Cleaning Oil from Bilge

[rheaton]

Folks, some time ago I had a leak in my oil senser line and all of the oil drained from my engine into my bilge. Luckily my engine was ok after I replaced the line and filled the engine with oil. I cleaned the oil from the bilge with a pump and rags. An oily film remains which I dont know how best to clean. I have treid things like amonia and some other household cleaners. Can anyone recommend a good bilge cleaner.

Take care,
Russ

[sastanley]

Russ, If it is still sludgy liquid or wet film, I have had good luck with Simple Green. You can buy it concentrated in gallon or larger jugs. It is relatively inexpensive and bio-degradable.

I have heard other folks having some success with citrus based products..the citric acid I guess is acidic enough to break down some petroleum based products & I would assume as a general rule, also reasonably safe.

Once the oil has had a few years to cake onto the fiberglass/gelcoat, I think the only solution is to scrape the residue & paint over it..I assume this was a recent incident, so you probably are not facing the issues that I am.

There are really nasty chemicals & degreasers out there that may work better, but we probably don't want to be pumping them overboard.

[hinters]

Cleaning oil from bilge

You could try some TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) available from any
paint store. Just shut off your bilge pump and mop it out after with
bucket & sponge 'cause you don't want to send it into the ocean
or lake.
Cheers
Pat
Ericson 35-II
Lions Den

[CalebD]

Lemon scented Joy dish detergent

I was the crew on a 400 nm passage from Tortola to TCI on a 51' Beneteau. We motored about half the trip and had to add more diesel to the tank from Jerry cans with the deck moving about. Even using a funnel we managed to get diesel oil on the deck near the fill and all over my hands. The captain broke out some lemon Joy dish detergent and we scrubbed the decks and our hands. It worked quite well.
I bet it would work fine for 30W oil in the bilge as well. It smells nice too!

[rheaton]

Thank you folks, I will give these a try.

Take care, Russ