engine cleaning question... [Merged 2-7] engine bay washing

[DSMunknown]

This stuff works pretty good.
http://www.gunk.com/prod_photo.asp

I don't know what you were trying to link to, but this and this product claim to be appropriate for cleaning engine grime.


I've been thinking about doing this for some time (my valve cover gasket was leaking a lot before I replaced it), but I was recently reminded that this should not be done in one's driveway. All that crap has to go somewhere, and more than likely if you don't put care and thought into the process it will go in the lawn. Perhaps you could do it at the local car wash, or do it somewhere with concrete flooring (preferably with a nice coating on the floor for ease of clean up).





EDIT: I also found this product on NAPA's website, which can also be found here. Here is another product off of NAPA's site.

 

[poonman]

what works good too is home depot has an acual engine cleaner for 11 bucs that you hook up to a compressor and drop the hose into a cleaner, it has adjustments for air and chemical mixtures just pulls the knob and bam, its very precise so you dont have to worry about getting chemicals were you dont want them.

 

[VanIsleDSM]

I used to work at a detail shop for 4 years, I've pressure washed well over 1000 engines.

cover up your CAS, that guy doesn't like water, don't worry about anything else that much, check your sparkplug wells after your done and blow out or soak up any water in there and you're fine.. don't directly blast the coil pack or the mas, but don't let anyone try to scare you with talk of corrosion or electrical problems.. it's just not true, engines are build to be in the elements, they can take a good cleaning.

with your hood closed spray your fenders, bumber, window and cowling with water so any degreaser overspray that lands on your car will be diluted by the water.

 

[motomattxxx]

I used to work at a detail shop for 4 years, I've pressure washed well over 1000 engines.

cover up your CAS, that guy doesn't like water, don't worry about anything else that much, check your sparkplug wells after your done and blow out or soak up any water in there and you're fine.. don't directly blast the coil pack or the mas, but don't let anyone try to scare you with talk of corrosion or electrical problems.. it's just not true, engines are build to be in the elements, they can take a good cleaning.

with your hood closed spray your fenders, bumber, window and cowling with water so any degreaser overspray that lands on your car will be diluted by the water.

You are exactly right on the money! My engines get high pressure washed at the car wash pretty much everytime I wash the cars. You definately WANT a warm engine for this also so that it will dry out as soon as you take the water away. The engine and components are weathertight. Look at a motorcycle engine that spends its life out in the weather.

 

[rich3389]

I just covered my altinator with tin foil and soaked the hole engine bay with degreaser, then rinsed it off with a hose with very low water pressure. I never had any problems.

 

[DSMunknown]

Just searching around, I found some interesting links regarding engine cleaning:


Link 1
Link 2
Link 3


Before I forget, I should mention that any well respected local detailing shop will be able to do this for you. Yes, most of us are DIYers, and some of us are hardcore DIYers. But if you're unsure of the cleaning process, or don't have the right tools, or don't have the time, or whatever this is another option that is open. I'm not sure what the going rate is for an engine bay cleaning, but I would suspect it would be anywhere between 50-100 bucks. If you really want your engine to shine (so clean you could eat off it or makes you want to avoid mud puddles at all costs) then you will probably spend somewhere around 200 or so (a guesstimate).

what works good too is home depot has an acual engine cleaner for 11 bucs that you hook up to a compressor and drop the hose into a cleaner, it has adjustments for air and chemical mixtures just pulls the knob and bam, its very precise so you dont have to worry about getting chemicals were you dont want them.

You must be refering to some chemical agent. I found some pressure washers, but not for $11! A link would be nice to the product you're refering to.

 

[staticbrainwash]

What ever happened to simple green, a spray bottle of water and elbow grease? Thats how i did mine and i get CONSISTANT compliments on how clean it is.

 

[VanIsleDSM]

yeah that works, but a detail shop wouldn't be able to do that and make money, it takes too much time, the pressure washer with degreaser is fast, then you touch up by hand and "vynil care" it (the lingo in my shop because the car brite stuff we used was called that) $50-100 is pretty high end, $200 would be extreme high end, but I'm sure you could find a place to do it for that much if you wanted.. you could also find somewhere that would do it for $30 or even less.

..I'll post a pic of my engine bay in a few days.

 

[staticbrainwash]

Here's mine, but now the rest of the AC is gone as well as the "solenoid wall".

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

And the breather is gone, i've got a small fuel filter inline to the intake now too.

 

[DSMunknown]

What ever happened to simple green, a spray bottle of water and elbow grease? Thats how i did mine and i get CONSISTANT compliments on how clean it is.

Simple Green is mentioned and praised in all three links I provided in post #14.




