engine bay cleaning

Preludedriver · Post by **Preludedriver** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:09 am

How do you clean your engine bay?

sharpie · Post by **sharpie** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 6:12 am

Take everything out, power wash, degrease, wash.

Post by **stolle** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 8:06 am

simple green, a pressure washer and maybe a brush for the caked on crap.

lurch95hatch · Post by **lurch95hatch** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 1:08 pm

And the best way without removing everything?

HoBoStabz · Post by **HoBoStabz** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 1:16 pm

lurch95hatch;295417 wrote:And the best way without removing everything?

this

Phate · Post by **Phate** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 1:37 pm

I foam the whole thing with tire shine, then powerwash. Simple green is really good too.

Post by **stolle** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 1:53 pm

lurch95hatch;295417 wrote:And the best way without removing everything?

eghatch;295418 wrote:this

everytime i clean engine bay, i spray everything down first with a pressure washer to get it wet and blow off any really loose stuff. then i spray straight simple green all over everything and let sit 20-30 minutes respraying areas with simple green to keep things wet, some areas i take and agitate with a brush. follow that up with the pressure washer taking my time to hit areas at multiple angles, after that you may need to reapply some simple green and start over, if everything is still really dirty and caked with oil and grease. you have to be careful around areas like the distributor dont want water in the dizzy, that and some of the stickers may blow off from hitting them with pressure washer. after you are satisfied its clean enough. take a leaf blower and blow all the water off everything and get it as dry as possible. the hit it with some foaming tire shine all over everything or i like using a product called trim shine.

have fun and use what i just said at your own risk, the only problem i have ever had after doing this is a clean engine bay!

RyanA · Post by **RyanA** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 2:43 pm

I use a bunch of different things from regular engine degreaser or CD2, WD40, Simple Green, etching wheel acid just to name a few. I will only pressure wash a trashed bay. Blow completely dry with air when done. Tire shine if you don't have any gravel to drive on or Pro Shine if you have any dust problems (it's an interior surface spray that actually dries and does not attract dust).

IF your bay is not too bad, you can clean it with compressed air and minimal cleaners. Microfiber towels can help wipe down surfaces, too.

When doing a swap, cleaning the bay when it's empty is obviously the best. This is a 5 minute bay clean using no pressure washer:

lurch95hatch · Post by **lurch95hatch** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 5:13 pm

stolle;295422 wrote:everytime i clean engine bay, i spray everything down first with a pressure washer to get it wet and blow off any really loose stuff. then i spray straight simple green all over everything and let sit 20-30 minutes respraying areas with simple green to keep things wet, some areas i take and agitate with a brush. follow that up with the pressure washer taking my time to hit areas at multiple angles, after that you may need to reapply some simple green and start over, if everything is still really dirty and caked with oil and grease. you have to be careful around areas like the distributor dont want water in the dizzy, that and some of the stickers may blow off from hitting them with pressure washer. after you are satisfied its clean enough. take a leaf blower and blow all the water off everything and get it as dry as possible. the hit it with some foaming tire shine all over everything or i like using a product called trim shine.

have fun and use what i just said at your own risk, the only problem i have ever had after doing this is a clean engine bay!

Wow, thanks! Just what I wanted to hear. Thank you stolle:hail:

Silver Knight · Post by **Silver Knight** » Sat Jun 09, 2012 5:40 pm

I use a high concentrated degreaser which I spray on the underside of the hood and all over the engine bay. Then I powerspray everything. Then I coat it in fine shine which makes everthing look brand new again. Takes me about 5 minutes to do. I do this daily as I'm head detailer for the acura dealer I work for. For those with open air filters and dizzy's I would cover them up or just don't spray those 2 things directly.