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Hello everyone, I wanted to share my brake cleaner recipe that I use for bulk parts washing. Use:
- 3 parts Equate 91% isopropanol
- 1 part Kleen Strip Acetone
- 1 part 93 octane gasoline, or toluene

It is worth noting that if you don’t include the gasoline/toluene, that this mix is completely safe for normal exposure (though skin dryness is expected since it is a degreaser). So I suggest mixing it without that first and trying it. If you are dissatisfied with the effectiveness, add the gasoline.

At current prices this is about 1/3 the cost of normal brake cleaner. This also has the advantage of, instead of draining endless cans, you can make a bath and bottle up what you don’t use. Running it though a coffee filter isn’t even that necessary as the sediment simply settles out; next time you use it, just pour out the top 90% and it will be pretty clean.

A slightly more effective but expensive mix can be had by changing the proportions to 1, 2, 1, respectively, and using denatured alcohol or methanol instead of the 91% isopropanol.

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Great tip and thank you for sharing it!

Sounds like a good general purpose deal but if used for brakes I would wonder if the gasoline or any other petroleum based solvent is added to the mix if there would be enough residual after the cleaning to start affecting any new rubber parts in the cylinders.

No, it’s fine but not typically used on parts still installed due to its flammability.

If you make it as directed specifically with toluene, it will work exactly the same as brake cleaner. The cheap recipe will leave a SLIGHT film from the gasoline, which doesn't matter when washing parts.

For near-instant drying, do the above, as well as you should use pure alcohol as suggested in the last paragraph, not 91%. Though again, this is not desirable in a parts cleaning situation because you often want to take the parts out of solution and wipe them down while they are still wet.