Any - Oil spills - mustangman

I have managed to get a small ( ish ) amount of engine oil onto my block paved drive.

I will own up that I failed to replace the filler cap when topping up a few days ago, so oil has escaped from being splattered around the engine as the car is parked. I feel a complete *****! having done this. I mean, I’m an engineer – must have been a senior moment.

Anyhow I’ve tried patio cleaner, washing up liquid, coke ( ! ) and oven cleaner, mostly to no avail. Does anyone know a magic brew that will shift it ? Otherwise the best alternative may be to turn the blocks upside down.

Thanks if you can help. MM

Any - Oil spills - daveyjp
Brick cleaner.
Any - Oil spills - unthrottled

I keep a bag of cement powder to pour on wet spills to soak up the oil. Once the oil has soaked into the cement powder and that's swept away I deal with the stain using petrol as a solvent. Then I add some alcohol to the thinned oil to make it miscible with water. Then it's just any decent household cleaning agent to lift the soot off the concrete.

Any - Oil spills - Doc

You could try an engine cleaner like Gunk.

tinyurl.com/mvk5k4a

Any - Oil spills - galileo

Gunk engine cleaner or Swarfega soak then pressure wash off?

Any - Oil spills - madf

Cleaners do not remove oil which has soaked in.

Fine sawdust* applied and swept off every two to three days. Will absorb most of the oil. Especially in hot weather.

* or fine dry dirt/earth.

Apply blowlamp to clean surface after a week and sweat out what is left. Apply sawdust again.

Or wait 12 months for the weather to clean it.

Any - Oil spills - mustangman

I tried brick cleaner @ 50:50 dilution, & it worked well. Needed a second application to remove traces. Thanks djp.

( NB: You need the "professional" stuff, which is pure hydrochloric acid. ! )