Engine cleaning has any body tried it if so what is the process
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Engine cleaning has any body tried it if so what is the process
What you you mean? A home remedy of Seafoam? Or are you talking about a stripped down project, bare block and heads?
Im talking about the engine bay
Cover the intake if you have open filter and just spray it with engine de-greaser, use a brush and then rinse. Nothing to it.
Go to the autoparts store and get a large can of their CHEAPEST aerosol tire shine. HAS to be aerosol.
Spray down your ENTIRE engine bay. i mean every single square inch of wiring harness, piping, metal, it doesn't matter. every square inch from every angle. Use the ENTIRE can.
Until your engine bay looks like its 4" deep in snow. Belts, alternator,distributor, doesn't matter. EVERYTHING.
Once its all on there, wait for the foam to dissolve on its own, then immediately hop in your car and drive straight to the do it yourself car wash bay at your nearest car wash.
Pop your hood and pressure wash the shit out of it with soap and water. you can use the degreaser if you like but at this point its not necessary.
Blast every square inch of yoru engine bay, wires, hoses, belts, alternator whatever. (your engine needs to be hot when you do this step)
Once its done just drive home hard to evaporate all of the water. when you get home pop the hood and admire your engine bay.
It should look brand spanking new. If for any reason there are any water spots on the painted surfaces, just use a microfiber towel and some detail spray. they will wipe right off.
It won't be dripping with silicone or anything. all of your plastics will look factory new, your hoses will look new, your metal will have a nice soft gloss.
Basically how this works is the foaming aerosol tire shine has surfactants in it that will emulsify all of the dirt oil and grime and lift it off the surface. Silicone will remain on the surface, and the dirt will float on top of it.
when you pressure wash it you will spray the dirt off(that no longer has a bond because of the silicone) the dirt rinses off easily, and of course all of the excess silicone will be rinsed off as well.
Once you are done all of the dry plastics will now be treated and reconditioned. your engine will look awesome, and for quite a while any new dirt will be repelled.
BUt what about the high pressure thats not good on the electrical and connections,
when covering the filter get a gallon size ziploc baggie and rubber band it and duct tape it
Every electrical connection that can be negatively effected by moisture has a rubber gasket seal in it. No moisture is going to get into your wiring. So blast away.Quote:
Originally Posted by mrg7243
Engineers put the gaskets in there for a reason. There is no need to cover your filter. Do it if you want, but to ome its a waste of time. Obviously you don't want to blast away at the filter, but it they get wet all the time, so its not going to ruin it if you do spray it.
even with an open air filter??
I sprayed down my bay once and it wouldent start, had to let it sit for a few then it started.
thats why I wouldnt do a high pressure wash, a garden hose with a nozzle might be perfect
nice DOHC imma try that out
I may be meticulous but I use a toothbrush with super clean and a hose.
neat freak????? jk jk lol
don't worry i also used a toothbrush to clean my car when i 1st got it but that was only cuz i could tell the previous owner had neglected for it like 8yrs; oil, coolant and who knows what else was splattered all around the engine bay
haha mines the same but its too damn cold to clean it
yea usually only clean it once a year during the summer
totally doing that when the snow melts
Definitely!Quote:
Originally Posted by johnygezony
Waiting for spring to come around.. an then Im going military style! Armed with a ToothBrush, Degreaser, Garden Hose, Garden sprayer, towel, time, in the garage, and loud Music!!!!
This goes against EVERYTHING that I have been told. I'd like to see pics of your before, 2 durings (one with the "4" deep snow", and one of power washing the bay), and one after before I recommend anyone to do this.Quote:
Originally Posted by DOHCstunr
Then again, this IS just me.
On a side note, I was told to do it when your engine is hot and to use easy off oven cleaner and spray it down with a water hose then dry it off. I've seen this guys bay and it is CLEAN.
I've seen this done before in person, but I always wondered if spraying water on a warmed engine would crack or warp hot engine parts like headers etc.
do what raz said this is the proper way to clean an engine bay.Quote:
Originally Posted by RAZ_76
I've seen the car groomers at work do this alot.
did this method my Engine Bay looks new..no problems with starting the car, or anythingQuote:
Originally Posted by DOHCstunr
okay i did this today cuz i was bored and for you who dont trust our senior members here you are.
before:
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...00318-1339.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...00318-1339.jpg
All the tire cleaner:
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...00318-1343.jpg
After wards [still wet though]:
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...00318-1351.jpg
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f9...00318-1352.jpg
the pics are crappy cell pics but you get the idea
hmm i really cant tell cause of the pics so im not dissing your method just cant see enough to say ay or nay, your "dirty" engine bay is cleaner than mine
it wasn't THAT dirty, but it was dirty to me. i didnt like a dirty car. ill try and take some new pics tomorrow so you can see how it came out better.
looks cleaner, but pics suck lol so cant tell much of the difference. Mine isnt too dirty at all, but its driving me nuts I usually clean my engine every 1st weekend of spring and 1st weekend of summer, but I have so many wires that are just everywhere right now I dont want to spray them until I redo heads and secure them properly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DOHCstunr
Im going to try this and spread the word if it works.. im extremely excited about this.. i have to look at a dirty bay all the time lol!! Thanks for the info, i'll check back in after.
