Cleaning an oil spill in engine bilge

[BruceK]

I discovered an oil leak through a duff gasket under the oil cooler. About 500ml of oil has made it's way into the engine bilge and mixed with the small amount of water the bigle pump doesn't lift. I temporarily disabled that bilge pump and pumped the mess out with a Pella vacuum pump. The bilge is now completely dry except for an oil water scum mix like a soft grease. Access to this under the engines is impractical as the engines are shoe horned in and where as I have line of sight I have no reach.
With the bilge pump disabled is there anything safe I can pour in that will dissolve the scum and oil after which I can use the Pella to evacuate and dispose safely?

 

[Medskipper]

Use a lot of fairy liquid with hot water, then mop it into a bucket. Dispose thoughtfully!

 

[BruceK]

Of course on the disposal. However I can't get under the engines with a mop. I need something that would dissolve it and flow towards the bilge sump so that I can extract it. The engines sit in a recess boxed in by hefty support stringers and then ribbed underneath for reinforcement so even a flexible handled mop won't do it.

 

[BartW]

car maintenance shops, sell "degreaser" products,
buy the strong, undiluted variant
and then rinse the bilge in the dirty area's

 

[BruceK]

Are they GRP safe?

 

[Mike k]

why not just use fairy liquid and water which will disperse the scum and pela out for disposal

 

[Momac]

I would be reaching for Viro-sol (which is used diluted with water) - but that's because I always have some on the boat.
http://www.cloverchem.co.uk/2013/uk/product_detail.asp?prod_code='326'&range_sub='27'
.

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

I used this when cleaning the bilge during the refit. Worked very well.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Deb-SJZ5L-Swarfega-Jizer-Litre/dp/B006CLFE98

 

[omega2]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&...qmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_97v29w13g7_e

THIS STUFF IS GOOD!

 

[Lon nan Gruagach]

Washing:
Washing is a 3 stage process:
Solution, dilution and removal.

With dishes in a sink that is warm (preferably hot water) and detergent will do the first 2 steps, then you can rinse or towel dry. If you dont rinse or towel then the solution of water dirt and detergent just form a layer on the dishes.

Most detergents will let the oil form a solution with water. So first reduce the amount of oil, pump it out. Then pour in any detergent of your choice with some water, pump out. And, as they say in the ads, rinse and repeat. You will quickly end up with water with such a weak solution of detergent and oil it wont be significant, then you are down to the dregs of water that your bilge pump wont shift.

My choice of detergent would be Ecover, not just cos I'm a green hippy type but because it really is environmentally fine and does do a mighty fine job of dissolving oil and grease.

Theres a nice maths formula for the amount of rinse water to use at each dilution, but its beyond me right now. Doubling the volume of the dregs is a reasonable ball park for efficient use of water.

 

[bigwow]

Gunk always works for me, safe on fibreglass, Jizer is also suitable.

 

[Seastoke]

try a thing called a pig they are made to soak up spilages in factories they are long and thin and will sit in the bilge and do the job for you

 

[oldgit]

Use a lot of fairy liquid with hot water, then mop it into a bucket. Dispose thoughtfully!

+1
Having had to recover 15 litres of oil from bilges a couple of parts of which with are virtually impossible to see let alone get to, got out as much fluid as poss,then removed final dregs with rag on broom stick.
A couple of kettles full of really hot water plus a liberal dash of Fairy leaves a clean fragrant bilge vand boat.
Gunk reeks for ages,stinks out the entire boat and ingrains muck into you hands plus brings back worrying memories of unreliable cars and even worse motorbikes.
Girlfriends of a certain era are probably convinced that Eau du Gunk was aftershave of choice as an alternative to "Brute"

 

[Medskipper]

I think we have all been missing the point if I read Bruce correctly, we have all so far offered various products to break down and clean the oil, but he cannot get the water out because he cannot get under his engines? Most bilge pumps will not suck bilges dry but will leave quite a bit sloshing around? So how is this removed? If there is absolutely no way of using a mop, there are pads available which can be dropped into the bilge that will soak up a lot of liquid. However I've no idea how you would retrieve these once they are full?

 

[Wandering Star]

If there is absolutely no way of using a mop, there are pads available which can be dropped into the bilge that will soak up a lot of liquid. However I've no idea how you would retrieve these once they are full?

Could you could use a needle to thread a length of fishing line through the pads in order to retrieve them?

 

[paultallett]

Lots of useful advice given about breaking the oil down, so I won't comment anymore on that. To get the very last dregs of water out of the bilge when you can't reach it, I've always used this trick from my model RC aircraft flying.

Get a manual wind hand fuel pump, get several meters of silicon fuel tubing. Fish one end of the pick up tube down to the bilge (this can be as long as you need it to be) then wind away until you've got all the water up

Total cost lest than £15 for all the kit from any good model shop.

 

[Mike k]

I think we have all been missing the point if I read Bruce correctly, we have all so far offered various products to break down and clean the oil, but he cannot get the water out because he cannot get under his engines? Most bilge pumps will not suck bilges dry but will leave quite a bit sloshing around? So how is this removed? If there is absolutely no way of using a mop, there are pads available which can be dropped into the bilge that will soak up a lot of liquid. However I've no idea how you would retrieve these once they are full?

Pela for liquids- the thin flexible pipe should be fine Or if its just final cleaning up I use cable rods with cloth/tissues stuck to end they can get almost anywhere in a bilge

 

[Spi D]

The nylon tubing that comes with Pela et al tend to keep their bend from the packaging forever, hence being perfect for going around corners (!) or being fed to the inside of a dipstick tube.

I've resorted to either tapeing it to a stick or connecting to a piece of copper tubing to run into the nicks and corners of a bilge. Lastly connected a long(ish) piece of pvc hose to suck the deep bottom cavities while SWHBO was manning the pump in the cockpit (no offending pictures on your internal screen intended)

 

[BruceK]

Thanks for the input.

I hunted around this morning before the rugby but the best I could come up with was an eco friendly Gunk Green in case there is a later spillage via bilge pump. Finding a degreaser in rural N Wales was not the easiest. Basically Gunk or nothing. Made a few sponge rags on stiff baling wire and we will see how it goes tomorrow. Hopefully The Gunk will do the job of loosening the oil scum so the pela pump can pick it up and some Fairy liquid, hot water and that Cat urine removal spray will take the Gunk smell away. Will pick the latter up in the morning on the way down.

 

[Momac]

Another thought
Could try biological liquid laundry detergent - which will be sweeter smelling than Gunk.