what are some good products for cleaning an enginebay?

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[SofaKingWeToddDid]

Baisicly this is the situation, im gonna put my car in a heated shop for a weekend, and on the friday evening im going to thoughally (I dunno how to spell that word) wash the enginebay... im leaving it there as it gets randomly quite chilly here, and i dont want things to freeze and break, i have the following things at my disposal, a 2200 gas powered pressure washer, with some nozzles capable of stripping paint from cement, but no hot water. some money, i dont wanna spend too much. i dont care to have it shiney and brand new black lookin, just clean is fine with me... i can put it on a hoist and hit it from the bottom too, so i might do that as well... but i just want things ready for my exhaust next month, i wanna be nice to the guys who work on it, so shes all pretty and clean.

heh, when its slushy out, i taxi it to work, only when its dry or really cold and frozen ill take my buick.... but even when its like -20C here the DVD player screen is all frosted up and it tends to look a little blurred.

[notsoslimshady76]

I've always used windex and paper towels. Very labor intensive, but fairly cheap and easy!

This is a before and after of my Ciera. Its not too impressive, but it worked

[Euro]

I like some diluted Simple Green.  That will clean just about all of the engine bay.  Then I dress it up with some protectant.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

about 8 months ago i was trying to be a mechanic (and got screwed arround) but as an apprentice i was cleaning tranny cases and heads and stuff... couple blocks, but we used an orange gel product... sprays on thick and clear... wait 15 mins and what washes off is legal to go down the drain suposidly. i was gonna use that on some of my problem spots (i have an overflow valve RIGHT above my rear valve cover and it seems to have made a nasty spot on it, i dont want this to happen to my new ones when i install them, was thinking of moving this thing off to one side... shouldnt be a prob, eh? i can get pics if you like. lol but its nothing special, for 200,000Km its not too bad, pretty dusty, but no MAJOR leaks anyhow... couple small ones, 16, almost 17 years of service can put alot of stain on a car.


this second one looks like i should take car of something. but it can wait for now.

[mfewtrail]

I use Simple Green(spray + wipes) the majority of the time. On several of my cars, I spray tire foam all over the plastics underhood. Let it sit for a while and then wipe off the excess with a rag. ). On really greasy engine bays, I hose them down with foaming degreasers such as Gunk. The cheapo brand degreasers from autozone, walmart, etc. work great too.

PS: Castrol Super Clean degreaser is probably the best readily available degreaser I've come across. Just make sure to dilute it or you'll end up with faded paint. My Volvo had oil all over the engine when I got it. I sprayed on a lot of castrol degreaser and it faded the paint of my valve cover, etc. underhood. It's also pretty harsh on aluminum parts. I haven't used any in a few years, so maybe they've reformulated it now. I remember the stuff I had would burn the hell out of your skin if you didn't wipe it off immediately.

EDIT: Here are a few underhood pictures of my cars after cleaning.

'93 Grand Prix SE - ~240-245K miles on it at the time of these pictures.



'90 Turbo Grand Prix - ~72-73K miles on it at the time of this pic(~75K on it now)


Same car from 2003 & about 68K miles.


The TGP has been easy to keep clean as it was spotless when purchased. All the previous owners kept this car in immaculate shape inside/out/underneath.  My '93 GP was a chore to get clean as it had around 200,000 miles on it when I first started cleaning the engine bay. I had to clean it several times to get it to where I wanted it. I lived on a muddy ass dirtroad for several years and everything underhood was really stained with Georgia red clay/dirt, dust, grease, etc.

Here's a picture of my parent's '94 Regal Custom sedan I cleaned the engine on sometime in 2005 or 2006. It had ~140K on it and had never been cleaned before. I thought I had some "before" pictures of it, but I guess they aren't hosted anymore.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

no one here has heard of the orange gel i speak of, eh? i used to use it on all kinds of stuff... its kinda nasty feelin stuff, but like i said, i have a pressure washer at my disposal. vroom vroom. i remember back to the detailing days we would cover the coils, or distributers... or both... i dunno...

[mfewtrail]

What was the gel in? A spray bottle, aerosol can, or what? Gunk, and a ton of other brands make gel style engine degreasers. I'm going to guess the stuff you guys used was more like a boutique brand if you used it in a shop. Every shop I've ever worked in/been to usually orders from certain suppliers instead of buying standard over-the-counter type detailing products.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

its gunk, i think... white with blue and orange... in a spray can, comes out almost in a stream, and its thick!!

[mfewtrail]

its gunk, i think... white with blue and orange... in a spray can, comes out almost in a stream, and its thick!!

The Gunk gel degreaser is on sale at Autozone. Buy one, get one free until January 9th, 2008.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

i KNOW the gunk stuff works good... but i always used it on parts outside of cars, never on paint or anything... think it'll matter? plastic? i got a trick for faded dry platic under the hood.... but i need to clean it first.

[DiscoStudd]

The Gunk brand stuff is called FOAMY ENGINE BRITE, and it works quite well.  Get the engine fully warmed up, remove the airbox and intake tube, and cover up the opening of the throttle body with a plastic bag and a rubber band.  Hose down the whole engine compartment with the Foamy Engine Brite, let it sit a few minutes, and spray it off.  

Replace the airbox immediately thereafter and start the engine.  Let the engine's heat burn off as much water as it can before letting 'er sit out in the cold.

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

no foam, orange gel.    -oh and no cold, gonna sit in a heated garage for a weekend. that and i can use an airgun to blow off any excess puddles.

[Dstanic]

I agree with the posts so far.

I was many engines every day at work.  On new cars from simply blowing them off with water to dirty greasy engines.

Most of the time I'll spray them down with Carbrite Cleanall (powerful enough to use on tires, but gentle enough to use on carpet as well).  Pressure wash with normal pressure that I use to wash cars.

If it's greasy (undercoat for example) I'll use the Carbrite brand degreaser (it's brown but turns white when you spray it on- but I'm sure its' the same as any other degreaser).  Let it sit for a bit and then blast off the grease.  And NO, it does NOT hurt paint at all.  I've had cars with overspray from undercoated that I will completely spray down with this degreaser and then rinse with the pressure washer with good results.

I don't bother to cover the electrical components, I don't know the long term effects of doing this regularly however (I've only washed my engine once since I bought it and it's still pretty clean)

[Jay]

On a similar note...Dave...Let me pick your brain. What is best for cleaning and conditioning white leather and vinyl?

[Dstanic]

On a similar note...Dave...Let me pick your brain. What is best for cleaning and conditioning white leather and vinyl?

Lexol cleaner and Lexol Conditioner.  It cleans really well without removing color from leather.  For example, I recently did a 1999(?) Buick Ultra with red leather interior.  Red usually will come off with other cleaners, but Lexol did a good job cleaning it and no red came off onto  the rag.

It's not cheap though!

For conditioning the Lexol works good but I'm sure you could get away with Meguires or somethign cheaper.  I've never tried the cheaper over the counter products so I dunno.