Oh, and some of us are still waiting on a nice write-up to follow. Com'on Geoff! Be the one to step up to the plate!

 

[staticbrainwash]

I'll do one here for now, then i'll make a tech article about it maybe.

When i got my car, the motor had NEVER been cleaned. The entire engine bay was covered in gunk and dust dead bugs. . . it was a nightmare.

As i began modding i realized my engine bay just wouldn't look good with all these new happy pipes with grime all over it.

Over a long priod of time (because unless you have A LOT of time on your hands in a day, it will take you a few) i began cleaning.

Here's my process.

I initally just took dry blue shop towels (paper towels will work really). Disposable kind, and just went to down on all the surface crap. Believe it or not, A LOT of it came up with just dry rags. I hit all of the engine bay paint i could see with the rags until all i had left was the REALLY caked on stuff. Thats when i broke out the NON diluted simple green. FULL STRENGTH BABY! I went to town on all the really caked stuff, bell housing, engine block and head, valce cover hoses. Then came back in with a spray bottle of water and washed it all down.

I will take some new pics though of how my engine looks now with all the ac and crap gone.
Here's the trick though, once you start getting around electronics, just spray the simple green onto a rag and SCRUB, then hit it with a dry rag, or a damp watered rag to clean it up.

DO EVERYTHING, simple green rags spray and a lot of scrubbing. Like i said it's a LONG process to get it clean, but it's worth it. And after you get her spotless, it's MUCH easier to spot clean.

Once it's all clean how you want it, if you get really adventureous you can start pulling brackets off the firewall, and cleaning behind those. I attacked every hose, every component, every inch (that i can reach so far).

At this point, you will need a beer, or 6, or some vodka if you're me. Relax for a few, let things dry, inspect to see if you missed anything, spot clean if necessary.

Then, break out the armorall. YESS! SHINE TIME! If you've got stock lines, silicone lines, anything rubber i attack with armor all. Couplers, rad. hoses, power steering lines, fuel lines. . . ect. My red silicone actually gets pretty clean and shiny frim the simple green so i don't bother there. just spray onto a rag, and evenly wipe it on. Then what i do is take a terry cloth, and buff it up (sometimes it gets streaky) so this helps shine it up.

This is all what i did/do. Even sometimes i break out the q-tips and get into the small things that just a rag or streamed simple green can't get.

Step back, marvel at your work, then cruise around till you can show it off! Inital reactions on my motor are always "holy shit dude", or "damn thats clean!". It feels nice when the work pays off.

And in the end, touch-ups are SUPER easy because everything is all clean, a dry rag can usually clean things up well, or just a lightly damp rag with simple green. Re-hit with armor all and you're shining all over again.

Any questions or comments let me know, this might end up as a write-up. Maybe with pictures! Depends on how how ambitious i get.

 

[DSMjrv]

i have found that carb cleaner works best for cleaning engine parts, any actual engine degreaser like engine bright and whatnot absolutley suck... brake cleaner works good too

i want something strong enough to take off the thickest grease in one wipe, even take paint off... any suggestions?

 

[Cs4g63]

Mix up some acid with some degreaser. I think that should be strong enough to take anything off.

 

[brute]

Both carb cleaner and brake cleaner will ruin paint. If it stays on the paint, it will be bad news. They are also corrosive to plastic, rubber, and pretty much anything. I suggest to stop using it before you hurt something.

I have always used Gunk in the past, but more recently, I have bought Napa brand because it's cheaper and always in stock. Napa works as well as the Gunk brand did, so I will continue purchasing that. Just spray it on everything, leave it sit, and then you can even start the engine and let it burn off. I have always just left it on and let the engine idle while I cleaned the exterior and such. It takes a little while to burn off, but it isn't a problem. Or, you can just spray it on, let it sit for a while, and then hose it off. It works excellent on gunk and oil.

But I suggest stopping the carb/brake cleaner.

 

[staticbrainwash]

Automotive simple green and elbow grease. Unless you can pull a part completely off, then carb/brake clean. But make sure you will NOT hit anything painted or rubber or electric.

I also found that a steam cleaner doesn't do a bad job at all on engines.

 

[Dragon TalonTsi]

Yeah, Automotive Simple Green Max, either in a Gallon Size or in the spray bottles. I swear by it. Either when you are degreasing engine bays, or cleaning valve covers, or anything, it does wonders. I will show you some before and after pics of things. Plus, it doesn't cost that much, nor do you have to bruise your elbows with all the extra force needed to clean.

