Degreasing Engine - The poor boy way

[HarryD]

I am thinking about a "poor boy" plan to clean some excess grease from my engine and want to try the following:

-Make sure engine is cold
-Spray engine degreaser onto the cylinders from underneath.
-Spray degreaser through the fan blades.
-Wait a bit
-Wash it down with water.
-Start car to dry off.

Will this remove some of the gunk that I am sure is coating the cylinders and not cause any lasting damage.

I do not want to remove the engine at this time.

TIA

[emcon5]

I did something similar, but I removed the fan and alternator. Good time to replace the fan belt too.

Another option would be to remove the heat ducting from both sides of the fan, so you can see what you are working on, and not hose the alternator down with degreaser.

Castrol purlpe stuff is the she-it.

Tom

[Steve W]

Only bad thing with this method is the high potential for corrosion on the electrical connectors. If you do it, you should make sure to dry off all the electrical connectors and put silicon grease on them to prevent corrosion.

[HarryD]

This am, I pulled the alternator and cleaned the cylinder tops. I made this amazing discovery, after cleaning, that the cylinders are finned ALL THE WAY AROUND.

The good news was that the whole procedure was pretty uneventful. I didn't lose or strip anything (this may be a first for me!). When I was done, I turned the key, she fired right up (see never starts that easy, sooo I think she is very happy).

There must have been 50000000000 gallons of junk on the cylinder tops. I hope this helps me keep the temperatures in check this summer.

Thanks to all for the advice along the way.