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Clean engine rooms?

  • Thread starter Thread starter thoward
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From Lowes (or Home Depot) I use commercial paper towels, commercial rubber gloves, a small shop vacuum (water capable) and denatured alcohol. The denatured alcohol, while a few more bucks, cuts petroleum based grease and grim and will not overwhelm you or leave a film like residue like mineral spirits. It's also great for wiping down your big beautiful Detroits (or Caterpillers).

Laying on your gut (and perhaps with the help of a brush as mentioned) scrub and wipe all far reaching corners of the "under world". Just toss used paper towels in a garbage bag (I keep heavy duty paper towel rack mounted in the bilge - many uses!). And don't forget to always lay down a few absorbant "diapers" at completion, makes future clean up a snap.

Hey, you too can have an "eat off the floor bilge" (or cruise incessantlly on a nasty vessel like Freebird - tsk, tsk, tsk!). Perhaps I may get my interior decorator to come out and make some recomendations for a new bilge scheme (his name is Francine). I'll keep you posted.

Capt'n Bill
 
I would make sure that any solivent that you are using in an enclosed space is not combustible. I would also turn off all the power to anything with an electric motor so as to eliminate spark sources if you are using one with igniteable fumes. You don't want to do an impression of Richard Pryor while cleaning the bilge. Unless your shop vac has an explosion proof electric motor, you cannot use it safely to suck up solivent laden water. Just food for thought. Saw a boat in our yard that some dumbass was using laquer thinner to clean some crud in the bilge with, all was going well until he turned on the shop vac, boom! He had burns over 75% of his body and the boat suffered $200K in fire damage.
 
Good Point!.....However...

...was the vessel involved "gasoline" powered?

(the question would involve ventilation, spillage, and the wisdom of utilizing AC vacuum cleaners - or for that matter any AC appliance - in the bilge, SALON, or onboard any vessel at any location???)

Respectfully,

Capt'n Bill
:o
 
Years ago some moron owner winterized his engines with methanol and some drained into the bilge. While removing the batteries you guessed right. The Halon system went off and I barely made it outside. If it werent for the halon I might have been better off but the boat would have been toast.

Alcohol, Acetone, Spirits ect. do not belong in a bilge. Flash fires can and do happen. One spark is all you need.
 
Which brings us back to detergent and water. Non flammable is good.
 
Gorgeous. And lots of space too.
 
So LuckyDave,
Are you saying if I use Tide my engine room will look like the one in the picture? I'm sold. Just think, by adding Tide your engine room will get bigger and look gorgeous!
 
If it works for you let me know, I'll use more. :D :D :D
 
Dave, could you please stop posting pics of your boat, you are making the rest of us look bad...BTW she is a great looking boat and it gives me something to strive for.
 
If Ross Macdonald would post some pics of his engine room, you would see MY role model. The guy polishes the bronze on his thu hulls!
The amazing thing is that his whole boat looks like that.
C'mon Ross, let's see, :D
 
Spray 9 by knights.
It's available, it's relatively inexpensive, it's safe, and it cleans everything.
Give it a try.

Tony D
 
Flammable engine room cleaners....I met Tom Slane for lunch down in Solomons, MD, last summer- he was doing a damage appraisal on a 78 Hatteras MY that had had an engine room explosion. Owner was cleaning something with acetone or lacquer thinner or whatever (can't recall) and finished up, went upstairs in the boat, next thing, some accessory or another kicked on and the fumes in the ER exploded. Owner was thrown twenty feet to the master stateroom, galley and salon floor buckled and bulged upwards, doors blown off the engine room. Fire started- put out by Halons which survived the explosion. Owner lucky to be alive.

Funny part is: when you first looked at this boat, she looked okay; then you start seeing buckled doorsills, things that don't fit, etc etc. Further you look, the more you see. I think boat ended up totaled- essentially impossible to fix without taking the entire boat apart.
 
It's not that hard to keep it that way when the engines don't leak all over the place and it's painted witih white awlgrip. I spot clean the engines with paper towels and 409/windex, and rinse the dust out of the bilges (not under the engines) with Tide/clear water. A few minutes to dry with one of those "chamois mops" and I'm done.
Since I took those pics, I carpeted the central walkway, I kept tracking dirt inside from the cockpit. :mad:
Cheap Homeless depot carpet runner, throw it away when it gets dirty and cut a new piece. I carpeted the pump room too, and for the same reason.
Eventually, I'll pull all the wiring etc from the bulkheads and blocksand/spray them again. They were painted decently with a brush, but not up to the finish I prefer.
Maybe when I sort of retire...........soon, I hope! :) I'm 50, so I'm ready to work part time, and spend more time playing with the boat, riding my motorcycles, and flying. If I were a horse you'd say I can smell the barn.
 
Sigh.........

Stand up engine rooms........

I have 6 panals in the saloon I have to pull up to get to my engines.......

But heck, I TOO can wear white socks in my egine room.... But only ONCE. :(

But IF I could just get 6 numbers for this week's lottery.....
 
If I had a stand-up engine room, mine might have looked like that.

I didn't and it didn't. 'Nuff said.
 
Dave your engine room looks fantastic. Keep up the good work. I'm with Genesis. If I had a stand up engine room I could have something near Daves. Only near. But everything in my boat is done on your knees or back or side. I'm also dealing with 33 years of accumulation. Removing 6 hatches only gets you to the areas that you squeeze, crawl or wiggle into. Then you wonder how the hell your going to get this 5'10'' 200lb. 62 year old body out without the help of 911. Once I took a nap on top of the battery boxes until I could figure out how to get out. Once I was stuck inside the fly bridge. I think I will stick with the once a year soap and water wash-down. If there is no oil in the bilge and it looks good at 25 feet, it's OK. After all it IS an engine room.


BILL
 
I've never had an engine room this clean before either, but this is the first boat I've had with a stand up. I'm in love with stand up engine rooms, I'll never go back, especially now that I'm 50, 6'2" and have a bad knee.
We had an Ocean Alexander 50 MK1 with a crawl spce engine room that I kept almost as clean, but it was a new boat, and I was younger. :D
 
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