that dawn dish soap is an excellent degreaser...i agrree with the hot water cleaning and opening the pores...i was just amazed at the crap that came out of that barrel using 409 after using theTC bore cleaner and thinking i had it clean...just thought i'd share it with you guys...i supose you can make things as complicated as you want...but you can't argue with a better cleaner that is cheap and simple to use...Kirk