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Engine /tire Cleaner

alan

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The Engine/tire Cleaner I Use At My Carwash Dosent Seem To Cut Thru The Grime On A Engine Very Good. Is There One Out There That Works Good On Engines.
 

MEP001

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Most of your water-based degreasers aren't going to cut grease well. You'd need something really strong like Castrol's Super Clean, which is expensive and very harsh.
 

bigleo48

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In all Self-Serve washes you need to be mindful of the strength of your chemicals. Engine cleaning requires some potent chems (like superclean) that could make your customers sick if inhaled, ingested in any amount that would we effective on engines.

Personally I don't have that option for environmental reasons also.

Big
 

Jeff_L

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I have that option, and feel pretty much the same way. I've been thinking of switching that option over to a foaming tire/wheel brush instead. Same chemical, just application process would be different. That way those pesky rims can get cleaned up better.

Just a lot more hose to run and weep system to think about as well. Maybe next year.
 

MEP001

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I also like the idea of a tire brush. I'd like to see one in operation and get a first-hand look at how many people use it, how many abuse the "free" brush, what type of brush it would take to get into the most wheels, etc.

As far as a degreaser, the chemical I use will cut a light film of oil on its own, and I use it with a parts brush to clean engine parts. No one's ever expected more from it than that.
 

Earl Weiss

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I think one of the 5 Booms Hoffman uses is a tire and wheel brush.
 
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loewem

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My wash had foaming tire brush when I bought it. It took me a while to get it working well, but with help from forum members it works good now. It gets a lot of use. A few things that made it better through trial and error:

- Metered solenoid valves for both air and chemical (originally only chemical was metered)
- Standard length foam brush handle (originally had 3 foot handle packed with plastic netting - Now I use about a foot of plastic netting not packed tight)
- Round Erie Foam Master Nylon Brush Head KR EB219620 (previously used the square Erie Wheel Wizard)

All of these changes helped to improve the tire brush, but the biggest improvement was switching to the round brush. I might not have struggled to get it working well if I had switched to the round head earlier. The wheel wizard adapter and brush seemed to make the chemical and choke and spit. I haven't tried it on spoked rims, but I think it would do a good job on them.

I took a video of the brush in use and posted it on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5hzzJRarNo. Hope it works, first time posting to youtube.
 

JustClean

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Okay, 2 years later I finally got all the bits and pieces for the conversion...hahaha...time flies...
Looking at the Erie brush I must say I am not too impressed. The bristles are just not long enough to get into the spokes. I will use it for the time being but have to look out for a better solution. Any recommendations or other input? Thanks in advance.
 
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