Biodiesel eating blacktop!

[Petrofied]

I spilled a little (ok .. a lot) of biod on the asphalt outside of my garage. I thought the spill looked uglier then normal, and when I looked closer I realized that it is actually erroding the blacktop. Has anybody ever heard of this? I tried washing it off with water, but it doesn't seem to have much effect. Any ideas for cleaning this up?

 

[nicklockard]

wash it off with ethanol (drinking alcohol) {helps if you chant "yo ho ho and a bottle of rum}. Repave. Seal. Don't repeat

Amazing solvent, huh?

Edit: on second thought--use the cheap rum!

 

[40X40]

Diesel will do this too as well as gasoline. Bio is a GREAT solvent!

Water is the answer, lots of it. If you don't do it quick it might not help much.
Go turn the hose on it and let it run slowly until its all gone and the water does not bead up.
I used to use diesel to clean the beds of asphalt trucks. If you dissolve away the oils (asphalt) that
bind together the sand and gravel, well, then you have a gravel driveway!!

Water, lots of it and quick!
HTH

Bill

 

[MrMopar]

Yeah, biodiesel works just like petroleum fuels to dissolve asphalt paving.

Reminds me of a mild prank that I did in my sophomore year of high school. There used to be a straight lane of traffic leaving the parking lot of my high school. The neighbors complained about vehicles going to fast, so the school put in asphalt speedbumps. All the kids in school were complaining about the speedbumps. In the middle of one night, I took a 5 gallon can of diesel and soaked the speedbumps. The next day, they just dissolved into gravel when everyone drove over them coming to school. The school district put those asphalt speedbumps back in about 10 more times - and each time I'd wait about a week until the heat was of and then dissolve them again.

Until they wised up, and put in some kind of plastic ones that bolted to the pavement. Then I used thermite to melt the bolts to take those out . . .

 

[nicklockard]

Then I used thermite to melt the bolts to take those out . . .

Really? Or are you just joking?

 

[whitedog]

Oils will do this as well. Customers park their drippy tractors in front on the pavement and it just eats it. It seems that the thicker the oil, the slower the deterioration.

 

[TomB]

You can also use an environmentally friendly dishwashing detergent and water to wash it down.

The key is to get it right away before it starts to dissolve.

 

[40X40]

I believe him.....

Never underestimate the fun to be had growing up in fly-over country.....There was very little real trouble for a good kid to get into..

How did you light it? Magnesium strips? Sparklers? Torch?

Did you guys know that if a pile of small square hay bales containing 13,500 bales catches fire it will burn for 3 days and nights?
Did you know that when it is hotter than _____ in july and a hay barn you are filling catches fire you can run really really fast?

We built smaller hay barns after that. Fire was caused by hot muffler on another hay truck and busted hay bales not properly cleaned up. Help was summoned by CB radio .. (no cellphones in 1970.) One two ton hay truck lost in fire and the frame was wilted and twisted.. not much left.

OP,
How did the spill turn out......? did you get it washed off?

Bill

 

[MrMopar]

How did you light it? Magnesium strips? Sparklers? Torch?

Magnesium strips, lit by a MAPP gas torch.

 

[Dorado]

Biodiesel is great to clean tar marks on the exterior of the car. But you want to clean that up right away, and finish with some good cleaner wax, because if you leave the biodiesel it wil eat into the clearcoat and the paint too.

 

[runonbeer]

kitty litter.

 

[Thermo1223]

Magnesium strips, lit by a MAPP gas torch.

Being young again...even being 23 this reminds me of my "hay days"

 

[Melamalie]

I use BioD to clean the chain on my bicycle because it's such a great solvent. I used to use straight diesel, but my SO made a ~5L batch of BioD that we're too chicken to put into the car (we have no way to test it to make sure it won't make the car die!), so we've been using that for our bikes.

Much better for the environment than diesel, and cleans much better than regular biodegradable degreasers. Highly recommend it to clean greasy parts.

~ Mel ~

 

[Petrofied]

Update: Every few days I hose it down for a couple minutes. The good news is that it doesn't look like it's getting any worse. It still doesn't look too pretty, though.

On a side note, I may have just discovered a new rat trap. Earlier this week, I was greeted by a dead rat outside my garage a few feet from the spill. I suppose it could have died from something else, but I'm thinking it died from something in the asphalt that it just had to eat because the biodiesel smelled oh so tasty.

 

[40X40]

Update: Every few days I hose it down for a couple minutes. The good news is that it doesn't look like it's getting any worse. It still doesn't look too pretty, though.

On a side note, I may have just discovered a new rat trap. Earlier this week, I was greeted by a dead rat outside my garage a few feet from the spill. I suppose it could have died from something else, but I'm thinking it died from something in the asphalt that it just had to eat because the biodiesel smelled oh so tasty.

Umm, KIDNEY STONES? or ROCK GUT?

Thanks for the update!
Bill

 

[BiodieselJeep.com]

You can see how I ate up my driveway with biodiesel here:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=147649&highlight=intercooler

If it is still soft and nasty, sticking to your shoes and tracking into the house...it might be too late. I wish that I had just scooped it out from the beginning and patched it properly. I tried EVERYTHING to clean it, even right away, then EVERYTHING to stablize the soft spots: gravel, kitty litter and eventually sawdust . Now my driveway looks seriously jethro.

Bless my wife's heart, I park over the spot so she doedn't have to look at it. Next time, cement driveway.