Request: How To - Clean Under The Hood
 

I've been wanting to clean under my hood, but i dont really know how. Any suggestions or products that i should buy would be great thanks.

I can tell you what I've been doing, and it only caused a problem one time when I got the valve cover/plug wires too wet on my old 2nd gen. car. (Removing the spark plug and drying out the wire cured it fine) . I get the motor somewhat warm, but not "freeway hot". Shut it off and spray "Simple Green" at full strength all over the engine compartment, fenderwells, underside of hood, and dont be shy about it, but try not to drench vital stuff like electronics, etc. Wait about 10 minutes and hose it all off, then right away take a nice drive to dry everything out real good. It's a good idea to do this before you wash the car as the Simple Green will leave a slight residue on the exterior body ppanels where you hosed it off. The engine compartment will look "not-quite-but almost-like" new. Good luck.

arghhh! simple green ?? BAD IDEA...there are aluminum components under the hood and simple green will stain them badly....make sure and get a degreaser that is safe for aluminum and spray that all over and let it sit on a slightly warm engine..cover electrical components like alternator, ignition coils and wires with a plastic bag, then wash it down with a running hose, and DONT USE HIGH PRESSURE SPRAYING, even one of those regular hose attachments is a bad idea...use elbow grease instead of water pressure...every single time i've washed my engine with any kind of pressure sprayer it caused issues

Thanks for the suggestions but is there any other ways you can do it ?? I dont feel comfortable spraying water under the hood cause I might fcuk up and you know fcuk up my engine.

you can take it to one of those car wash center and let them do it for ya.
however, you don't get anything wrong if you cover spark plug wires and alternators and battery and some electric stuff.

I usually take mine to the gas station and do an engine wash. I don't know what they use to spray it, it's some kinda mixture. But they use a presure hose to do it all. To spray it on and spray it off. Then they use the same pressure hose to dry it all off. I think it's some kinda air hose thing they use, not too sure what it is.

I used a mean green type thing, a generic version, last time I cleaned mine, didn't mess anything up.

Used a wet rag and then when done gave it all a good spray with the hose. Make sure to cover everything if you're going to put mass amounts of water on it though.

You think they would make an engine and stuff that could withstand pressure and certain stuff and not screw up with all the technology thes days...

What about steam? You see adds on tv and ebay for steam cleaners. the are supposed to clean just about anything, rims, bodyparts (not sure about newly painted though), has anybody ever tried it on the engine bay? You can get a decent one fairly cheap, too.....

I have a local guy who steam cleans my engines for $40. Works beautifully, but I don't know what he uses with the steamcleaner. It's not just water, I can tell that.