Will this oil cleaning experiment work?

[HawkeyeScott]

My neighbor just changed out the top end of his 2005 Chrysler 3.5L engine at 174k miles. He has some, not a lot, of varnish on the passenger side assembly. We were shooting the breeze this afternoon and wondered about taking the old rocker arms and submerging each in a plastic container, and each with a different oil. Of course, our experiment would be at room (garage) temperature. Would the cleaning agents in the oil work without ever making it to full engine temp.?

It'd be kind of cool to see what might clean the best, but we also don't want to waste good oil on a potentially hair brained idea that was doomed from the beginning. What do you think?

 

[Merkava_4]

Try soaking them in a quart of Red Line. Let me know how it goes because I got some salvage yard rocker arms to clean up.

 

[Brybo86]

I doubt it.
Try soaking them in berrymans Chem dip

 

[Dyusik]

I cleaned an old nasty wrench with used M1. Most of the crud came off. Don't know how varnish will stand up to it.

 

[fields]

MEK

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: fields
MEK

That's some serious stuff man.

 

[Shannow]

Sadly, you won't get a thing to happen.

The varnish compounds are very polar, so an alkali based degreaser and water will give nearly instant effect.

 

[KL31]

Originally Posted By: Shannow
Sadly, you won't get a thing to happen.

The varnish compounds are very polar, so an alkali based degreaser and water will give nearly instant effect.


What he said. I've used an ultrasonic parts cleaner with degreaser for a very quick and easy clean of smaller parts.