Engine Cleaning

[lali]

Hi,

Whats the best way to clean your engine? and what should i definatly NOT do?

cheers

 

[Andy Duncan]

Don't do it/hose it unless you cover all electrical plugs.

Or do by hand taking care as you proceed. Remove as much kit as you can to give you good access, Air flow metering unit, plastic covers etc.

How,s the S2 coming on, saw Kevin at Snet on Sunday, good guys, Tom segrues S2 had a clutch failure so sadly he didn't make the race. Give me a bell over the weekend.
andy

 

[danmason]

I cleaned my 924's engine last week. From the amount of crud in there I'm guessing it hadn't been done in at least a decade, or more probably ever.

I used the CD-2 two-pack Cleaner/Detailer spray, about £7.50 in Halfords, after seeing a fair few favourable reviews. Don't be put off by the crummy packaging - very low effort required, and the results were much better than I expected. Basically you just need to cover the distributor, electrical plugs, air intake etc. with either tin foil or plastic bags, spray the stuff on, wait for a bit, then hose it down (in my case gently - I didn't dare use a pressure washer!).

The detailing spray really brings it all up nicely including the hoses which literally look brand new, and supposedly leaves a resinous coating on the engine so it stays cleaner in future.

 

[Mikie_gb]

and supposedly leaves a resinous coating on the engine so it stays cleaner in future

This sounds ok, but what ever you do NEVER use that engine varnish stuff. To start off with it doesn't look great ie yellowish, but within six months to a year it turns black and looks indescribable.

The garage I bought the car from did this for what ever reason and it has trashed the rocker cover and inlet manifold paint. I have had to try every product under the sun to remove the black muck. What does work is carb cleaner with a tooth brush which pretty nasty stuff (xylene). All the wires everything need to be cleaned, and I have stripped and polished the aluminium rocker cover (letters in Red) and the repainted the manifold. (Closest color match is some metallic gold/silver colour used on Fiats).

 

[Hilux]

Gunk

Small/large paintbrush to work it in to all areas, plenty of water (again worked into areas by paintbrush) cover wings (it wont damage them) etc as it flicks a fine spray as you work the paintbrush

Finally tape over all electrics as required and use a very fine mist water spray to hose down (not a pressure washer or hose on full blast)

Very labour intensive but it prevents the "throw a load of corrosive stuff in your engine bay and then blast it all off with a hose" principle and by having to agitate the muck it gets it all off unlike the `easy` methods. Has worked for me for years.

Dont use engine/hose shiners as they all go opaque and you cant get them off

Use `Mer` polish on a wet cloth on yer hoses/plastic bits, easy peasy