 

[awd4g63tsi90]

engine degreasers suck, yes. All of them suck compared to brake cleaner or something strong like that. Look at the pro's and con's

simple green, engine 'degreaser', etc.-they don't work as quickly as brake cleaner or B20 chemtool. They say not to use on a warm engine-but they work best on a warm engine. They do not, however, ruin your seals or paint as others have mentioned. They are "safe" to use on almost everything.

brake cleaner, B20 Chemtool, etc.-they work great and fast. Many times you don't have to even touch the motor and it gets everything off. They will degrade seals and paint though. They are also much more toxic and flammable, so use them with ventilation. They are the best for rebuilds when you are not worried about old seals or paint which will be replaced.

B20 Chemtool is my favorite to use. I avoid things I don't want ruined and then degrease by hand the stuff I avoided initially.

Another method I think works just as good is to spray everything down with one of the lighter degreasers or simple green. Get your motor hot if it's not already. Spray it all down again after the stuff has had time to work, and then pressure wash it.
This will eliminate grease as well as the harsh stuff without the damage. Just takes more time. Works great!

 

[Diltzy07]

Personally, I found nothing wrong with engine bright. I've used it many times before cleaning up my engine bay. The only problem I had was the first time I ever used it I didn't clean it off completely like I should have, and my interior smelled for a couple of days.

I have also experimented with Mother's Mag Wheel Polish before too. That really cleaned up my intake piping, header, and intake manifold.

I hope I helped you out anyway.

-Chris

 

[talonz27]

i just cleaned my engine compartment with a gal of brake cleaner. and then after that i washed it with simple green. looks really good now. of course this was all done with the engine out. with an engine in i would just say watch out for getting sertain things wet. i once washed my engine bay with engine in with my 1st dsm and i had to wait 2 weeks for it to completley dry before it would start

 

[mkgearhead]

I just bought a gallon of the purple degreaser at Walmart and it works great. I put it in a spray bottle and sprayed it on and let it sit for a few minutes and sprayed it off with a pressure washer and it looks great. I also used it on my 4G64 6 bolt block when I was rebuilding it and it looked like it just came from the machine shop.

 

[Locke]

I use cheap-o STP foaming engine degreaser, and a spare nail brush. *bling*

 

[VanIsleDSM]

Try and get ahold of some commercial use products, like Car Brite, because it's commercial it's sold in an extremely concentrated form, and you dillute it down about 5-1 for engine degreasing, 10-1 for upholstery.. but nothing stopping you from using it straight, wear gloves, I wouldn't recommend it..

Also wiping sucks.. you should use a plastic brissled brush to break everything up and then spray it off..

I'd also definitly advise against using degreaser on a warm engine, the reason for this is the desgreaser won't damage anything as long as it stays wet, it's when it evaporates that it corrodes and discolours things, especially plastics and finished aluminum,, once you get it clean you're good to go.. it's easy to keep it that way... then put tire shine on all your underhood rubber and plastic.. mint.

 

[95talon07]

If u work at Mcdonalds take a bottle of their degreaser. it may sound funny but that stuff works miracles. i paid them for mine.

 

[Dragon TalonTsi]

engine degreasers suck, yes. All of them suck compared to brake cleaner or something strong like that. Look at the pro's and con's

simple green, engine 'degreaser', etc.-they don't work as quickly as brake cleaner or B20 chemtool. They say not to use on a warm engine-but they work best on a warm engine. They do not, however, ruin your seals or paint as others have mentioned. They are "safe" to use on almost everything.

brake cleaner, B20 Chemtool, etc.-they work great and fast. Many times you don't have to even touch the motor and it gets everything off. They will degrade seals and paint though. They are also much more toxic and flammable, so use them with ventilation. They are the best for rebuilds when you are not worried about old seals or paint which will be replaced.

B20 Chemtool is my favorite to use. I avoid things I don't want ruined and then degrease by hand the stuff I avoided initially.

Another method I think works just as good is to spray everything down with one of the lighter degreasers or simple green. Get your motor hot if it's not already. Spray it all down again after the stuff has had time to work, and then pressure wash it.
This will eliminate grease as well as the harsh stuff without the damage. Just takes more time. Works great!

Yeah, I am going to trust someone with 3 posts, and telling us that these products suck? Whatever bro, and pressure washing will not do you any good with a DSM, try it and see what happens. Plus, if you are pressure washing, you use the cleaner with the pressure washer, so there is no need for more additional degreaser. B20 is parts cleaner, and Brake cleaner will take off finished paint and yeah, grease too. No, pressure washing doesn't take longer, it saves time... See what I mean, have you ever done any of this at all? I bet not, just by the way you answered this.

 

[ILLiCliPSE]

I just use your every day AutoZone Brake-Cleaner. Stuff works wonders. I cleaned the entire side of my engine while I was doing my turbo install since I had the engine fully exposed and its still shinning.