Engine Bay & Under carriage cleansing

[Kaie]

Im looking for tips and tricks or products for cleaning up my engine bay and undercarriage.

You know when you go and look at a used car they have everything looking like its band new. I want that.

I currently have a jacked PCV valve that is getting oil everywhere. And a broken coolant flange. Both are being replaced. So i wanted to clean the [censored] out of the engine bay.

Ive seen steam cleaner mentioned. I don't have access to one. My brother does however have a pressure washer.

 

[scurvy]

Bucket of diluted car wash soap, toilet brush, hose.

With the engine barely warm, rinse it off. Don't stick the hose in the oil fill cap or blast away at the alternator, just give it a quick rinse. Then take your toilet brush and gently scrub everything with the diluted car wash soap. If you've got nasty muck from the PCV everywhere, you may need to spot that with any of the typical engine cleaners. Rinse well, again without pouring water in any dipstick tubes or letting it pool in connectors. Dry off engine with compressed air and by taking it for a drive, then dress everything with Aerospace 303 protectant.

 

[The Critic]

My method of cleaning has been to soak the entire engine compartment with a stronger degreaser when the engine is cold. After allowing the degreaser to sit for 5-10 minutes, I give the entire compartment a scrub with a brush. Then, I rinse the engine compartment with a garden hose or the high-pressure rinse option at the local coin-op. When rinsing, I avoid the spraying the alternator or coils with direct pressure. With this method, I have never had any issues.

 

[hate2work]

Put a plastic bag over the alternator, spray engine cleaner on everything else. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so, and scrub everything with a long handled brush. Then gently use the pressure washer and carefully wash down the engine. Towel off the major water pools, then take it for a drive to get it hot.

 

[Kaie]

I noticed the mention of that 303 product after its clean.

How about something for cleaning? Or do all the general engine cleaners stack up the same?

PS: i noticed A LOT of members are from Wa.

 

[spasm3]

a real trick is to repaint the inner wheel wells .Dont get paint on any plastic splash panels.

 

[Corvette Owner]

I use car washers with undercarriage spray cleaners.

In the summer, I have been known to pull the front wheels up on ramps and use a hose on the undercarriage.

"ONE TOUCH" wheel cleaner works great on wheel wells.

 

[Craig in Canada]

I use Simple Green in a hose-end pesticide sprayer. I can set it for the dilution I need, but I usually end up in the 20:1 to 40:1 range. The fan spray nozzle tends to foam it up a little bit. I then agitate with a long bristle brush of some sort then rinse with lots of low pressure water.

High pressure water can force water and cleaner into places it doesn't belong under the hood. Lots of water should be used to make sure there's no degreaser left to bake in anywhere or damage any finishes "long term".

If you use any kind of treatment afterwards, you want to be sure that one of the prime qualities is that it doesn't attract dirt. 5+ years ago a "Guru Report" indicated that the "new", "original" Armor All (at the time it was recently reformulated and was now water based) scored excellently in this regard when it came to be used as a tire dressing. I've used the same product under the hood and it doesn't seem to attract a lot of road dirt. If you put something on that's kind of sticky it will make a bigger mess than before you started.

There isn't a lot of UV under the hood. 303 is a great protectant, but it's "big deal" is UV protection. Although I use it on my interior, I've found it to be a wee bit tacky under the hood.

 

[mjoekingz28]

I went the longest time without using a hose to clean under the hood. Then one day I did and the following week my tensioner went kaput.

Just use a lot of damp towels coated with your chemical of choice.

A roll of blue shop towels is $2 and should be more than enough to wipe down the entire engine bay.

For the wheel wells. Take your shop towels and spray them with silicone spray and wipe down all the metal and rubber in the wheel well after you remove the wheels. Although the silicone spray I have seems to leave no residue, I would be careful not to contaminate the discs or pads.


For the engine bay, after you have treated with a tire dressing, I would use a towel misted with a window cleaner for the next time to prevent dust and dirt buildup.

Also, you could clean the backside of your wheels and tires. Noone will ever notice but it should at least make them lighter.

 

[OriginalRocket]

I've been researching for under hood cleaning for a while. This guy is a member of my cars enthusiast forum. This is his detailed guide, it's on a corolla but same thing applies for other cars. With pictures!

http://ocdetails.blogspot.com/2010/03/corolla-detailing-part-1.html

Can't make it a link, may get banned again, and I'm on an iPad, limited functions.

 

[Techniker]

Now my question is in regard to the undercarriage. What do you do to clean that? (Aside from driving through an automatic car wash with recycled road salt water).

I have always just angled the hose underneath the car after I washed it and hoped I hit something.

-Techniker

 

[Striker]

If you're after attacking the undercarriage, there are specific cleaners made for that part of the car and are usually spray on, spray off products that work real well.

