detailing the engine

I would like to detail my engine bay. I was looking at the tech article here a Pelican but the author says nothing about what he did to clean everything. I was wondering if any of you have any insite into products to use that will clean so of the grime off the engine and engine bay. I don'e mind using small brushes etc. I did want to do this with the engine in the cat though.

Gunter

[This message has been edited by retnug (edited 07-12-2000).]

check out this site: http://www.carcareonline.com/clean_engines.html
-jeff

I have used Simple Green (any citrus based cleaner is good) fairly successfully. Scrubbing and wiping helps too. I was happy rinsing with a spray of water.

I also used aerosol engine degreaser. That stuff is STRONG - it should not be allowed to get on exterior paint and rinsed off engine bay paint asap. If you are worried about that, just use the citrus cleaner as it seems to be relatively gentle.

I taped plastic bags over the air box opening, the distributor and coil. I would strongly recommend this unless you want a car that doesn't start afterwards.

I also went to one of those coin operated car washes to do it, because all the crap that came out when I cleaned the engine went into their drains (and was dealt with in an ecologically friendly way) rather than into my drains at home.

Chances are that someone will chime in saying that this is not the way to go, but I have cleaned up a few engine bays this way without having problems. YMMV

Cam

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Cameron Baudinet
1975 911S

One note, I cleaned my engine several times this year as the PO had not (ever?). Anyway, I got it fairly clean using the previous described methods. Then I removed the fan to paint it (stained, etc). HOLY COW was there alot of dirt on top of the case and cooling fins. Cleaned those in the same way and waht looked like several handfulls of goop came out. Runs cooler now also.

Has anyone tried just pure diesel fuel for cleaning? As I understand it, diesel is water soluable, it will cut through grease and grime (which is the main constituent part of the "stuff" on your engine), and it washes off with water (which is what water soluable means).

Anyway, I have tried this on all of my cars, and it works very well. Then I use Castrol Cleaner (the purple stuff) to get rid of deisel residue, and it sparkles afterwards. There might be a slight smell of diesel for a few minutes, but driving the car to evaporate any residue also works for the smell.

By the way, Porsche AG had "waterproofed" the engine pretty much, so you don't have to get too elaborate with covering things. Don't forget that a lot of rain water gets in through the grill, and I have NEVER been stranded because of "water on the engine". Water on the knee, now that's another story altogether.......Andras