long island hit by record rainfall. Seems like most of it was in my house. I am told my insurance will not cover content of sheds, hoping to avoid a total loss. I have begun accessing damage to my tools. my Honda mower and a brand new power washers both have major water in cranks. I expect the tiller and generator to be in much the same shape. any advice to cleaning out the water without having to disassemble and rebuild.? no attempt has been made to run them I have simply drained the oil at this point. also any advice on cleaning electric power tools would be appreciated. time is limited funds are limited contents and structure of house must come first.
thanks Joe P.

 

I would drain and replace all the fluids. Then start them up and run them to get good and hot and cook off any remaining moisture.

Electic tools are more difficult. If they truly got submerged I'd get buckets of clean water. Distilled would be best. Repeatedly dunk the tools to rinse out dirt and minerals from the contaminated water. Then lay them out in the sun on a hot day to dry them out. Things like reciprocating saws might like some penetrating oil on the slide assembly.

 

Thankyou distilled water is a great idea . I have a ro/di system I use for the fishtanks
Should be just the thing.

 

When we got electronics wet in the navy...first thing was to rinse with fresh clean water (distilled is better) then dry in a hot air dryer we had. Temp was only about 120-140 degrees.

Gas items should be ok if you drain run and flush soon.

 

I was thinking of flushing the crankcases and cylinders with alcohol to rinse out the water and speed evaporation. Any thoughts on that?

 

Also I was thinking of flushing the electric motor tools with either wd40 or silicone
After I flush with filtered water. Maybe I can keep the rust down till I can disassemble

 

Changing the fluids and dumping out any water will get the bulk of the water out. Then running the engine long enough to get up to full temperature plus 20 minutes will cook off any remaining moisture. I don't think flushing or rinsing with alcohol is necessary.

The problem with rust preventing sprays is that they leave a residue behind which could catch fire or smoke. Distilled or RO water will wash the dirt and contaminants away and evaporate leaving almost nothing behind.

 

Most any solvent run thru the engine [not running the engine] may speed up things but as already noted, changing the oil and then getting it up to operating temp should be sufficient.

 

Instead of using a blow drier for the electric tools ask your wife if you can use the oven, it has a much larger capacity. Have a good one. Geo

 

It's actually a very interesting question.

The trick is to remove water without triggering corrosion by heating up the material
The only real method to do that is to exclude oxygen or have a reducing / acidic environment.

This situation reminds me of my dad talking about the how to clean rusted metal machine parts. Place the metal parts into a glass jar. Pour in a dilute acid. Let it bubble for an hour until they are clean. Then pour a layer of light machine oil into the glass jar so it forms a layer on top of the acid.
Then, remove the parts with a pair of needle nose pliers. The machine oil coats the newly cleaned metal as it is removed from the acid, so it doesn't have an opportunity to rust.



My first instinct is to wash things down with mildly acidic water to clean but prevent rust.
Next, a soap and kerosene mixture to get the items clean and remove water. Soap is 1/2 oily and 1/2 watery. It dissolves grease and oil by making them soluble in water. It can be used to remove water by making water soluble in kerosene, alcohol or oils.

As for drying, I can think of two options.
My first instinct, you don't want to dry wet things in the sun and air- they will rust.

It may be entirely impracticable, but my first thought is to start up the car, attach a flexi-hose to the tail pipe, and use that hot oxygen-depleted air to dry off your gas and electric tools without rusting them. Idea being that car exhaust is hot, but it lacks oxygen, so it should heat and dry out the tools without causing surface rust.

Second idea is to go with an air compressor with an auto-oiler to blow dry any equipment. Similar idea, the oil mist in the compressed air should suppress the tendency to form rust.
I have used an air compressor and sand-blaster-gun with the siphon pulling soapy water to make a foam gun- something like that should work.