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Miker, "technically" yes, Simple Green is more caustic. Note, "technically". Caustic is one of those words like corrosive. They are basically the opposite. Caustic being used to describe a more alkaline solution (lye for example) and corrosive describing a more acidic solution (Sulfuric Acid).
Looking at the pH (or the pOH) tells us that being on either side of 7.0 a solution is either caustic or corrosive (a higher concentration of hydrogen or hydroxide ions respectively). Less than 7 is trending more acidic and greater than 7 is tending more alkaline. It is a logarithmic scale, so the further you depart from 7 on either side the more quickly the concentration grows.
A cup of coffee (hence my coffee remark) can run into the pH 4.5-5 range (unless it's my wife's in which case it sometimes slips into the 2.5-3 range... just kidding). For example I just jumped out to google and got a pH table. Human blood is pH 7.4, baking soda 8.3, Milk of Magnesia 10.5, lye 13, milk 6.6, tomatoes 4.5, vinegar 2.2, etc. As you can see you have to go pretty far either way of 7 to get very caustic, or corrosive. Bird s**t wasn't on the table, but don't leave that on your paint for more than 6 seconds :-)
With this in mind, the more important thing is to always check the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for anything your thinking about using whether in/on the car, around the house, around your lungs, etc. By law, manufacturers are required to provide this information. A look at an orange concentrate MSDS showed me that the concentrate oil itself is flammable. Whole new meaning to orange flambe and a lot more scary than the 6.2 pH. At work our MSDS library even includes things like copier toner and White-out. Manufacturers web sites will usually have MSDS's available for your use. The MSDS can reveal stuff that may make you think twice about using a product, even if it's not for the reason you thought. "If it ain't on the web, it don't exist" is a favorite of a friend of mine and I agree.
Back to the caustic point (no pun intended). The addition of water would indeed decrease the concentration of either H or OH ions and reduce the corrosiveness or causticity of the solution. Either way I wouldn't think that a solution applied between a pH range of say 5 to 9 would hurt the engine, particularly as it is hosed off almost immediately (within 90 seconds or so).
For the last 4 years I've used orange concentrate (diluted as previously described in my first post) on my 94 Chevy at least semi-annually and used Simple Green for the 4 years before that. The engine compartment looked great with either and I've never had an engine cleaning caused failure (I "baggie" the alternator and the distributor).
Kind of got a little long winded here, but I didn't want you to think that I was implying that your skin was going to start falling off :-) Spray on dude!
symo
97 850 GLT 77K
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