How To Remove Cosmoline

[TomT/Williamsburg]

I have a French block that will be getting built soon but how do I remove the cosmoline?

What I know is that it’s a wax and hot water will melt most of it and then WD40 or something like it will remove the rest.

Have any of you ever Erne it and, if so, how did you do it?

Thanks for any help you can give .....

 

[Brian]

there's probably an easy way, but I've always used a solvent and elbow grease!

 

[DavidG]

It melts rapidly in the presence of lacquer thinner.

 

[TomT/Williamsburg]

Thank you - lacquer thinner it is then. And elbow grease will come in handy I am sure!

 

[cas3]

gasoline, and use a brass brush

 

[WABOOM]

We used a heat gun on surplus rifles. Followed by ATF, then mineral spirits. Worked great.

 

[Tim Ayers]

https://www.amazon.com/CRC-Heavy-Degreaser-Aerosol-Clear/dp/B000R833ZE?tag=atomicindus08-20

I've used this CRC product with good results.

 

[GB SISSON]

We used a heat gun on surplus rifles. Followed by ATF, then mineral spirits. Worked great.

Followed by the ATF?

 

[gajeepguy]

A million GI's have used gasoline, but do it outdoors and do it safely.

 

[Krylon32]

I to have a French block and since I can't get any interest in buying it I may have to build it. Can't you just have the machine shop hot tank it to remove the cosmoline?

 

[Scotty's 52 F3]

Hot tank or parts washer is what we used at the Cat dealership. For small parts, the solvent tank. The pressure washer outside was often used to knock the majority off first.

 

[Hal Beatty]

For aircraft brake rotors in cosmoline we always used Avgas; sometimes it had to soak for a week or so on parts that had been coated for 70+ years.

 

[rotorwrench]

In the military we used PD-680 which could have been perchloroethylene or trichloroethylene depending on the suppliers at the time. We would drop the component in the vat and let it set there a while (usually overnight) before brushing the goo off.

The stuff will melt if you have some form of hot tank when the crap is too hardened to get it all off in the solvent only method. Just don't heat any chlorinated solvents up too much or the gas from it will kill you. Hot water or normal water soluble parts cleaning solutions would be better under extreme heat but you have to get it all off of there after cleaning.

 

[Mart]

For the pistons I did recently I used white spirit (mineral spirit) in an ultrasonic cleaner. It worked really well. I think the heat helped a lot. If using cold then a different solvent may be better. I showed the pistons being cleaned in a recent video. While this might not be any help for a whole block, the main caps can be done like this.

Mart.

 

[corvette8n]

Can’t see why hot tanking wouldn’t work, I cleaned a surplus rifle stock with boiling hot water once.

 

[Seth Swoboda]

I bought a nos crank shaft covered in cosmoline. I had my machine shop bake it to remove the cosmoline.

 

[McMimmcs]

My mechanic has great luck with a heat gun !

 

[WABOOM]

Followed by the ATF?

Lol... not THE a.t.f.
haha

 

[tubman]

After seeing all of this, I guess I was lucky that nobody was able to deliver on the "Harley 45's packed in Cosmoline" they talked about when I was in high school.

 

[GB SISSON]

Lol... not THE a.t.f.
haha

Somebody got it! There was a line from some movie... "I heard a knock at my door and a voice from the other side said 'Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms'. I thought it was a delivery".