How to clean smoke residue from engine

I use a soft cloth, but I usually don't have much I wipe away. When you put fluid in your engine try blowing a little air down the smoke stack after. That will break up air bubbles and should reduce the residue that forms. BC

I would NOT try denatured alcohol.  On my Lionel steamers, I found out the hard way that denatured alcohol + smoke fluid = paint stripper.  Luckily this was on the underbody out of view.

 

Dilut dish soap & water maybe?

A paper towel and if there is a large mess, then I use a towel wet with rubbing alcohol. When putting a locomotive back into its box for storage, or shipping it somewhere, put a piece of towel into the stack to absorb any fluid that might leak out.

The times I have needed to clean off smoke fluid, I've used cotton balls and q-tips (maybe moistened with water a little, but mostly for their absorbing of the excess smoke fluid).  These are very soft (won't scratch) and worked better than paper towels for me.  (may depend on type of PT, I use bounty at home, and that didn't help me much for this task)

 

-Dave

I start with a soft cloth, usually a rag terrycloth towel to wipe it off.  Q-tips are good if you have some corners you can't get the towel into.  I rarely need any kind of solvent or cleaning product to remove it.

 

I will echo the caution on Isopropyl Alcohol, or in fact any other solvent.  Many of these will damage paint!  I successfully wiped half the lettering off a tender with Isopropyl Alcohol in one swipe learning that lesson!

Thanks for all the inputs.  I failed to mention in my first post that it is dried on the engine with dust on it.  Won't come off with a cloth.  I think I'll try some diluted dish soap and Q-tips and then graduate to 409 on a Q-tip and then see where we are.

 

Thanks again.

 

Gene

A bit more smoke fluid to wet the dried stuff may work as well.