Hosing down the engine bay

[94talonawd]

I was looking at some of the products at the auto parts store.
I was curious about their engine degreaser cans.

Since engine bay is so dirty and my turbo is off at the moment. I was thinking about degreasing the whole engine down, scrubbing if I can too. Then hose down the engine bay with water. I just want the bay to look like its new.

What all should I wrap up in plastic so it wont get damaged?

What Ive already thought up was removing the batter, covering the alternator, coil packs, fuse boxes.

Any other ones that I might have left out? Or is this process even safe?

I need some opinions. Thanks!

[Jakey]

If I could find it, there is already a good thread discussing this issue somewhere. If I remember correctly, it concentrated around Jana's old GSX showcar.

[Kracka]

A lot of those engine degreasers in a can should be avoided, they will fade/dry rubber hoses. You also should not use Simple Green since it is corrosive to aluminum. I suppose you could use it, but its best to rinse the engine first so there is some water to dillute the SG a bit. Meguiar's makes a product called Safe D-Greaser which works very well for engine bays, but it is tough to find so you may have to order it online.

[Black97civic]

I dunno about removing anything, we degreased dozens of engines at the dealership I worked at, and we even left the cars running half the time. I guess the key is not to aim a pressure washer and sensitive stuff, but just use a low pressure stream, and let the chemicals do their work.

I personally have had luck with the simple green and garden hose route, but my stuff wasn't all that nasty to the point where it would require scrubbing.

[94talonawd]

I dunno about removing anything, we degreased dozens of engines at the dealership I worked at, and we even left the cars running half the time. I guess the key is not to aim a pressure washer and sensitive stuff, but just use a low pressure stream, and let the chemicals do their work.

I personally have had luck with the simple green and garden hose route, but my stuff wasn't all that nasty to the point where it would require scrubbing.

Wow, that seems kinda of dangerous.

What chemicals do you guys use to degrease? And how does it turn out afterwards?

Ever had anything go wrong?

[94talonawd]

If I could find it, there is already a good thread discussing this issue somewhere. If I remember correctly, it concentrated around Jana's old GSX showcar.

Yea, I couldnt seem to find anthing about this stuff.

[twack]

i had an oil blowout in my engine and i cover the electronics and airfilter with plastic bags then i sprayed foam degreaser over pretty much everything and then used a low pressure, pressure washer on fan setting worked great.

[MATCHBX]

Simple green works about the best for not having to put alot of elbow grease into it. I squirt down the entire engine, everywhere, and let it sit for a few minutes. Then hose it off with a garden hose (or small pressure washer). Then you will want to grab either an air hose with a nozzle or what also works is a leaf blower. Blow all the standing water off of the engine with one of these. Then you will want to mix up a 50/50 mixture of Armor All and water and squirt the whole engine, hoses and all. Let that sit and your engine bay will look better than showroom quality (except for some of the rusty parts). We did that with my ex's car and, as anyone who saw it can attest to it, it was one of the cleanest engine bays they ever saw. We never wiped anything off or even touched the engine bay with a rag. That is how easy it is.

I'd say make sure that you at least cover the air filter. If the car won't be started for a while, then cover the alternator and such. Otherwise, just let it sit for a while and start it up to make sure everything works ok. We never had any issues with our cars as far as electronics from doing this. We never covered them. Just try not to spray too directly into them and you will be fine.

[rst95eclipse]

Currently, my engine bay is engineless. So I'm scrubbing down everything with Simple Green. For the grease and grime that doesn't want to come off with minimal force, I just end up spraying with ammonia and it seems to come right off. Wakes you up too.

[94talonawd]

Ok. So I went ahead and did it.

Instead of simple green I used oven cleaner instead. I had heard that those work really well too.

So then I oven cleaned my engine bay. I had let it sit for about 24 hours.
Then when I hosed it off, boy was I surprised! Not even did I scrub once, and every little piece of grease came off! It looked like brand new.

I was very happy.

Then when I let it dry, I think the oven cleaner left a ton of white residue.
At first I thought it ate the clear cloat. But I decided to see if I can scrub it off. It scrubbed off. The thing is now I have to scrub the whole engine bay! Im pissed. Shoulda used simple green instead.