Cleaning engine bay

There's plenty of ways to clean the engine bay, and a ton of products to do so. Never heard of any Mobile product, honestly it's not needed. Everyone always worries about rinsing the engine bay for the most part. To a degree they should, but the engine bay sees more daily driven rain water come up from below in a year than a garden hose can produce in a 5 minute washing.

Here's the deal, never soak the electrical areas, this includes fuses, unprotected harnesses etc.

If you do a search you'll find plenty of engine bay cleaning tips here on stangnet, here's a link to some help I posted some time ago: http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=739980&highlight=engine+cleaning

I followed Emay's instructions and it works like a charm.

Some people swear by Simple Green, but I never tried it myslef.

Cleaning the engine bay is something that should be done by someone who has taken the time to research how to do it properly. I have witnessed first hand a few people who have hydrolocked their motor, it's not something to take lightly. If you've got the money to be able to buy a motor than go at it carelessly.

Here's the best way to go about it. Purchase Meguiars APC+ from AutoDetailingSolutions.com. APC stands for all purpose cleaner and the + stands for the ability to be able to use it on interior carpets. This stuff is one of my favorite items in my arsenal. Also buy the bottle for it from Meguiars because it'll have the proper dilutions. This stuff has the ability to burn your skin right off at the wrong dilution so spend the $1.50 on the bottle.

Now only clean the motor when it's cool, this is important. Next if you've got a CAI, remove the filter or cover it. If you remove it, cover the end of it with a ziploc and a rubberband. I find that the easiest way to do it. Now spray everything down with the APC+ and let it sit on it for about 2 minutes. Try not to soak any electrical connections, it's going to get some on it and that's okay.

After two minutes, spray the motor down with water. This is the part that is going to take a lot of practice. Never spray a stream of water, that's very bad. Never use no nozzle, that's a whole lot of water coming out of there. Make it so it's a spread or misting, I don't know what else to call it. Try not to soak the electrical connections, etc just like before. Now once you've got it all rinsed off, blow it off with a blower or air compressor. I'd spend more than enough time here. Make sure to blow out the spark plug wells and any electrical connectors.

I like to apply a dressing but it's not necessary. I'm a huge fan of Meguiars Hyperdressing, it's a water based dressing used for tires, dashes, etc. I'd pick some of that up from ADS with the correct bottles. It's able to be diluted up to 4:1 and that's what I usually use for the motor. It doesn't attract a lot of dust and it's perfect for the motor. I spray everything down and than come back with a rag to wipe the excess and get everything. It makes it look better than brand new. After that you're done after you put your air filter back on or remove the bag.

I'm a professional detailer so I know a little bit about what I'm talking about.

ThumperMX113 said:

I have witnessed first hand a few people who have hydrolocked their motor, it's not something to take lightly. If you've got the money to be able to buy a motor than go at it carelessly.

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I'm not trying to be rude here, so don't take offense to this. You cannot hydrolock a motor with a damp filter, to hydrolock you need a significant amount of water to be ingested.

A bag over the filter or avoiding the filter with your water streams is easily done and outlined in nearly every write up I've seen posted. So too is the alternator.

Last thing for everyone to remember is there's numerous ways to get the end result of a clean engine bay. No one way is right or wrong, however some are easier than others. I can stop by 3 auto detailers local to me today, and get a different process and a pluthera of different chemical combos that they feel are the "cats azz". Use what works for you, remember if you've never done it and it's grimmy under there, the first one is a bit more work, but if you keep up with quick cleanups every so often, the engine bay is far easier to keep looking good with little effort.

Emay said:

I'm not trying to be rude here, so don't take offense to this. You cannot hydrolock a motor with a damp filter, to hydrolock you need a significant amount of water to be ingested.

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I don't take offense, especially not on the internet. Life is much too short. I'm going to disagree with you since I didn't just make up what I said but don't take offense either. The culprit was water getting into the spark plug wells, getting past the threads and than into the motor. Usually this is the culprit.

Sounds like poor spark plug sealing. Water sitting there occurs alot with many of the heat extractor and high recess ram air hoods that are supplied today. A simple wash puddles water wher we are talking, let alone a natural down pour from good oe mother nature.

I'm not denying you hve seen something occur, I'm betting on extenuating circumstances.

Probably a little bit of both. I've never witnessed it on a S197, only 2004+ F150s. It's just something you want to take extra care with and not just spray careless etc.

PS: I'm really loving your car man. I was so close to pulling the trigger on that body kit but my car is a daily driver, I live on a dirt road, the roads aren't that great, lots of dips in the road, etc. I've heard it'll just be crazy ... I am considering doing the side exhaust system with my Roush front bumper. What do you think about that?

Dirty road with the side exhaust may be a bad combo.. I routinely touch down on regular street imperfections. Abrupt inclines and declines such as entering gas stations or parking garages are a royal pain. Not only for the exhaust, the front bumper to..

Are you staying at stock ride height?

Nope it's got the Steeda Sport springs on it right now plus D-Specs, etc.

I get the engine warm, then spray it down with diluted purple power..let it sit for about 1o min..then rinse with soft spray of water..Blow dry with a shop vac..spray down entire engine bay with turtle wax F22and let dry..Works like a charm

p.s...wrap your air filter element in plastic through this process

Why do you do it on a warm engine?

Warm motor creates a sort of steam cleaning action. Dirt loosens lots easier and the puddles that most are worried about occuring in hard to reach places don't happen on a warmed motor. They steam away. All making the entire process a breeze..

My path decribes the same steps in the link I provided, and by warm, I do mean warm, not hot running temperature.

Once again, I have used Emay's instructions and it worked great.

Warm motor can cause some problems but it's not my car.

Gotta disagree there, these are not pieces of fine china. More rain water from normal street driving gets onto that hot motor than you could ever introduce via the rinse setting on a garden hose in a properly done engine bay cleaning.

If water was so volatile, the engine bay would be encased and water tight from below.