Clean a gun with gasoline?

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we used to clean off steel that was fabricated back in the pre 70's with gas so we could paint it. It cleaned off the preserving oil quite well and back then it was not that expensive. Also cleaned paint brushes. My dad is still doing fine at 94 years of age. We didn't smoke however. I did use it in Vietnam too.
 
I've used gasoline in the past as a cleaner, but now it's too expensive and probably too dangerous. It is an effective cleaner and degreaser, but it just poses too much of a hazard with its low flashpoint.

If you want an effective and relatively cheap cleaner and degreaser (assuming you don't do serial cleanings), go to your local Walmart and buy their 'Tech" brand carb cleaner.
 
I've used gasoline before. When it was a dollar a gallon it was the cheapest solvent you could get. It works very well.

If you play with it enough, you'll find you can dump gasoline out on the ground, wait a few minutes, and the fumes will light off from 3 feet away. Not a good firestarter, and not a safe solvent.

When I was a kid there was an auto repair shop close by. One day before closing, they were sweeping the floor and the static from the broom set off gasoline fumes. Two men died. So even if you've been using gasoline as a solvent for years, it's not safe. It only takes once.
 
I've used Kerosene on car parts, gasoline on certain engine parts, and diesel fuel on seized engine cylinders (from sitting and the rings rusting). Worked really well actually... Filled the cylinders and oil pan with diesel then let it sit in the back of the garage for a weekend. Came back and put a breaker bar on the crank pulley and with a little grunting and groaning rolled it over. Then naturally it came apart so it could be bored and rebuilt.

But I use Dexron VI to lube my guns... Full synthetic ATF. You could ice skate on sand if you put that on your shoes...
 
MoGas works, and just for sheer cleaning it works better than CLP, but it sucks sitting there breathing gas fumes and geting it on you hands.
 
In the book "Good To Go" by Harry Constance a multiple tour Vietnam SEAL, he described his weapons maintenance procedure.

When he came in from a patrol he'd remove the plastic stock and hand guards from his Stoner Light Machine Gun and drop the assembled gun AND the linked ammo into a cut off 55 gallon drum of gasoline.

After having breakfast and cleaning up, he'd remove the gun, disassemble it and clean it, then he'd reassemble it and spray the gun AND the linked ammo with WD-40.

He said that in his tours he never had a stoppage.
 
Ed's Red bore solvent uses kerosene and mineral spirits (Stoddard solvent) as the solvent ingredients. You can add acetone but that is much more volatile. I would try using mineral spirits, kerosene and/or diesel fuel before gasoline.

My brother says in Vietnam they used barrels full of turpentine to dunk their weapons in to soak (USMC). I guess you use whatever is handy and plentiful when you are in remote areas, or when you are a bunch of 18 and 19 yr olds. :eek:
 
Thanks for the responses guys, I didn't know you could use gasoline, not that I will but it's good to know I can.

A lot of the responses are that 'you use what is available' answers and I agree with that but they used it while in ft Bragg, not on deployment where CLP and the like. At. Of have been available. I just found it odd that they would have a gun bath filled with gasoline inside a training room
 
....odd that they would have a gun bath filled with gasoline inside a training room.
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They woudn't. Dollars-to-donuts the writer was wrong. An open tray of gasoline used in
such a fashion is an absolute disaster waiting to happen -- google "garage fuel vapor ignition"
some time to see why. (Never mind breathing the stuff)

never, Never, NEVER use an open container of gas for cleaning anything. If you've nothing else
(and we all find outselves there once in a life), wet a rag with some small amount of gas -- close
and separate the gas can from you -- and gently clean the parts.

Better yet, go get some paint thinner/mineral spirits -- and even then close & separate the
container from you. (It's the main ingredient in charcoal lighter fluid -- take the hint)

Best -- go get a gallon paint bucket of automotive parts cleaner, which is what you really
wanted in the first place. ;)
 
In a pinch, I have used dry solvent (from a parts washer), gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and JP5/JP8 in lieu of more conventional cleaners. Gasoline does work as a cleaner and lightweight (10 or less) motor oil will work as a lubricant- ATF is very good at this, surprisingly.

