filter housing type thing by the way-no Haynes at work! It's the bit inside the autobox it tells you to clean out.

[Ian Hulley]

Red diesel ... or even DERV (white diesel) will do the same or similar job. I guess Paraffin evaporates though whereas diesel doesn't at normal temperatures.

Ian.

[airhead]

Ordinary petrol seems to do the trick too. I found it great for cleaning CV joints.

[Westy.Club.Joker]

Petrol is a dodgy thing to use for cleaning, very flammable obviously, and dries everything out, including your skin : I know two people who had lucky escapes using petrol for cleaning stuff off (Paraffin leaves a protective film on things so they don`t rust, also usually cheap to buy Try local hardware stores, garden centres (they sell it for greenhouse heaters) or B&Q, a gallon will go a long way.

Why use something else when it says "use paraffin" and it`s easy to buy?

[kevtherev]

at a pound a litre I'd rather use it to move the thing... rather than clean its guts with the stuff

get some paraffin...it's cheap

I've used diluted gunk and that shifts the dried on stuff

[thenaylortribe]

Paraffin is also known as Kerosene

["WEAZLECHIN"]

Paraffin is also known as Kerosene

and will run a diesel engine

[Dubstar]

I wasn't trying to be tight or anything, honest! It's just that I don't want to get a gallon of parafin to use a drop and have to pour the rest away or store it in the shed. Got loads of turps and white spirit in bottles though, and at a push I could use a bit of petrol, and put into the tank whatever I don't use. It's just to clean out the oil filter screen from the auto box-as per Haynes you see. If it has to be parafin it has to be, it's just that if something I already have could be used intead, I would use that.

[Rozzo]

white spirit will do it

[Syncro G]

Like desolves like so if you want to get rid of an oil based thing, another oil based thing should work quite well.

Petrol can be good but its not the safest thing to be playing around with indoors, it also evaporate very quickly and can melt yogart pots (I once tried to clean a carb jet in one, I suspect in hindsight something along the lines of napalm production might have been happening without my knolage which doesn't sound very good - has that put you off petrol yet? worked for me!). I find diesel a bit too oilly and it stinks, if thats all you've got though it'll work. Paraffin I find is somewhere in between the two (who'd have thought that!) being less oilally than diesel and much less fumey and explosive than petrol, it doesn't evaporate much. None are actully massively expensive as you won't need much.

There are other things available though. I've got a parts washer in the workshop that contains some special cleaning stuff from machine mart. It works really well even with CV grease, doesn't stink, isn't supposed to be toxic and so isn't so bad to handle and apparently (though I've never tested it) won't explode. For most uses its fine to use diluted so its quite cheep too. Since I've started using this I've rarely found myself searching for the paraffin container. Few people have ever intended to blow up their workshop and yet it does happen from time to time, therefore I think thats quite a good excuse to use the safest stuff you can find, even if that means saving that money you were going to spend on a single pint of beer* to afford it - its often that triveal so why bother cuting corners?


* Vegtable, fruity flavored, chemical free, vomit coloured (naturally!), organic, smoothy mashed up pulp if you find the thought of beer offensive - each to their own.

[toomanytoys]

Get some "Gunk" or other "parts cleaner" from your local car place... then you wont have a "gallon" of stuff you might never use..
Most are water soluable and "environmentaly friendly" (well, as friendly as can be exptected when dealing with oils)

OH and NEVER pour any oils/parafin/white spirit etc down the drain etc.... VERY BAD..................

[Rozzo]

OH and NEVER pour any oils/parafin/white spirit etc down the drain etc.... VERY BAD..................

simply pour it down someone elses drain while they arent looking

[mininut]

I use Deb Jizer, from the people that make Swarfega. It's good stuff but not that cheap, but I get it for nowt anyway from work

[ELVIS]

own brand 'gunk' in a tin (rather than expensive aerosol)- can get it for £4/5 a litre- and put it in a 49p plant sprayer