I have sprayed my engine bay plenty of times as well and have a few things that I would advise.
1. Dont spray too much water at your spark plug wires, one time I did and some water got into the spark plug channel and the car started missing and sputtering until I figured it out and took an air hose to the channel to disperse all water.
2. Dont spray near any Aftermarket Car Audio Fuses or Circuit Breakers. I did one time and my circuit breaker wasnt waterproof, and it fried. Had to buy a new one. It sucked, LOL!
3. I would just take the precaution like I do to protect your cone filter. If you're using a factory airbox your fine, dont worry about it. But what I do that easy is as pie with my cone filter is:
Get a plastic grocery bag, cover the filter, then tie a knot at the MAF Adapter. Its pretty much safe at that point if you tie a good knot, never had an issue from there.
4. Watch out for any bare wires that may be exposed from loose wire harness looms. I took a car I had one time to a Car Wash for them to do my engine bay, they sprayed my engine bay and a wire got wet that was linked to my brake system which caused my emergency brake light to stay on for damn near 3 months. Had me pissed as ever, but it finally went away after I changed the master cylinder resevoir which had an electrical plug to it.
So moral of the story, DO be mindful and careful of what your spraying, bcz some of your wires or wire looms may be old and deteriorating, and or anything else eletrical, which can leave the opportunity to get something wet that will short out.
Stick with the concentrating most of water at the block, water and coolant resevoirs, headers, intake piping, firewall, but simply rinse off everything else eletrical with due regard.
so would it work if i just rinse the foam with a hose of water, without high pressure?
yup, thats what i did
Hey Wouldnt the battery get damaged when you get water on it? like the pos and neg with water touching it? can I just put a bag on it to be safe?
At the shop I used to work at they had a pressure washer. So what they taught me to do was spray the engine bay down completely with purple cleaner soak it and then turn the car on and use the pressure wash to clean everything off and of course use air blower and blow out all the left over water.
I actually performed this prior to MOD to get my bay nice and clean . I actually just used my garden hose with a pressure nozzle and it worked just fine but keep in mind, you want to minimize the amount of oil runoff going to the storm drains. I did this because I cleaned the bay at a station with water recycling about a month prior, so most of the oil was already off. I covered the battery and my cone filter, then sprayed everything down with the tire foam and scrubbed whatever I needed to with an old tooth brush. Then I rinsed off with the garden hose, wiped as much water off as I could, then went for a nice drive to dry things off. Once I was back and the bay was cooled down, I used to Armorall plastic/vinyl dressup to get all the hoses and plastic looking fresh. Now the bay looks great :)
In the original post of DOHCstunr says tire SHINE aerosol, but I imagine he meant tire foam since he talks about snow looking foam, and many of you say tire foam, I think I'm going to try it but with my garden hose, Im gonna cover the alternator, the ccfl ballasts and the amp fuse, or is it safe to spray the alternator, since DOHC doesn't say anything.
I left my alternator uncovered. I wouldn't go soaking it, but I think it's okay to leave it uncovered. If you want to be safe though, you could just easily put a plastic bag over it. Also, if you use the garden hose, try not to get to thick of stream going, if that makes any sense.. haha just try to minimize soaking I guess
I work at a car wash and I tried this after work one day. My engine bay was clean and my intake was covered. When I started my car my drive worked for about 25 feet then stopped working. Reverse worked fine. After about an hour my drive would work intermittently and on the way home i had to stop multiple times to restart my car because that seemed to help drive kick in. Engine code was thrown during this i ran the code and it came up as over 11 circuit faults. Car dried over night and was fine the next day
hmmm sounds like you might have some wires exposed? either that or too much water gathered in one spot? I would make sure your wiring isn't chewed up though
I'll do this later tonight and get pix..Mine is ULTRA dirty
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc..._&sortType=low
right thing?
Can anybody confirm, Tire SHINE or Tire FOAM? Because of the description I would say its Tire FOAM but DOHC said Tiire Shine.Quote:
Originally Posted by AktionCat