Best way to clean the engine off??

Great thread with some great ideas. Thanks all.

Was it a marmot that got into your engine bay? I have heard reports of that happening in the Sierras. Critters get in there and hitch a ride around the national parks.

 

That hyperlink for the marmot is awesome..

 

I plan on washing my engine bay before taking the Truck into Toyota for all the peculiar sounds its making (which seem to be effected by the weather, IMHO), and really need to get this truck clean... It's got spots all over the engine and interior of the hood from when I used to go splashing around in the mud..

 

FWIW, I know of people that steam clean engines and when they're finished, the engine looks brand new.

I think select used car dealers do this. One dealer I asked said he pays $50 for each car to have that service done.

Personally I don't think I would be doing that to my truck...

 

Thanks all for the ideas. I will give it a go this weekend and post some before/after pics to this thread.

 

Just pop the hood and hose it down. You're not going to hurt anything provided no wire insulation/electrical components are damaged. I wouldn't use a pressure washer, but a solid stream from a hose should be fine.

Let dry for a half hour or so, go driving.

 

creek

 

The only problems that occured to me when I hosed down the engine bay on my first gen tacoma is that water gets into the connection where the sparkplugs and wire meet. It caused my truck to idle really rough.
I had to dry it out with compressed air and let the truck sit in the sun for an hour.
after that, I had no problems.
the connections on my second gen are different and i dont think we will have that problem.

 

Simple Green and a DIY car wash power washer is what I used on a 1998 Mustang GT.

Went from this:


To this:


Then dressed it up a little bit with Turtle Wax F-21 to make it look like this:

 

Not bad! Did you just spray the simple green around and then pressure wash it off OR did you get in there with a brush or somethin?

 

I use Super Clean, I get it from walmart. Make sure you dilute it though. (follow directions)

 

For that one, no brush was used. I used a towel to dry it off, which would have picked up a bit more grime.

I just sprayed cut simple green on, let it sit a for a little bit, then sprayed around. The engine was neither cold, nor hot, it was warm to the touch. Got most of the water off, and then started it up to help dry it out. Then applied the F-21 by towel. I learned from detailing that if something can't be cleaned really well, shine it. I don't use any shinny crap on the under hood of my truck or other Mustang. Don't really care for it, I was just cleaning that one up to sell it.

It looked great for months! Then the belt started to sheer a bit, which then it started whipping at the hood blanket, shredding that up throwing pieces all over the place. In the end, the engine wound up look like it was tar and feathered...

 

I've done this many times and it looks as good as new...

Wash everything down with a hose, then soak everything in armor-all, let it stand for about 5 minutes then rinse it off with the hose again. It comes out looking better then new

 

Super Clean stuff that Danosabre mentioned works good just spray everything down with that and the rinse it all off. I like to use my air compressor to get all the water out of the electrical stuff afterwards and to dry everything off. If you want nice looking hoses hit them with some armor all.

 

I rinsed my engine bay today at the car wash. It was only dusty so it cleaned it up easily.
The only problem was that the engine was hot and created steam.
The steam made it into my headlights and fogged them up from the inside.
So I suggest having a cold engine.

 

I would make sure the engine is cold before you clean it. I was told that a hot engine meeting cold water = cracked block. Not sure if its true but it makes sense to me.

 

I suggest having better sealed headlights

 

x2 it works great

 

I have always used sinple green as well. I always spray mine on a HOT engine and let it set to the point it about dries, then spray it off. YOu will have to use a lil elbow grease the first time if its bad. but the stuff works great

 

i'm not crazy about cold water meeting hot block. i'm sure those days of cracked blocks are behind us, but i'm not taking any chances.

my rodent problem..no it wasnt a marmot. been there, but i put a chicken wire skirt around the truck. marmots will eat your wires!! i hunt in the sierras. a roll of chicken wire is mandatory. what got into my compartment was a ringtail. my bro judo tipped a rabbit, that we turned into stew. the ringtail took the fur and guts into my bro engine and ate it. funny..till he got into mine with the nuts and twigs...and our bread.