Seafoam for Degreasing Diffs

[DoNoHarm]

Holy that’s one hell of a mixture. I bet if you drink a cup of that you’re as good as dead ? bet it works very well!

 

[SKUNKWORK SC]

bout 15 min soaking, Works pretty good ?

 

[KevinC]

I’ve never had an issue using brake cleaner. Are you allowing the parts to soak for a considerable amount of time? 30-45 minutes?

 

[jondilly1974]

I’ve never had an issue using brake cleaner. Are you allowing the parts to soak for a considerable amount of time? 30-45 minutes?

 

[CameronCodes]

I just boil mine in jet fuel in a pressure cooker

You got any extra? Been looking to put some I'm my father's 240sx

 

[SixStar]

Yeah i put about 1/4 of the can into a jar with the metal parts lightly covered with a paper plate to try and reduce evaporation. Essentially no effect there was maybe 1/2 a ml. of silicone oil floating on the top of the solvent when it was all said and done. I stirred and agitated the crap out of it every 5 or so minutes for nearly an hour. Nothing.

I use 500k in my center diff so the comment regarding Naptha being slow to dissolve it has me a bit nervous now. I mean, $10 for a quart of Naptha is chump change in this hobby, especially long-term but i need something that works quickly and doesn't freak people out when they walk out to have a cigarette and see me in the courtyard with whatever chemical. Thats why Seafoam appeals to me. It's well known to be highly effective for degreasing valvetrain/pcv systems without having to disassemble your engine, leading me to believe it may work well on the type of molecular chain that makes up silicone oils. More research on my end is needed but heavy diff oils to my mind would likely be long chains of silicon, structurally not crazy far from hydrocarbon chains like motor oil.

*second edit: Upon basic research it appears the type of molecular structure and composition we are talking about (Silicone Oil for simplicity) is chemically quite different to hydrocarbon-based lubricants. On top of that, silicone oils are known for being highly resistant to chemical attack, which is what we are discussing. More research is needed, im thinking that heat will be critical in whatever process I finally come up with in order to reduce the density of the polymer chain and hopefully increase areas vulnerable to some kind of solvent.

 

[olds97_lss]

Once I found out naptha dilutes the silicone oil in diffs a year or so ago, rebuilding diffs became so much easier. Now I just pull the guts of the diff, put 1/4 cup or so of naptha in a small container, then drop the parts in it and let them soak a bit. Then I stir them around with a toothbrush and scrub if necessary. Drop the pieces on a paper towel which wicks away most of the diluted oil then a few puffs of canned air and they are ready to put back in.

 

[jondilly1974]

Once I found out naptha dilutes the silicone oil in diffs a year or so ago, rebuilding diffs became so much easier. Now I just pull the guts of the diff, put 1/4 cup or so of naptha in a small container, then drop the parts in it and let them soak a bit. Then I stir them around with a toothbrush and scrub if necessary. Drop the pieces on a paper towel which wicks away most of the diluted oil then a few puffs of canned air and they are ready to put back in.

How long do you soak them for? I just cleaned some 500k grey sludge off mine in naphtha and I might not have let them soak long enough. Maybe 5 mins? Still had to use a brush to physically clean the gears.

 

[olds97_lss]

How long do you soak them for? I just cleaned some 500k grey sludge off mine in naphtha and I might not have let them soak long enough. Maybe 5 mins? Still had to use a brush to physically clean the gears.

I'm not sure, wasn't like an hour or anything. Probably around 10 minutes. I washed the grease off the outside with soap/water and a toothbrush in the sink, then dried it and took it apart on my bench. I let it soak while I was digging in my parts trying to find my broken diff bag and to find replalement pins and larger sun gear.

 

[SixStar]

Alright, I'm going to try naptha. My plan is to use my standard glass jar, in warm sand with the parts in a tea strainer. Will report results at 15, 30, and 45 minutes.

 

[Surchaufeur]

I need to try simple green super strong formula

I'm not sure, wasn't like an hour or anything. Probably around 10 minutes. I washed the grease off the outside with soap/water and a toothbrush in the sink, then dried it and took it apart on my bench. I let it soak while I was digging in my parts trying to find my broken diff bag and to find replalement pins and larger sun gear.

My toothbrush gets all greasy and everywhere it goes gets grease applied oh boy how hard it is to cleane the mess

 

[Uplift-RC]

I like using a combo of the following for my cleaning diff gears - Dynamite Mag Force 2 motor spray and my GMK Supply "Diff Dunkers!!

 

[SixStar]

I've been having lots of stupid little problems the last 3 or 4 times I've gone out to bash so I haven't been putting the wear on the car needed in my mind to justify a differential teardown so I can test my warm naptha bath. I also considered getting Goof Off Pro Strength. It has acetone and xylene in it as well as other solvents and surfactants. It might work well but it didn't seem like a good choice economically at the time. A quart of naptha is like 10 bucks after tax at my local Home Depot and the largest container of the Goof Off is like 16 ounces for 7 dollars. Realistically I'll probably never go through all this naptha and unless I have parts failures that require frequent maintenance necessitating frequent solvent baths the economics of a qt of naptha vs 16oz of Goof Off arent worth considering.

 

[jondilly1974]

I just ordered an ultrasonic parts cleaner from Amazon. Gonna have to see how the other half lives. With all these EXB diff rebuilds I’ve been doing this will come in handy ???‍?

 

[SixStar]

Went to a local meet-up this morning and had a ton of fun, unfortunately right before I had to head out I noticed that my Kraton wasn't pulling wheelies like it normally would, it seemed like nearly all the power was going to the front wheels. But not all the power. Rears would spin if I goosed the throttle on a loose surface, and I still had diff action when I turned each wheel by hand. The one on the other side would turn the opposite way, like it should. Same with front-rear: I rolled the car on the ground on the front wheels and the rears turned the opposite way, as expected. Just got home a minute ago and I'm doing a teardown and rebuild of my rear and center diffs. Started with the rear and it seems fine. On the plus side, thank you to everyone who said to get naptha. I threw all my gears and pins and whatnot into my diff dunker and maybe 5 minutes later everything was sparkling clean. I did use warm naptha. I put the solvent in a glass jar with the lid just set on the top, not screwed on and placed the jar in a pan of water on the stove on low heat. Once the water was nearly too hot to keep my hand in I turned off the heat and put my parts in. Getting the solvent warm seems to make it work much better, even more so than I had expected. I am very happy all things considered. Now that I have all the spares and shims to do multiple full diff rebuilds it really takes the stress out of working on them. Especially now that they are so much easier to clean and degrease.