Engine Cleaning

hlpressley

hlpressley

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2005
Location
Monroe, NC
What is the best way to clean a really dirty engine without drowning it? Thanks
 
"Gunk" Engine Cleaner (EasyOff Oven Cleaner will work, but removes paint & attacks rubber & plastic), a putty knife, a stiff brush, and a pressure washer... :D
 
degrease it with a good degreaser or I have used brake cleaner before - then pressure wash it. just cover everything that doesn't need to get wet with plastic bags. steam genie's work better than cold water for oil.
 
RDDC said:
degrease it with a good degreaser or I have used brake cleaner before - then pressure wash it. just cover everything that doesn't need to get wet with plastic bags. steam genie's work better than cold water for oil.
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thats what i do but i do it at the local carwash
 
Most car washes won't let you do that any more because of the hazardous waste they have to dispose of. My guess is you are ignoring the signs? Not trying to be a butt head, just an observation.
 
I guess it depends on where you are. No signs at the ones around here. The tire cleaner works pretty good in my experience. a Warm engine, sprinkled with Kerosene, and then pressure washed works wonderfull. Also it doesn't peel pain as bad either. Many years ago I would put kerosene in a vegi sprayer and hose the engine down, let it sit, and then hit with degreaser then high pressure.
 
SIMPLE GREEN !!

warm engine up, shoot it down with Simple green real nice, let it soak a bit ( reapplications to some areas due to evaporation ) hit the engine with hose nozzle or pressure washer.

Works pretty well for me and it smells nice too !!!

Kevin
( and Simple Green breaks down the oils and is biodegradable itself, unlike a lot of engine cleaners )
 
Blkvoodoo said:
SIMPLE GREEN !!

warm engine up, shoot it down with Simple green real nice, let it soak a bit ( reapplications to some areas due to evaporation ) hit the engine with hose nozzle or pressure washer.

Works pretty well for me and it smells nice too !!!

Kevin
( and Simple Green breaks down the oils and is biodegradable itself, unlike a lot of engine cleaners )
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I prefer purple power !!! :flipoff2: but its the same deal.... let the cleaner do the work, be careful to NOT spray at important components with a high pressure hose.

Usually i'll drive to the car wash, let it cool down a while, then pull up in the bay to do my gig...
 
I have always covered distributor and carb with plastic bag before spraying with a hose or pressure washer. Also tried not to spray too much into alternator (but not sure if that will hurt anything).

I always start the engine up immediately after spraying it off, so that water doesn't have any more time to get anywhere it shouldn't be.

The only other thing I have noticed is on some dual-overhead-cam engines like Honda and Toyota cars that have the spark plug wires going into the center of the valve cover, sometimes this "valley" can fill up with water and short out between the plug wires.
 
rattlecanpaint said:
Most car washes won't let you do that any more because of the hazardous waste they have to dispose of. My guess is you are ignoring the signs? Not trying to be a butt head, just an observation.
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like upanover said they dont have signs like that at the carwash i go to :flipoff2: .......the only sight is "NO MUDDY TRUCKS"
 
yager said:
I prefer purple power !!!
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The purple stuff is ok too, but I had a bad experiance with it once with my motorcycle.

Bike was a '79 Yamaha XS1100 Special, had 38k on the odo, when clean, the bike looked brand new, ( this was 1995) used the purple stuff to clean bugs and road grime off the engine case, which still had gloss to it, it ate the finish off the case paint and stained the side covers.

Man I was pissed!!

I gotta admit, it was my own fault, I should have read the label.

From that point on, I was much more careful about reading lables, I also started using Simple Green and S100 which kept my '83 CB1100F SS looking good.

Kevin
 
Spray bottle of kerosene, warm engine, let it sit for about 10 minutes, then I crank it up and spray it down high pressure...

I let it run the whole time, that way if I here the idle stumble a bit, i know to back off from that area, and I never cover the disty, hell I aim right for it usually and have not had a problem yet on any of my 20 vehicles ive had...

Hugh
 
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