question about how to remove oil from the bilge
 

It is a long story, but a bad service caused 5 quarts of oil to be dumped into my bilge. The people that serviced it made things right and cleaned the bilge, but did not get all the oil out. Anyone have any suggesions. I thought about putting some dish detergent in with some clean water and just let it slosh around each weekend and then drain until I am no longer seeing oil on the water coming out of the bilge.

Thanks

Castrol degreaser (stuff in purple bottle) spray it around the flush it out with water thru the drain hole

Bilge cleaner at West Marine or any boating store.

+1 for Castrol super clean (purple bottle)

I tried all that stuff when I had an remote oil filter line go on my last boat. I must've used 25 gallons of simple green and every other product out there. I spent endless hours trying to get it clean. The problem was that all the soap did the same thing. It lifted the oil, and moved it to another spot.

I finally found the answer, and it was sooooo easy. Powdered dishwasher detergent(, a brush, and HOT water. It ended up taking me 45 min the last time, and it was spotless.

I jacked up the front of the boat on some wood, spun the leg all the way up, and pulled the plug on the back. I spayed HOT, HOT water on a low setting. I sprinkled dishwasher detergent all over, and scrubbed a little bit on stubborn areas. It was really that easy. It all ran out the back into 5 gallon buckets, which I took to the local car wash and dumped into there oil/water separator.

Nothing else even came close to working that good.

Ask BP

I had a drip from the pan wear the dipstick meets it. I took mine to the car wash and used that degreaser from the car wash, it beat the hell outta any off the shelf product.

You can get absorbant mats that are made to soak up oil. You find them usually at auto part stores or industrial supply places (Grainger). Those (especially the industrial ones) will get out the majority of it with without anything else in the bilge. If they still leave a film use a degreaser or bilge cleaner and then redo it with the mats.

simple green!

Simple green worked for me and I did dawn as well. Think simple did the best job.

I used "Oil Eater" degreaser got from Costco. Used with paper towels and elbow grease. If I have a dealer do an oil change now I handwrite on the work order not to drain into bilge. I also have bought an Oil pump to remove it myself if I have the time.

Just dump a few packs of baking soda into the bilge and use that to mop it up. Basically sucks up the oil and turns to mud, wipe it up with a paper towel, throw that into a plastic bag and you're done. Cheap and easy.

Bildge cleaner worked one time for me, so did some citrus engine degreaser I found at autozone came in a big jug. Just for clean up every now and then I put some dawn in there and spray the mess out of it. Fill it with water then let the bilge pump get it out so it will degrease the bilge pump and hose as well. Keep doin it till no suds then pull the plug and let the rest drain.