How To Clean Engine Bay?

[aquariuz6]

Just curious to how to clean the engine bay.

Has anyone tried to spray degreaser all over it and spray it with water?

Just asking because i just noticed thats what the can of degreaser tells you to do.

Would it be safe? Thinking of electrical wires and other things.

What i have tried is to just spray degreaser onto the engine bay and start wiping.

It works. My friend cleaned his old v8 with a can of degreaser. Afterwards, it looked like it he bought a new engine. It was nice and shiny.

Has anyone else have tried any other ideas besides getting a professional to clean it.

Also if people do want to try the degreaser and you have a 10-5 year old engine, may i suggest a lot of cloths because i ended up using one cloth for just about the plenum before it turned black

[R33S2]

Yeah just follow the instructions on the can, a pressure washer works best, but just try not to spray it directly into electrical connections, I always run the motor when I spray it off and keep it away from turbo which I clean first. when your finished spray the whole thing with silicon spray (repco have it cheap) looks like new. You may have to do it twice if its really dirty/greasy, leave it on a bit longer and a warm motor helps too.

[ctjet]

you cn hit a local BP servo witht the car wash bays and for a $1 you can degrerase you engine bay and then rinse it

much easier than buying all the cans and shit from Auto-b

[dangerous_daveo]

What about water/degreaser getting down the coilpacks/spark plugs???

You guys seem to say its so simple. Yet I am sure if I watched someone do it I would find all these extra things being done.

[JCMarshall_Law]

Yeah I seen quite a few threads titled:

"I water sprayed my engine bay now my car wont start...help"

Be careful, dont just get a hose in there, do it with degreaser and wipe down with a cloth if you really have to.

[R33-Lovr]

Alright Alright..

DONT RUSH TO DO THIS GUYS.

I had to learn the hard way on my first line I decided to clean the engine so I only covered the Alternator then gave it a nice high pressure wash came out beautiful but then I had to change my coils and my sparkplugs, and the car had continues back firing (small tho).

First thing you need to do is warm the car a little then cover the top of the engine so no water goes to sparks and the little chip at the end towards the dashboard, and cover your alternator its located on the left had side near the oil filter towards the radiator, give it a nice rich degreaser spray don’t worry this will not crack the head. Then allow the degreaser work and for the engine to cool about an hr the longer the better but not too long, then wit high pressure rinse the degreaser, try not to use too much water, leave the car to dry a bit and off you go,

Tip: spray degreaser underneath the hood, you know that foam heat sh*t, you’ll be surprised how much sh*t comes out.

I’ve done this on both my cars, my mates 200, Gti, BMW, 300, and another skyline.

All came out beautiful and no problems, but do this at your own risk I don’t want to take the blame for someone else’s fault.

You might smell some degreaser for the first few times you take the car out but its just the degreaser getting burned which is normal.

If you want to be more safe about doing this, after cleaning the engine and drying it, take the spark plugs cover off and with a air pressure blow off any water that might of got inside.

I don’t recommend using silicon, it does make the car look nice and shiny but attracts dusk very quickly.

The degreaser at the car wash is cheap but is not as good.

JCMarshall_Law Check your spark plugs they might have been gone, Or your know the battery converter the box thing I don’t know whats it called, it has the big fuses and shit next to the over flood radiator container, check the positive connection to the car might of came lose or something, or check all your fuses mainly ignition fuse.

Sorry its abit long but I don’t want someone else to go through what I’ve been thro.

And I don’t mean to offend anyone just speaking from my experience.

[NateR31]

no point in cleaning it all jsut to spray silicon, because all the dirt and grit will stick to the slicon making it dirty very fast..

all i do is spray bay with degreaser let sit and hose of with a pressure hose, and thats it (car is on) i also do this everyday at work (panel shop, clean all the dirt grime off)

if your car turns off, let it dry and youll be alright lol

[NateR31]

youll also notice in the bay, anything thats not ment to get wet is protected well enough

[bnr#@]

Has anyone ever tried to steam clean an engine bay? Wondering because my engine is out and there are loose hoses everywhere so don’t really want to spray water everywhere...

[eXc]

I cleaned mine a while ago. You can see some pics below

All I used was a citrus based degreaser and some Inox to make it shine - and no, it doesn't collect dirt. Some silicon sprays do. I use Inox for the exact opposite. I use it under my wheel guards to help dirt come off easier. I also use it on my dirt bike for the same reason.

I live on a dirt road, so I'd know if it collected dust

Some silicon spray that a workshop put on it once DID collect dirt and I wasn't impressed.

Just VERY quickly, what I did was;

1) Short drive to warm the engine up a little. Warm meaning you can leave your hand on the engine easily without any pain.

2) Cover anything electrical with plastic bag or aluminium foil. (bag is good for air box, foil good for most everything else)

You will never completly seal everything, this is why pressure cleaners need to be used sparingly. I didn't use more than a garden hose for my car. I did however need a pressure cleaner for my g/f's car, but it had 5mm of oil and dirt!

3) IN THE SHADE. Apply degreaser. Leave it. Wash it off.