In regards to cleaning your motor, you should really clean it by hand as opposed to hosing it down. IF the motor is really a disaster-which it shouldn't be with normal upkeep-than you can use the methods where you cover the alternator and soak everything down.

I clean each section of the motor with some older MF rags and a cleaner like simple green or an orange cleaner I have laying around.

303 Aerospace protectant is an amazing product designed to be applied on clean, and dry plastic, vinyl and even leather surfaces. I use this on my plastics/rubber on the engine bay.

 

[ahoier]

Originally Posted By: Techniker
Now my question is in regard to the undercarriage. What do you do to clean that? (Aside from driving through an automatic car wash with recycled road salt water).

I have always just angled the hose underneath the car after I washed it and hoped I hit something.

-Techniker
Park/Idle your car over your neighbors sprinkler head


hahaha, no not seriously.....though that could work

As long as they are not using stinky, hard, mineral-y well water......eeeek!


But no, really, I just did this today

I was down in the garden department looking at all their gadgets they had.....they had this angled handle trigger hose attachment, I guess for watering plants, that "could" work...but I was thinking to myself.....I wouldn't know exactly WHAT I am hitting

Then I was thinking well maybe one of those 6-12" long rotating "fan sprinklers" would work....that rotate left to right.....? But then was like.....mmmmm.....maybe not enough power there......


Then I found this round gadget, you screw the hose into, and a huge jet of water comes flying out of the top of the sprinkler! Soooo.....I attached that doo-hickey to my house, laid the sprinkler out in the yard, and slllloowlly...drove my car up into the yard, to bask in this sprinker soak...


NOW....my reason for posting here though....Is I was thinking how cool would it be, if there was a sort of "solution mixer" that I could plug into my hose.....to pre-mix/dillute, say Purple Power, or Super Clean, as the sprinkler sprays it...?


I know I've seen the car wash brushes at walmart that have the "soap dispensing" feature.....sorta the same concept, only for the SPRINKLER....


Any McGuyver's here that would know how to make one myself?

Basically, something that goes between the hose, and the sprinkler head, that would hold solution, be it car wash concentrate, purple power, simple green.....and it would basically allow the Water and cleaner to mix, and come out at once....


Cause yea, it basically just hosed it down with plain water....as I don't have ramps.....that would have been my other idea, ride the car onto ramps, and just hose the undercarriage down with the hose...but I'm hoping that did "good enough"

I did ride back and forth, forward and backwards, to make sure it got completely wet

 

[bmwjohn]

HOME MADE STEAM CLEANER - SHARE W/FRIENDS.
I saw a short u-tube video from ez-tankless, a tankless water heater outfit in northern Indiana. They sell several sizes of tankless heater in electric, natural gas, and propane. The video shows buying a 2 wheel cart ($30) and strapping on a 25?lb barbecue propane tank, hose and regulator, water filter, and small tankless LP hot water heater (meant for cabin or outdoor shower). Garden hose from wall to filter, to small heater strapped on dolly, and cold water pressure washer is hooked to output of heater. Turn water on, then start pressure washer, volume of water triggers 2 d cell battery ignition, lp flame roars to life, and you have hot water wash. I think about $200 + your existing pressure washer. Looks like you could share cost w/friends, each using their own pressure washer. I think the fancy hot washers are $2k?, although probably better. It someone had a business pressure washing houses the hot water would probably be a selling point. Never tried it, but do like steam cleaning, and hot water is pretty close. Comments? (No affiliation w/ez tankless, just a potential customer for home water heater use).

 

[SteveSRT8]

we have stationary plants that can easily be configured into a hot water pressure washer.

Hot water washing is the bomb! It cleans like crazy, and we have vehicles here that are quite old with absolutely no scratches in their clear coat because they have never seen a rag or a sponge, just a hot water wash now and then.

 

[abycat]

Hot water is surely the way. I rock a big pressure washing truck and it has any temp water capabilities and a 8 gpm 3000 psi pump driven by a 3 cyl diesel and i can and have washed anything.

The way I wash the inside of engine bays is I apply some strong soap to chill for a bit and then wash it off with a higher pressure weaker soap mixture then rinse it all off.

For underbody stuff I have a bar with three nozzles that lays flat on the ground and i drive over it a bunch and my car is spotless on the bottom. i can even run my soap through it with high pressure so it gets everything off.
I can also use it manually with the car off and me moving the bar around.

 

[boxcartommie22]

is dawn good enough?

 

[Tros]

Dawn works pretty decent, but if anything is really caked on you'll need something stronger. If you are on a budget, give it a shot. It may be just enough to remove stubborn gunk. I tend to use more aggressive methods rather than dish soap.