Do I give the 'Seal of Approval' for them? No, I do not. But, when in a pinch, they work. Sometimes, like when the stuff that stinks collides with the blades that spin, you have to make do with what is on-hand.
 
Tekarra above hit the nail on the head.... This SF guy and many other military guys away from home most likely used gasoline because that's what they had, not because it's the best thing in the world...
 
They woudn't. Dollars-to-donuts the writer was wrong. An open tray of gasoline used in
such a fashion is an absolute disaster waiting to happen -- google "garage fuel vapor ignition"
some time to see why. (Never mind breathing the stuff)

never, Never, NEVER use an open container of gas for cleaning anything. If you've nothing else
(and we all find outselves there once in a life), wet a rag with some small amount of gas -- close
and separate the gas can from you -- and gently clean the parts.

Better yet, go get some paint thinner/mineral spirits -- and even then close & separate the
container from you. (It's the main ingredient in charcoal lighter fluid -- take the hint)

Best -- go get a gallon paint bucket of automotive parts cleaner, which is what you really
wanted in the first place.
Click to expand...
Excellent post. Several years ago a relative of mine was cleaning small engine parts from a lawn mower using a small can of gasoline in my parents detached garage. He spent the afternoon at the emergency room as a result. He was very lucky he only had a an ounce or two in the can. When it ignited he was burned primarily on his hands and face; he looked awful and spent a number of very painful weeks healing up. Fortunately the garage didn't burn and there was only a little permanent scarring-on him and the garage. The ignition source was a heater at the far end of the garage...

Gasoline will certainly work as a cleaning solvent. It would require extraordinary circumstances for me to use it.
 
Granted, open flame was involved, but over the years I've had two friends who lost their fathers due to carelessness with gasoline. Both were trying to make clamshell barbecues from old 55gal grums. Both had emptied the drums, and thought they had vented them for long enough.

In both cases, when the torches hit the barrels, it turned out they had not been vented long enough.

Shrapnel, not burns, killed both; but the burns their corpses received would not have been pleasant had they lived.

If you want to use gasoline in situations where it is not absolutely necessary, knock yourself out, but personally I think it's entering a Darwin Award competition.
 
I'm not telling anyone what to do, but gasoline is very dangerous to your health, and I'm guessing most of you know it. I was in VietNam in 1967 and we used kerosene to clean guns, not nearly as bad or dangerous as gas and won't cause instant rusting.

I had to clean parts in gasoline in the 80's for one employer, I was a diesel mechainic, 2 years later I developed a very serious neuropathy. You can google it, but I suffered intence pain and numbness for several years and thought I would die, and am now suffering again. I may become crippled yet.

Just check it out before you get sick please.
 
My dad used to put his cigarettes out in an old bucket of gasoline... After a couple weeks out in the open, all the fumes had evaporated. I was an amazed 12 year old that day...


But I've never used gasoline for anything but fuel for engines.

Parts washing? Fire starter? That's what I keep a couple gallons of kerosene around for...
 
I have used gasoline on three Enfields which arrived packed full of cosmosline. Everything I tried would not penetrate the barrel which was packed full of the gunk. I dug about an inch of the stuff out of the bore of one of the rifles on my patio. Pored about a table spoon of gas in the hole and let it stand for a couple of hours. The gas liquified the cosmoline and when I opened the bolt all of it ran down into the magazine and reciever. Nasty cleaning drive.

The next two I opened the bolt and cleaned out the chamber, pored the gas into the chamber and stood the rifle on the muzzle in a bucket. This time all of the gunk ran into the bucket.

As to Spec Ops personnel cleaning in a vat of gasoline inside, I doubt that this happened. Typically cleaning vats, half drums, are located outside and use an Milspec solvent.
 
I've never used it on guns but have used gasoline to clean paint brushes. Don't see why it wouldn't clean old oil and gunk off a pistol.
 
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