Cleaning my engine

[Jscotty]

I had a bad oil leak from the valve cover and after fixing it, the areas around the mainifold, side of the engine and the whole underside of the engine is still covered with oil.

The self-service car wash has an engine cleaner/degreaser setting, however, I am a bit leary about using that high pressure sprayer under the hood. Are there any precautions that I need to take prior to using it? Should I cover up anything or will the water even hurt my engine?

[browntown]

there are places that will steam clean detail your engine, call around

[dark89e30]

Just leave your car running and spray down the whole thing. Just don't put the nozzle 2" from wires or anything. I've done it probably a hundred times or so and I've never had any problems. Oh and it helps if you spray the whole thing down with simple green first, and it doesn't matter where you spray it.

[Jscotty]

there are places that will steam clean detail your engine, call around

Yeah, I am aware of that but I will probably have to do this a few times in case there are other leaks that I find out about. But as Dark89 suggested, I am going to spray everything down with Simple Green and when I hit the engine with the hose I will try to stay as far away from wires as much as possible.. but there are wires everywhere under my hood.

[M5wanaB]

Yeah, I am aware of that but I will probably have to do this a few times in case there are other leaks that I find out about. But as Dark89 suggested, I am going to spray everything down with Simple Green and when I hit the engine with the hose I will try to stay as far away from wires as much as possible.. but there are wires everywhere under my hood.

He means just dont get the tip of the nozzle within two inches of wires, the pressure will mess em up. I usually dont run the engine while I do this. I use plastic bags to cover all electronics under the hood. Then hose it down with some nice foamy engine degreaser. Use a long handled, long bristle brush to scrub down anything thats extra dirty. I then proceed to spray it down with the pressure washer getting underneath as much as possible and avoiding direct contact with the bags as my pressure washer easily shreds them. Thats just my proceedure, what the hell do I know. Im just an auto detailer.

[AlarmedBread]

You should really do this with the engine cold, spraying a hot block/head with water isn't the best thing to do. Put your car up on stands and scrub/ spray the under body while you wait for the engine to cool, you'll be glad when its time to do some work under there.

I usually remove the air box/afm, then tape plastic bags over the intake boot/fuse box/relay area and go to town with a pressure washer, this gives good access to the power steering area which is usually a good source for leaks. Make sure the wash you use has a heated water setting, it works a lot better for removing gunk. When finished a good shot of compressed air or leaf blower to help dry things off. It might be cheaper if you can get a few friends to chip in on renting a nice power washer for a day if you haven't got one.

Another thing most people forget is to clean up the ground under the car before you put it down, or the gunk you just cleaned gets on the tires, which sprays up on your rockers.

[Jparkr]

let your engine warm up and shut it off. then spray and let the simple green soak for like 15 minutes, continue to spray it because it will dry up. scrub the spots where the dirt has caked with the oil and then start the engine, spray it all down with a jet setting on a garden hose. and youll have a nice clean engine. close the hood and let the engine dry the bay out. (about 20/30 minutes) then shut off the car and wipe down the thin layer of dirt off with a micro rag.

i use this method for detailing and it always comes out great. ill do a writeup next super dirty car i get :-)

[jlevie]

When I need to clean an engine the process goes like:

1) Get the front of the car 1-1/2 to 2 feet in the air right after a 20-30 minute run at highway speeds (to get all of the engine to equilibrium temperatures).

2) Wet the soiled areas down with a Gunk & Mineral spirits mix dispensed via a garden sprayer, working from the top and bottom.

3) Using scrapers and brushes work over the soiled areas to loosen the deposits. Reapply the Gunk mixture as needed. Again working from above and below.

4) Using an ordinary water hose with the nozzle set for a medium spray pattern, wash the Gunk mixture off of the engine. Gunk makes the mineral spirits miscible with water, so you'll get most of that and the soil off.

5) Wet the engine down with Simple Green (or similar) and scrub down every part you can reach with a brush. Flush that off with the hose.

6) Repeat step 5 if the engine still looks oily.

7) Allow the car to sit with the hood open for at least 6 hours to dry.

Notes:
Avoid using any high pressure water. A gentle spray won't force water into places where it shouldn't be and where it will not dry out of.

Scrubbing the solvent & detergent gets lots of stuff off that a simple was won't. It is labor intensive, but not difficult.

Always do this on an engine that is fully up to temperature. That makes removing oily soil easier and water that gets into electricals will evaporate. Along those lines you need to allow plenty of time for the engine, accessories, connectors, etc. to dry out before starting the engine.

Gunk stinks and there'll be a bit of a smell from the engine when it is hot. That will disappear after a few days.

[e30lyf]

Everytime i clean my engine has to be cool. i use gunk decreaser then spray to engine. let them soak a bit then brush it as u can reach. i use also power spray nothing issue. i use air compressor before i start the engine. i did this 4 times already. for having my car for less than 4 months.

[Jscotty]

Put your car up on stands and scrub/ spray the under body while you wait for the engine to cool, you'll be glad when its time to do some work under there.

Yeah, that's the other thing that's bothering me. If I drop a socket or some other tool down in the engine bay, I don't want my arm and hand to get greasy as I attempt to fish it out from underneath the car. Also if I have to take the car to a shop and I need to have it put up on the lift, I don't want some half-ass tech to think he can do a half-ass job because he figures I don't take care of my car anyway.

[-Javier-]

Heatshield on this one have been replace....if you ask.

[jerods87e30]

So, should the engine be cleaned when it is hot or cooled off? There seems to be differences in opinion...maybe that's ok...? I always figured that cool water coming in contact with hot engine components (the major ones, namely) was a bad idea and could cause trouble. ????

[M5wanaB]

So, should the engine be cleaned when it is hot or cooled off? There seems to be differences in opinion...maybe that's ok...? I always figured that cool water coming in contact with hot engine components (the major ones, namely) was a bad idea and could cause trouble. ????

as said before it is not a good idea to spray down a hot engine with cold water. You may get the engine a little cleaner as the heat may break some of the gunk off better but honestly thats why they steam clean engines. if you wash it cold you may need a little more elbow grease but youll have more piece of mind. BTW- a good engine degreaser will do wonders. Simple Green does the job but is by no means a top of the line degreaser. Ive even heard oven cleaner gets the bottom of the engine super clean, Ill never try it, but I heard it works good.

[jlevie]

The most important advantage to cleaning a hot engine is that water will more readily evaporate from places where it can do harm. By the time that one has gone over the engine with soap or solvent there's little or no risk of cool water "shocking" parts of the engine. And keep in mind that driving the car on a rain wet highway is going to result in cold water hitting the engine...

[scabzzzz]

Well after reading this thread yesterday, i went ahead and cleaned my eta up. It was pretty disgusting. I bought a scrub brush, bottle of Simple green, and took to the car wash.

I took out the airbox/AFM, sprayed everything down, scrubbed, sprayed, scrubbed etc. One thing I noticed worked well was at the car wash, if you just use the Rinse option on the high pressure hose without pulling the trigger, you get a nice hard mist that REALLY breaks away grit and grime very well. Just a thought for everyone. Dont pull the trigger! Just let it mist away.