Pine Sol - fact or fiction

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These are my experiences using pine sol to degrease and de-carbon my throttle body on a 1992 Dodge grand caravan with 180K miles.

I found several places on the internet praising the wonders of Pine sol for carb cleaning. Most of them used 2 or 3 day soaks. I was in a hurry and heated the mixture up. Here are the results.

Step 1, go to dollar store and buy cheap generic Pine sol.

Step 2, find a container to put parts in as small as possible to conserve the use of Pine sol. Do not use any kettle you use for food. Even after a good cleaning residue may remain.

Step 3, warm mixture up to something below boiling. Remember heat speeds up cleaning time. I am a little foggy on this but i may have diluted the Pine sol 50/50 with water.

Step 3, For agitation every 5 min or so pull each part out and let it drain and put back in (use a wire or pliers)

Step 4, Around 30 min you should be done.

If you are heating this in your house you will get a STRONG Pine sol smell.


My conclusions.

1) Pine sol de-greases and de-carbons nicely.

2) The outside of the throttle body of corroded aluminum looks a little better but no miracles here.

3) Pine sol really screws up chrome. I could not tell if it dissolved the chrome or corroded it or etched it but i will never put chrome in Pine sol again. Sorry no pic on this one. i put a shiny chrome pin from a lawnmower carb in Pine Sol and it looked terrible when i took it out.













 
Originally Posted By: wally6934
I am a little foggy on this but i may have diluted the Pine sol 50/50 with water.
 
Originally Posted By: another Todd
Originally Posted By: jfking106
http://www.lastotallyawesome.com/html/Products_Degreaser.html

$1 a bottle at Dollar General. Spray it on (after being removed from the motor, of course,) wait 5 minutes, rinse it off.
+

Then what? Is it awesome? I find it hard to believe it is that good and only available in bottom barrel stores.


Try it, and see. It's only $1.
 
Originally Posted By: jfking106
http://www.lastotallyawesome.com/html/Products_Degreaser.html

$1 a bottle at Dollar General. Spray it on (after being removed from the motor, of course,) wait 5 minutes, rinse it off.


I bought some recently, I have been impressed for what it cost. I have a badly neglected atv carb that I have been soaking in Pinesol and it seems to be as good as Chemdip plus I didn't have to worry about the rubber parts.

I also soaked it in a mixture of LA Totally Awesome and water, but it caused rust on the throttle shaft.
 
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Before Pine-sol soak.




After.



The white stuff some type of calcium like deposit, it wasn't caused by the Pine-sol but wasn't removed either.
 
http://www.keytometals.com/Article40.htm

Zinc is not used in contact with acid and strong alkaline solutions, because it corrodes rapidly in such media.

Very dilute concentrations of acids accelerate corrosion rates beyond the limits of usefulness. Alkaline solutions of moderate strength are much less corrosive than corresponding concentrations of acid, but are still corrosive enough to impair the usefulness of zinc.

pH of 2-3 is as acidic as lemon or orange juice.

BSW
 
I soaked that carb. for about two weeks to see if the white stuff would come off. It did leave some black residue from a reaction with the metal on my hands, but it rinsed clean and didn't seem to do any damage.

I probably used the pinesol at about half strength. It was just as clean after a few hours of soaking heated over low heat on the stove as it was after a week of soaking.
 
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I've used LA's Totally Awesome Orange recently for a parts cleaner, and that worked amazingly well. I've also read/seen a few posts about the acidic properties of these cleaneers though, which seem to be the only downside. How can we lower the ph, while retaining the cleaning ability, without having a chemical explosion in our garages? I've asked this on the Garage Journal forums before, but enver got much of an answer.

Biggest reason I ask, is because I'd really prefer to use one of these types of solutions in a home-made parts washer instead of a petroleum based cleaner. Biggest reasons are odor, and fire prevention, as my garage is directly below the bedrooms in my home.
 
Hello, On the same "subject": Dollar Stores' $1-$1.25 toilet cleaner "The Works" is utterly fantastic at cleaning.
I recommend gloves AND eye protection.
TO OP: Watch that return spring. It looks real rusty. Kira
 
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