I had to do mine 3 times. The first time I sprayed it on, hose it off, it didn't work very well. The second time I used a paint brush to put it on, hosed it off. This worked well, but left brush makes of the degreaser. So I did it a final time with a cloth.

If I did it again, I'd use a brush on small areas at a time, then a cloth. Then maybe I'd spray some more over it, then do the next small area, then come back and hose it all off.

4) Remove foil/plastic bag

5) Spray eletrical componants with WD40 to help disperse water.

6) Wait until it's mostly dry then run the engine to disperse the rest of the water.

7) Wait to cool and spray Inox on for shiny look if you like.

8) Wash the car when you are done, as you will have degreaser on your wind shield and front end/doors, no matter how careful you are.

9) Take photos and tell us you were suprised how easy it was.

You may not need a brush, It depends how bad it is. I think mine had never been done. Now that I have done it, I reckon spray on, hose off will work now.

Option 2: You can pay a detailer to do it and inside the car for $200, By detailer I don't mean the local car wash/detailer. I mean a proper detailer - Speak to car yards, but they may not tell you. You will be shocked what a detailer can make look good.

Edited June 24, 2006 by eXc

[RANDY]

Woah! That looks great!

I've never cleaned my engine bay since my first car... an 85 VK Commodore.

I used the low-pressure gun at Laser Wash once on it, and then of course, it didn't start. Pushed it out of the bay when I was finished and waited for something to dry.

Later in its life, I used degreaser, and then hosed it off straight afterwards. This melted the paint, although it probably had a cheap respray in its life.

Two more cars later, and I haven't cleaned with anything other than a sponge and carwash, with a dribbling hose to wash it off. Even then I only do the Radiator support and gutters... I don't put water near the engine anymore.

One question on the comment somewhere above... about spraying WD40 on electrical plugs etc... isn't WD40 conductive? Would it be any better than having water in there? Or is that method for preventing rust and corrosion?

[eXc]

Woah! That looks great!

Thanks, it only took an hour...and my engine bay was pretty filthy. You may be able to see I cleaned the bonnet heaps and the heat cover too. I was expecting to take a whole day...but yeah.

One question on the comment somewhere above... about spraying WD40 on electrical plugs etc... isn't WD40 conductive? Would it be any better than having water in there? Or is that method for preventing rust and corrosion?

WD40 is the goods. I use it on all electrics after I wash my dirt bike. Everyone I know does the same. WD40 may be conductive but I have never ever heard of a problem with using it on electrics...it's one of it's main purposes.

[RANDY]

Cool... i'll have to give this a go soon! Cheers!

[foznice]

WD40 is probably conductive, but it evaporates, which (so i've heard) takes mostiure with it.. so in effect it dries the the electrics.

[Chegs]

Hey everyone, i cleaned my engine bay a while ago and had the prob of it not starting. Just make sure not to get water into the coil packs and ur right

Foznice, ur 100% right. if u want your electrics to dry out and rust to sh@t, use wd40. i would use lanoline spray as it is tacky but doesnt wash off or evaporate. I only use lanoline spray at work as stock on the shelf rusts anyway with wd40.

[SXDCTR]

i degressed my engine bay a while back at a car wash all i did was put a plastic bag around my filter and thats it the car started fine straight away and i was off came out nice aswell

[MFC05]

What what items in the engine bay need to be covered up besides battery, coilpacks, sparkplugs, air filter, alternator, and any electrical componets any thing else ??

[RT33]

the way i was told to clean my my engine bay from an engineer form toyota:

spray degreaser on certain part that you want to clean and have a paint brush to spread the degreaser and clean the crap off. once its clean have a little water sprayer like you see at the hairdressers and carefully spray the degreaser off. you may have to repeat this process. by using the water sprayer it limits the amount of water in you enginbay unlike if you used a high pressure hose. once you've cleaned the engine bay, spray tyre shine on plastic and rubber parts and spead with the paint brush for that brand new shiney look.

i thought it was a gay idea untill i did it myself. was a little time consuming but my engine bay looke like one from a brand new car. my dad did it aswell in his car and all his friends think he never drives his car because its spotless inside and out.

only do this if you are bored or really want a brand new look under your bonnet

[Cubes]

I've always used the BP/carlovers degreaser and high pressure rinse.

There's no need to really hammer the cam covers as they really only get a little dirt on them.

I've never had a problem in 4.5yrs, but as I said I don't 'flood' the cam covers.

Then dry it as the water tends to leave white marks.

[foznice]

Hey everyone, i cleaned my engine bay a while ago and had the prob of it not starting. Just make sure not to get water into the coil packs and ur right

Foznice, ur 100% right. if u want your electrics to dry out and rust to sh@t, use wd40. i would use lanoline spray as it is tacky but doesnt wash off or evaporate. I only use lanoline spray at work as stock on the shelf rusts anyway with wd40.

I see, but if lanoline dosn't evaporate, then why use it on electrics, as the point of the WD40 was to evaporate excess water? Not trying to be a smartass or anything, just don't understand what your saying.