For all who clean their engines
 

Do you get down and dirty (no pun intended) when you clean your engines? I.E. you get every knook and cranny clean, underneath, the sides of things, all over. Or do you just get what you can see clean and call it good?

I started cleaning my engine last night (finally) and man, its a lotta work. I decided not to spray it, but instead using simple green and some industrial paper towels clean it by hand. Judging by how much i had to scrub, spraying it with water wouldn't have done a whole lot of good anyway...

I never have, but coming from someone who is a neat freak (of sorts), you might as well not half-ass it. Right? Plus it always starts out as a minor cleaning, but once you get started you can't seem to stop. You always see something that should be cleaned in order to complement something else that was just cleaned off and looks good. Its a vicious circle. Before you know it, your engine bay is spotless!!

Agreed! Every time I try and just do a little touch-up I end up spending a half-hour in there!

keep the simple green away from your valve cover..it WILL stain aluminum!!

I just paid some car detail place 25 bucks and got it done. Looking lots better now.

I usually wash my car every week. After every wash I clean the door, hatch, and hood jams. While I'm under the hood I give the engine a quick wipedown. I've done that routine since I bought the car in "02" and It always looks brand new. :)

Ditto the wash down every (or so) car washing. Too late for me re. the Simple Green/Valve Cover. sigh. I just need to paint it now...

if not simple green, then what?

what color will it stain?

Use Dawn, or Joy. Diluted dish washing detergent does great with grease. Spray it on where you want to clean, let it soak for a few minutes, then hose it off. When you're done rinsing, you can finish it off by wiping down manually what the soap didn't get. That way you don't waste time on simple dirt. :bt:

Gunk...engine cleaner...spray on, wait, rinse off! Wow... works great, just keep the engine running for a while to dry it and burn off the fumes! I use it once a month...no problems...

PS- Don't spray that stuff into the wind! Yikes!

hmm... ok... i'll try that. I've already used simple green on it though... i didn't spray it directly on... i sprayed it on a paper towel and then wiped the dirt off... it seemed to be ok at the time... i haven't looked at it since though... i'm almost afraid to now...

:rolleyes: does it matter what color it stains??...see mgs's suggestion...simple dish soap and water...wont do anything to aluminum

of course it doesn't matter what color it stains. But would it have been just as simple to answer the question in the first place as it was to continue avoiding the answer? I'm just curious.. shish...

I put a plastic bag over my intake filter, spray the engine down with a foaming engine degreaser/cleaner. Wait 10 minuntes then hose the whole thing down. I do this once or twice a year. The engine is not spotless but it's clean.

has anybody used a steam cleaner?

no but from what i here it's not a great method...too easy to get moisture on plugs/wires/coil packs

DO NOT use a high pressure washer, you're just beggin for problems with that.

Like other people have said, cover or stay away from the air intake (after market or stock, doesn't matter). And definately cover the coil pack. Use some plastic and some rubber bands, works great.

ok, i'll stay away from that... now, what is a coil pack, the things located on top of the plugs? can ya tell i'm reeeal car engine savvy?? :)

another suggestion after it is clean and dried I recomend using some armorall wipes on the rubber hoses not only does it look good but keeps it from dry rotting...

While you're lookin at the engine, on the front right area. Follow the plug wires from the engine to a small box lookin thing. All of the wires meet up there. That's the coil pack. It sends out the signal from there, down the wires to the spark plugs. You get that wet and try to run your engine, you probably won't even get it started. :eek:

Also, as long as your wires are connected firmly to the spark plugs, you don't need to worry about those getting interference from water.

ok, thanks for that tip!

The area circled in red (in the pic) appears to fit your description, would i be correct in saying so?

oh yeah... this is a picture of the engine before i started cleaning it... you can see how badly it needed a bath...

Sorry for the delayed reply, didn't realize you had written back.

The circled portion matces my description, but it's different than what I was expecting to see. I would cover that up and also your plug wires on top. The reason I say that is because it looks as though there is a type of connection for your plug wires on top of the head. You don't want to get water in those connectors.

No worries! Thanks again!

Ack! That is bad. Thank you for doing something about it...

yep, sure is! Its getting cleaner now... slowly... its a long process doing it by hand... i'm considering maybe spraying it down with some cleaner and pooring a cup of water over the area with cleaner on it... and then maybe do some by hand (i think this may have been suggested...) but it is looking better, i had almost forgotten the engine color was not brown!