The Cleaning Power of Readily Available “Kerosene” | Effective in Cleaning Grease and Corrosion

One technique to save maintenance time is to soak engine parts in kerosene before disassembling or cleaning to make it easier to break down dirt in advance. In particular, it is important to know that soaking parts in kerosene are an extremely effective strategy for removing dirt from undercarriage parts and drivetrain parts.
Here, we will focus on parts cleaning that effectively uses familiar kerosene.

If you can't get an effect from the use of heat, you can't get an effect from the use of heat.

Surprisingly, there are many cases where a carburetor is about to be disassembled and overhauled and the choke plunger is corroded and sticking because it has been immobile for many years. First, warm it up with a heat gun and see what happens, but if that doesn't work.

Surprisingly convenient container for pickles

The pickle box used for making takuan pickles is used as a box for soaking various disassembled parts in kerosene, which is very convenient. Unlike ordinary plastic containers, it features a reinforced bottom plate to withstand weight, and by mixing kerosene, fuel for stoves, with diesel oil, fuel for diesel engines, the cleaning power is further enhanced.
This is good to know just as reference knowledge.

Metal colander for large parts, tea strainer for very small parts

ManySun-Mechanic must have experienced the following problems: "I submerge disassembled parts in a container to clean them, but in doing so, I dropped a small part and didn't notice it and it went missing".
There must be many Sun-Mechanic engineers who have had such experiences. When cleaning such small parts, baskets of various sizes are useful. For extremely small parts such as jets, it is best to use a tea strainer net. It is even better if the locking parts are wired to prevent the parts from opening and falling apart.

The size of the 4-cylinder head sinks is convenient

Engines undergoing overhaul and engine parts that have been disassembled before being sent to a professional store for internal combustion machining can be cleaned by soaking them in kerosene to remove carbon.
Soaking in kerosene will soak into the combustion chamber and scrubbing with a wire brush will definitely remove a certain amount of carbon. Spraying parts cleaner or carbon remover on the combustion chamber immediately after disassembly would be a waste of spray chemicals. Even if it is troublesome, soaking the parts in kerosene to break down the adhered engine oil and remove a certain amount of dirt before proceeding with the work, will be possible to pinpoint and attack the persistent dirt. Such work progress will make the degreasing work much easier. As a backup technique, before disassembling a complete engine, it is also wise to pour an appropriate amount of engine oil or fuel carbon removal additive through the plug holes a few days before the work and soak the carbon on the piston tops with oil or chemicals to loosen the adhering dirt.

Although the maintenance procedures and sequence differ depending on the approach and experience of each Sun-Mechanic the common saying for all work is "all is well that is well set up". For example, a well-known preliminary setup for engine overhaul is to remove the torque from the bolts and nuts that fasten the various covers and cylinder heads several days before disassembly work. This process loosens the adhesion of the covers and allows the engine to be disassembled smoothly. It is a good feeling to be able to concentrate on the disassembly work without thinking about anything else. It is also worth noting that removing the tightening torque also makes it easier to remove the various gaskets after disassembly. Not all gaskets can be removed easily, but when the torque is removed, the gaskets are loosened and oil seeps into the gasket in some places, making it easier to remove the gasket.

Dirty parts after disassembly are not degreased and cleaned by spraying a large amount of parts cleaner but are first soaked slowly in a cleaning solution such as kerosene and then brushed to break up oil stains. By using this as a starting point and then spraying parts cleaner, parts can be degreased cleanly with a minimum amount of cleaner used.

Here, the choke plunger was stuck and could not be pulled out when the carburetor was disassembled, so we tried to pull it out by heating it with an industrial heat gun, but it did not budge. We then decided to remove the entire cable from the choke lever side, soak it in kerosene for a while, and then try to pull the plunger out. Rubber parts such as O-rings and gaskets often swell up when soaked in kerosene, so if you are thinking of reusing them, disassemble everything as much as possible before soaking them in kerosene to remove dirt.

This time, I soaked the carb body in kerosene for a day and night, with no result. Soaking it for a few more days might have loosened it, but inserting a flat-blade screwdriver into the wire hooking groove on the top of the plunger and lightly twisting it did not improve the sticking condition at all. Care should be taken not to forcefully twist the plunger, as it would cause the plunger to fall off. As a result, the plunger was easily removed by soaking it in kerosene and warming it up with a heat gun.