I looked at my engine the other day and saw it was dirty. SO my question is how do yall clean your engines? and with what do you use to clean it with? Is there anything i should look out for when cleaning?

Thanks!

 

I wanna know this too. I took a lil trip in the country and i have dust/durt all over the engine compartment.

 

What works for me -
Cover the PCM box with a plastic bag and hose everything down (low pressure).
Use rags and detailer to clean the excess crud off and wipe everything down.
I usually only hit it with the hose treatment twice a year; the rest of the time I just use rags and detailer as well as compressed air to keep it up.
It ain't gonna win any awards, but it looks pretty clean after 3+ years.
Oh, make sure the engine is cold.

 

Very small amount of soapy water, some low pressure spray and elbow grease is all you need. Cover the air filter (if you have a CAI). I use a can of compressed air to blow out any remaining dirt that gets caught in the corners. I don't spay it down very often, since I wipe the entire engine down every time I wash the car. Looks pretty good though:

 

Well I drive my car all winter also so in the spring I sprayed everything with Simple Green to help cut the grease, then just hosed it down and wiped everything off, then it's just the usual wipe it off every week. I go to car shows every week and my engine looks pretty clean.

 

Same here with the low pressure. I soaked up any water with my SHAMWOW. Works great. And I shined it all up with some Armorall wipes. I still feel like I could've done alot more, but eh...

 

I just did this the other day. Extreamly easy, and took a very short ammount of time. I have a 2005, and its daily driven, winter included, so you can begin to imagine how bad and grimy the engine bay was looking; sorry no pics. I went out and picked up a can of 'Gunk Engine Brite'. I purchased 1 can, but I would suggest 2, if you wanna make it 100% clean, I dunno how bad your bay is to start. The can I bought (airisol) was a pink liquid, but this product is available as a foam or jell also. ~$5 a can.

Cover your CAI filter, Alternator, Fusebox and battery. I used plastic grocery bags and elastics. Take first can, shake well, and spray it all over your engine, strut towers, everywhere thats dirty. Use the whole can. If you overspray on your fenders just wipe it off with a microfiber and quick detailer.
Wait 15 mins for the product to dissolve the greese and gunk. I aggitated the thicker clumps with a brush and it helped immensely. After 15 mins, take our hose and rinse the product off/out of the engine bay. Wipe down with a few old rags. By now it should be lookin a hell of a lot cleaner.
Now you can follow the same steps above with can #2 if you so choose. Get all those hard-to-reach spots you missed with the innital go.
Once that is all rinsed off, dry with towels or rags.
Now you are ready to throw on some dressing to shine things up a bit in there. I used some tire shine I had around. You can use whatever you want.

After this, remove your bags you used to cover the electronics and volia! You're done!

Logic dictates, dont go spraying a hot engine with cold water from a hose, so make sure your engine is cool. And if you get some tire shine or other dressing on your headers, it will smoke and smell a bit when you next run your car, but nothing to be worried about.

I was supprised how easy this was to do, I should of done it sooner. Sorry if this post seemed to ramble on, just trying to guide those who want to try this! Good luck.

 

Here are some pictures I took of my engine bay a while back and some good related links:

How do you properly clean/detail your engine bay?

Please post your engine bay dress up pictures!

 

I don't hose my engine bay down very often. Once or twice a year is about it, when the dust starts to build up in the hard to reach areas. Pollen is usually a big problem in the spring, and usually results in one of those washings.

I do wipe the engine bay down every time I wash the car which maintains the clean appearance preventing me from having to hose it down to get it clean. I also think it's much easier to wipe out the dust, than to have to dry out the various hard to reach areas. So a little extra time spent drying and wiping each wash job is well worth it IMO.



If this is your first time, or it's been a while, you'll probably need some degreaser. After that, a simple wipe down when washing will clean it back up. A simple wipe down is much easier on the underhood components as well.

I'd cover the CAI filter for sure. While other areas "should" be safe, I'd err on the side of caution. So I'd also cover the alternator, and the plugs around the ECM.

 

nice tips. I'm working on some pics of my new pony.