Factory sealant turns white engine bay yellow-ish?

[lonestar22]

cosmoline is still used to this day

http://www.e90post.com/vpc/index.asp.htm

[AndrewBird]

Just rub the engine with several hundred dollar bills until it changes.

[DER E30]

Wow, what cleaning product did you use and how long did it take for you to clean the M20 engine into a M power Engine? lol

Good question! I need some of that!

[IS300E30]

Here is what it could look like after some "cleaning" ;D

Wow, what cleaning product did you use and how long did it take for you to clean the M20 engine into a M power Engine? lol

[DER E30]

Cosmoline is gross... my bay is covered in it as well, but I'm not going to do anything about it (I guess) because I plan on a bay shave/wire tuck...

[Mr. Tasty]

It is called Cosmoline

I figured it was an auto correct thing

[RMac42]

Here is what it could look like after some "cleaning" ;D

Ha! I won't hold my breath for THAT... Beautiful.

[RMac42]

Here's what mine looked like before and after

Nice! Super clean. I'm feeling encouraged.

The crappy part is knowing that when these cars came off the boat and got to the dealer, this crap was supposed to be washed off with mineral spirits before the customer even got the car. Some cars even came with a bottle under the hood...but they didn't, because it was so shiny and looked awesome, they just fired them up and drove off...in Cali, they were yellow in a few weeks.

Very interesting! I had no idea. So clearly this is pretty common. Kinda freaked me out when he sent me that pic -- the rest of the car is so clean, I couldn't figure out what the deal was.

[ZM Blue Devil]

Here is what it could look like after some "cleaning" ;D

[StereoInstaller1]

The Cosmo lime is ugly, but if the car has no rust in the engine bay, then it served its purpose ;-) a lot of factories back then used Cosmo lime to prevent rust..

Sent from my GS4 Active

It is called Cosmoline

[StereoInstaller1]

The crappy part is knowing that when these cars came off the boat and got to the dealer, this crap was supposed to be washed off with mineral spirits before the customer even got the car. Some cars even came with a bottle under the hood...but they didn't, because it was so shiny and looked awesome, they just fired them up and drove off...in Cali, they were yellow in a few weeks.

[fresh_TD]

The Cosmo lime is ugly, but if the car has no rust in the engine bay, then it served its purpose ;-) a lot of factories back then used Cosmo lime to prevent rust..

Sent from my GS4 Active

[fresh_TD]

Here's what mine looked like before and after..



Sent from my GS4 Active

[RMac42]

Wow, so clean! Nice work... Looks like a big job, but good to know it can be done.

Thanks for the tips!

[StereoInstaller1]

Here are a couple of shots of a Cosmoline removal job I did a couple years ago.

We tried all kind of different stuff, including google searches. Found out that Mineral Spirits will clean it off when it hasn't been heated, but just about nothing will when it is yellowed.

This car was bad, even after cleaning. Note the yelllow goo on the hood pivot tube, behind everything, all over...totally nasty:



Then after goofing around with several methods, we found that a combination of steam and a chunk of MDF will scrape it off easily.

Then we found using a heat gun and a spray bottle before scraping makes it even easier, you can see here just how bad it was:



But, after much cussing, scraping, and backbreaking work, we ended up with this:



Get to work!

Luke