cleaning the bilge

[Jaxfishgyd]

A buddy of mine just bought a 43' Hatteras "Fixer-Upper" and the motors are blown. He wants to clean the bilge up, it had GALS. of diesel fuel sloshing around along with plenty of oil.
At the moment he has most of it cleaned up and now needs to get "mop up" the rest. What is the best way.
Wiping it up would take YEARS (ok, maybe not that long) as its everywhere.
I read somewhere that a steam cleaner would make the job "easier" and as this is where he wants me to help him, I want the EASIEST way possible.

 

[jim rosenthal]

Do it right..

..DON'T steam clean the engine rooms and blow all sorts of stuff and water all through the boat and down in the keel, etc. I did this and was SORRY. Take the motors out, put in the time to really clean and degrease the engine areas, and then paint them. If there are short cuts for this, I have never seen/found them. Anyone else?

 

[awschucks]

Steam Cleaner

Hi,

I bought a professional steam on Ebay just for just this purpose. It totally blows all of the crud away and leaves the bilge clean as a whistle. IT alos works great on the engine room. I was about to put it back on Ebay and sell it as I'm on to the next project.

Dave

 

[rtrafford]

slow is better

i agree re: steamcleaning. with the engines out there should be plenty of room to move around the room and degrease/clean by hand. it shouldn't take that long! however, you'll need to do more than just degrease/wipe if you plan on painting! in the past i've also shut off the pumps and used a mop with a strong solvent. it speeds up the heavy portion of the work, but there is little you can do to expedite the detail aspect of the project.

the last thing that i would do is steam clean. not only does it make a mess messier, in my opinion, but it truly doesn't clean to the point of new paint application...

 

[Jaxfishgyd]

bilge

Well now it seems my buddy will not be rebuilding the motors for several months, and even then the blocks will stay. So we will have to clean around them.
He wants (and I agree) he wants to get the bilge cleaned as it is dirty and smelly ASAP.
The marina he has the boat at has a place for us to pour the contaminated water as its a "Clean Water" marina and knows it will get his work on the motors..

 

[davesommers]

Clean Up

One thing will take care of the greasy mess. Elbow Grease...
It is going to be nasty job, but you have to get out all the liquid oil/fuel by pumping or bailing it. Disposal is straightforward into any recylcing pit.
Scrappers for the big grease globs, then wiping rags, then go to heavy detergent that busts grease and a scrubbrush - long handle hand brushes to get under the engines, etc. Use plenty of oil diapers in the bilge and as little water as possible until things are getting fairly clean.
You have a site for foul water disposal so that's the easy part, just moving it there is heavy and slow work, so use only enough to rinse down until clear enough to pump overboard.
Good thing is the diesel fuel will have cut most of the heavy goo already...

I have helped do this on a couple boats before and there is no easy way, it just takes alot of wiping and scrubbrushing.

 

[saltshaker36]

Re: Clean Up

I did the same job 3 years ago when I repowered. Once the engines are out, you find all the crud that builds up over the years. I thought of steam cleaning but only for small areas, and not with a powerful unit. In the end I spent several days scraping, scrubbing and repeating until the rinse water gets clear. I agree with Dave, go easy on the water until you have most of the grease and oil cleaned up. When it looks like it might be done, wipe down the entire engine room with mineral spirits to remove any trace oil. Scrape off any loose paint, lightly sand, wipe down again with mineral spirits and paint the entire ER. I used a hard 1 part paint but would recommend using a 2 part epoxy paint like Awlgrip. I opted not to because I was working in a cold climate, but now wish I had used a more durable paint.

Jack Sardina

 

[NANPO 41]

Steaming Bilges

I seem to recall a previous thread on this subject where a small hand held steamer was used and the results were really good. I want to say the unit was called a Shark or some similar name. It does sound like a true steamer is being confused with a pressure washer which will make a tremendous mess of the inside of the WHOLE boat. Any Thoughts ? Fred

 

[Traveler 45C]

Re: Steaming Bilges

It was the Shark. I bought one and it works great for cutting oil and grease. It does not act like a pressure washer. It won’t blow trash all over the place.

Greg

 

[Soffer]

The Shark

I bought the Shark on eBay few months back for about $100. It's a small hand-held steamer shaped like a coffee perculator. Works good on engines but think it would be less useful in large scale bilge clean ups. For that I'd stick with heavy duty detergent followed by a solvent swabbing.

 

[eze2bme]

Shark Steam Cleaner

I purchased my Shark from Target. Great little cleaner for small jobs!

 

[Genesis]

Sharks....

... are great for small jobs and tight places. They also do a nice job breaking up crap in coolers that laugh at the acid bath.

For the engine blocks themselves, the shark is a good option. For the bilge proper, it might be ok for the nooks and crannies, but not for large-scale stuff.

 

[mikep996]

Is the shark being referred to the same as this one?

www.hsn.com/cnt/prod/defa...016*195956

 

[Genesis]

No...

... that one looks nicer

The one I have does have the tank under pressure.