Dear V-8 Buick fans who like clean machines, For most of us, cleaning products are something we get used to out of habit. If we find a product that works - we use it. Still occasionally we become dissatisfied with our current choices and want to try something else - but which other product to try? For decades we have used Simple Green all purpose cleaner. It used to clean just about anything and seemed extremely mild. Alas, Simple Green started to be less effective (by my and others experience.) In frustration I added Greased Lightning to my arsenal. Later still, I had a transmission fluid stain on the garage floor which Greased Lightning didnt clean. For that stain, I got a recommendation for Oil Eater. It did work better on the transmission fluid stain that either Simple Green or Greased Lightning. Finally, I had also heard about another heavy-duty degreaser: Purple Power. So how can you figure out which of these products might be better than the rest? Well for most products you cant look under the hood to understand how they work. However, for products that are potentially hazardous, companies are required to submit a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) (now called by government decree a: Safety Data Sheet (SDS) ) These data sheets arent that easy to read, but if you know a little chemistry, that can tell you a lot about how these products actually work. So for example lets start with the Simple Green SDS: http://simplegreen.com/downloads/SDS_EN-US_SimpleGreenAllPurposeCleaner.pdf Simple Green isnt as innocent as I thought. For example it has a mildly caustic pH of 8.5-9.5. Thats already enough to irritate your hands - which it does. Until 2013, it also contained a chemical that goes by various names including: 2-Butoxyethanol. The formulation change in 2013 clearly made it less effective. It turns out that 2-Butoxyethanol is extremely popular in degreasing products. In fact it is the only active ingredient in Purple Power and is a main active ingredient in Greased Lightning and Oil Eater. According to the Household Products Database of the Department of Health and Human Services it is in the following staggering list of products: https://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/brands?tbl=chem&id=41 The Household Products Database is a very useful resource that everyone should take advantage of. Greased Lightning, Purple Power, and Oil Eater have another commonality. They all are extremely caustic (high pH.) They range from 11.4 for Oil Eater to 13 for Greased Lightning and Purple Power. Since the pH scale rarely exceeds 14 and Sodium hydroxide the prototypical strong caustic agent has a pH of only 12, these are very strong caustic agents and should be handled as such. Comparing the Safety Data Sheets of Greased Lightning, Purple Power, and Oil Eater one can see differing ingredients. Purple Power only uses 2-Butoxyethanol. Oil Eater adds Sodium metasilicate. Greased Lightning adds a product described as Trade secret 762 and uses much less 2-Butoxyethanol (less than 1%). Oil Eater and Purple Power both use somewhere between 1% to 5% 2-Butoxyethanol. The role of Sodium metasilicate in Oil Eater is unclear. It should in principle contribute to make the product even more caustic when it is less caustic than either Greased Lightning and Purple Power. Wouldnt it be nice if we could simply figure out which product is the best? However, mostly likely that is simply a silly question. The better question is under what conditions do these various products perform the best. The different formulations will react differently to different stains. So perhaps Oil Eater does work better on transmission fluid than Greased Lightning (as I observed.) What should be clear from this little exploration of consumer product chemistry is that under the hood of a diverse set of customer products is mostly the same chemistry. I strongly suspect that this is true of all chemical products from cosmetics to car wax. Most of the flame wars over which product is the best are quibbling about intangibles, while the manufacturers are invariably trying to solve the same basic problem as their competitors with the same collection of chemical agents. That doesnt mean there arent differences between competing products, but they are more likely to be subtle instead of dramatic. In the case of degreasers, you might be well served to have several different brands on hand because each will excel at some stains while their rivals will work better on others. Understanding this, you can make better choices by taking advantages of those subtle product differences to match the best product to the stain you are facing. As is true of degreasers, most competing chemical consumer products are likely to be possess only subtle differences. Cheers, Edouard
Edouard, The ONLY product I used at my shop for more than 30+ yrs. has been a product by ZEP manufacturing. It used to be available in 55/25/20 gal. drums but is now ONLY available in spray cans. It is bio-degradable & won't turn aluminum white. I gotta say the spray cans don't seem to be as effective as was once available. I see it SOMETIMES at Home Depot. Have never seen it at Walmart or other such stores. If you can find it give it a try I'm almost sure you would be satisfied. Tom T.
For an engine in a running car, I use Gunk engine cleaner. I go to the car wash, spray it on, wait 5-10 minutes and use the hot wash/rinse. I usually have to dry the distributor cap afterwards, no matter how hard I try to cover it up. I bring a propane torch and gently use it to blow out the moisture in the cap. It's always worked for me. The Gunk cleans it up nice enough for winning awards at car shows... Steam works the best if you can find a steam cleaner for rent.
ZEP is different (Re: "Under the hood" of degreasing products) Dear Tom, Bill, and V-8 Buick armchair chemists, I assume you mean: ZEP All-Purpose Cleaner & Degreaser. Here is the SDS for that product: https://sds.zepinc.com/ehswww/zep/result/direct_link.jsp?P_LANGU=E&P_SYS=2&P_SSN=11337&C001=MSDS&C002=US&C003=E&C013=1047497&C123=SDS* I was curious about this product and it turns out to use a different chemical agent: alcohol ethoxylates. Here is the Wikipedia article on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethoxylation This product has a pH of 8.5-9.5 like Simple Green but may folks feel it is more effective. Sadly, it is indeed hard to come by. However, learning from your experiences, I might make the extra effort. Okay here is the SDS for Gunk: http://www.rscbrands.com/products/msds/EBT32.PDF The main active ingredient is once more 2-Butoxyethanol. It has a more modest pH of 8.3. As you can see, most of these products are built around the same chemistry. It is interesting that ZEP stands out as different. Cheers, Edouard
I'm sure if you can find it & try it I most certainly feel you will be satisfied. But, like I said the spray can is not as good as the old buckets. Tom T.
Gunk is good stuff. After the rinse or steam cleaner, WD 40 or CRC 56 work wonders for knocking moisture out of distributors . (Water Displacement is what WD stand for)
