Need advice on cleaning the engine bay

Chronos[AsG] · Mar 30, 2005

Does anyone have any advice, tips, or suggestions on cleaning out your engine bay? Mine is pretty dirty and alot of the different parts have battery corrosion crap on them. I got careless and started splashing water around when I was removing buildup from my old battery.

Cost, time and difficulty arent really issues. This is a long overdue project and I have all summer to work on it.

So lets hear what ya got! Below are pics of the damage.

04sleeper · Mar 30, 2005

That just looks like oxidation. Like the car was just sitting outside without being run for a while. Not battery acid. If so the battery acid would have eaten up all the hoses and wires as well.

Just use some steel wool or wire wheel to clean off the metals.

Chronos[AsG] · Mar 30, 2005

89sleeper said:
That just looks like oxidation. Like the car was just sitting outside without being run for a while. Not battery acid. If so the battery acid would have eaten up all the hoses and wires as well.

Well it wasnt battery acid per se. I poured baking soda+water on the old buildup and then it splashed everywhere. It just stained everything. But I will try the steel wool. Didnt know if getting it steamed would help. If not I'll start disassembling piece by piece next week.

04sleeper · Mar 30, 2005

Chronos[AsG] said:
Well it wasnt battery acid per se. I poured baking soda+water on the old buildup and then it splashed everywhere. It just stained everything. But I will try the steel wool. Didnt know if getting it steamed would help. If not I'll start disassembling piece by piece next week.

OK. Gotcha!

Yeah that might be about it.

Now would be a good excuse to polish everything.

Good Luck!

ty-rone · Mar 30, 2005

I cleaned my engine compartment last year. I went a little nuts though. I washed the engine down with degreaser, pulled whatever I could off of the engine compartment. Then I removed all of the pumps, pulleys and brackets and stripped them down clean and painted them black or red. It was a little excessive.

notchback · Mar 30, 2005

try spraying tire foam on everything after it's clean....makes a huge diff....

looks like a showcar

Kerpal · Mar 31, 2005

89sleeper said:
That just looks like oxidation. Like the car was just sitting outside without being run for a while. Not battery acid. If so the battery acid would have eaten up all the hoses and wires as well.

Just use some steel wool or wire wheel to clean off the metals.

Right. My car had sat for a couple years and all my aluminum parts under the hood looked the same. I hit everything with a wire wheel on an electric drill, and it looks about a million times better now... gives it a nice looking finish without too much effort. You can take the parts off to do this if you want to get really detailed, I haven't yet but I probably will when I change my pulleys. I just used a mini wire wheel on a Dremel to get in the tighter spots, and that took care of 99% of the oxidation that was visible.

As far as cleaning, just spray everything that isn't an electrical component with Simple Green, let it sit a minute, and rinse it off with a hose... use a high pressure nozzle if you have a lot of gunk on your block. If some areas are still dirty, spray them again, scrub with a toothbrush or baby bottle brush, and rinse again. Dry what you can with an old towel and start the engine to let the fan dry the rest, that way you won't get any water spots or more oxidation. Then you can take some tire shine or Armor All, spray it on a rag and wipe down your plastic parts and hoses to get them looking brand new.

fost9508 · Mar 31, 2005

Next time you have a question do a search in the forums with the search tool, it is very usefull. I found a thread discussing cleaning the engine and bay. I have posted it below just for you

Clean 1

25thmustang · Mar 31, 2005

I yanked the motor, sanded and repainted all the parts on it, and welded the sides of the compartment. I also moved the wires into the fenders, and it came out decent. I am a fan of a clean look, even if its all stock and everythings where it has to be, just a good cleaning works well!

Chronos[AsG] · Mar 31, 2005

Kerpal said:
Right. My car had sat for a couple years and all my aluminum parts under the hood looked the same. I hit everything with a wire wheel on an electric drill, and it looks about a million times better now... gives it a nice looking finish without too much effort. You can take the parts off to do this if you want to get really detailed, I haven't yet but I probably will when I change my pulleys. I just used a mini wire wheel on a Dremel to get in the tighter spots, and that took care of 99% of the oxidation that was visible.

As far as cleaning, just spray everything that isn't an electrical component with Simple Green, let it sit a minute, and rinse it off with a hose... use a high pressure nozzle if you have a lot of gunk on your block. If some areas are still dirty, spray them again, scrub with a toothbrush or baby bottle brush, and rinse again. Dry what you can with an old towel and start the engine to let the fan dry the rest, that way you won't get any water spots or more oxidation. Then you can take some tire shine or Armor All, spray it on a rag and wipe down your plastic parts and hoses to get them looking brand new.

Thanks for the advice. Only thing that makes me nervous and spraying everything while its still mounted is that last time i tried that (I wasnt very thorough) I ended up needing a new Throttle Position Sensor. It wasnt covered, but even if everything is I'd be worried about screwing something up. The TPS was a pain in the ass to get in a reasonable amount of time.

Need advice on cleaning the engine bay

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