Cleaning Engines and Bilge

J

Justin Camire

New Member
Jul 22, 2019
3
Boat Info
2011 Sea Ray 350 Sundancer
Engines
Twin Mercruiser 496/MAG w/bravo III outdrives
The oil cap on my generator wasn't on tight and sprayed oil all over the place in my engine bay. It mainly got my starboard side engine but I would like to de-grease it and flush my bilge afterwards since there's oil in there now too.

Also, after I spray with de-greaser do I use pressure washer or just hose, warm water or just cold, etc. Is it ok if I get the engines wet?
 
Mine are diesel but I use a de-greaser Dawn or something like that and wipe down everything, rinse and shop vac up the water for proper disposal. Towel and air dry overnight and (touch up bilge paint if needed) then use Boe-shield to coat them. I would not use a pressure washer in my E.R.
 
DO you rinse it with water i.e. hose or something?
 
Don't let the oily water discharge out your bilge pumps. Even if you have it soapy, it is a federal offense to discharge oil into the waterways.
 
Simple green and dawn is the best to go with for oil. If there is a lot try to get as much as you can with paper towels that you can throw away. You don't want to pump out oil through your bilge pump into the marina. Not friendly and can come with a big fine or even get you tossed from the marina. The simple green will degrease and the dawn will contain the remaining amounts.

A light spray down would be best to rinse the area out. Remember these engines and connections are prepped for a wet environment but not one where the water is directly forced at it.

-Kevin
 
Creekwood said:
Don't let the oily water discharge out your bilge pumps. Even if you have it soapy, it is a federal offense to discharge oil into the waterways.
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I wasn't going to. I was going to suck it out with a portable pump into a bucket.
 
Spray everything down with simple green and use a toilet bowl brush to scrub it in and then finally wash it down with a hose. Use a shop vac and take it home using 5 gallon buckets with lids.
 
Justin Camire said:
I wasn't going to. I was going to suck it out with a portable pump into a bucket.
Click to expand...

Its a pain to do. One of my friends had one of his Volvo 8.1s in a Regal 4260 blow an oil line running nearly WOT. By the time the alarms went off, his bilge and engine room was literally covered in oil. Our marina’s mechanics used a huge number of absorbent rags to wipe off all the oil from all surfaces. Then degreaser on rags with buckets of cleaner at the end to clean it all again and get the film off. Maybe hundreds of rags by the end. They did not actually use water hoses. Just rags and cleaner. It was crazy, but they ended up getting it almost spotless in the end.
 
Creekwood said:
Its a pain to do. One of my friends had one of his Volvo 8.1s in a Regal 4260 blow an oil line running nearly WOT. By the time the alarms went off, his bilge and engine room was literally covered in oil. Our marina’s mechanics used a huge number of absorbent rags to wipe off all the oil from all surfaces. Then degreaser on rags with buckets of cleaner at the end to clean it all again and get the film off. Maybe hundreds of rags by the end. They did not actually use water hoses. Just rags and cleaner. It was crazy, but they ended up getting it almost spotless in the end.
Click to expand...
That's a total waste of time. They could have sucked up a water/oil mixture and used absorbent pads right in the bucket to extract the oil. Or if it was a ton of oil, just drill a small drain hole at the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket and put a valve in there. Drain off the water into another bucket and recycle the oil.
 
douglee25 said:
That's a total waste of time. They could have sucked up a water/oil mixture and used absorbent pads right in the bucket to extract the oil. Or if it was a ton of oil, just drill a small drain hole at the bottom of the 5 gallon bucket and put a valve in there. Drain off the water into another bucket and recycle the oil.
Click to expand...

I don’t think you understand how much oil there was and everywhere it had gone/sprayed. It literally covered almost 100% of the bilge. The oil line sprayed onto the belts which flung it over every surface as well as in the bilge.
 
Chrisvr6 said:
Dump and large bag of ice in the bilge along with Dawn before you go out.
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Too many people do this to clean up oil in the bilge and it pollutes our lakes. Maybe ok for a minor clean up of crud. But not for a lot of oil.
 
If there is that much oil maybe you can:

Disconnect batteries so bilge pumps don’t come on.
Use oil absorb rags to soak up as much as you can. They’re also good for wiping it up when you get to that point.
Mix up a bucket of Dawn and water.
Get an assortment of suitable brushes.
Clean up as much as possible and rinse.
Take mix out of bilge with Shop Vac.
Keep repeating until clean.
 
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wkearney99 said:
Get a bale of absorbent towels, the kind designed to pick up just oil. They work remarkably well. Buy a 100 (or more) bale of them, it'll be much cheaper than getting 10 packs at a retail store. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=oil+absorbent+pads
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I've made patterns for the low sections of bilges of both boats. I cut several at a time so I don't have to re-make the pattern. I lay them in the bilge so they clear the through-hulls, pumps and floats etc.

It's a little fussy, but it looks good and I never have to worry about an absorbent sheet blocking a pump or ever pumping oil overboard.
 
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