What do you use to clean under the hood?

[Hayes]

I've read several posts promoting Simple Green, but I've heard it's not so good for aluminum parts.

What do you folks use to clean and protect the unpainted metal parts (valve covers, etc) of your engine?

Hayes

 

[Driley]

Engine Cleaning

I recently detailed the engine bay of a 2001 Ferrari 360 Modena (engine compartment is under rear glass and always visible!). I have used some of the Gunk spray but hate the idea of that harsh of cleaner eating away the rubber/plastic parts. I use a multi-purpose cleaner I get from "Top Of The Line Products" in AR and dilute it down until it is just strong enough to break down grease, but doesn't dry out rubber. I am sure that you could dilute simple green and through trial and error, find a happy balance. Just watch out for electronics and painted surfaces (the value covers on the Ferrari are flat red paint and do not like cleaners!). If in doubt, I just get warm soapy car wash water and a good plastic brush (stiff bristles) and take my time with the rinsing. Follow up with a good vinyl/rubber dressing. There are a few dressing products that are aerosol and you just spray it on like spray paint.

 

[Elijah]

Simple Green

 

[Brentbba]

An air hose for the dust. Nothing else. hehehe

 

[MaddBaggins]

Clean? Huh? I barely clean the outside.

 

[clownmidget]

A big pool of water with a relatively low turbidity

 

[Tools R Us]

When I have to work on it, I just hit the coin-op carwash, hate working on dirty junk!

 

[Pete483]

I used to work in a detail shop at a ... jeep dealership.

We always used purple degreaser and a power washer (be careful around electrical stuff). The we used an industrial armor-all type thing and hit it with the air hose to get it in all the crevases. I would highly recommend NOT doing that unless you never leave paved roads. Otherwise everything will be covered in dust.

Working at that job convinced me to: never but a jeep and never buy a new car.

 

[alkaline747trio]

Hijack:

If I were to take a hose to my engine bay, should I keep the truck running? If not, do it warmed up or cold?

 

[Tools R Us]

Off and cold, the main issue is the distributor, you will probably get water in it, ether wrap it in plastic or pull the cap when your done and dry it out.

 

[Beowulf]

What do you folks use to clean and protect the unpainted metal parts (valve covers, etc) of your engine?

Every weekend, I lift Pristine's bonnet and give everything a hot soapy bath with Johnson's baby shampoo and then she gets dried off with three or four clean cotton cloth diapers.



-B-

 

[Brentbba]

Every weekend, I lift Pristine's bonnet and give everything a hot soapy bath with Johnson's baby shampoo and then she gets dried off with three or four clean cotton cloth diapers.



-B-

alert!

 

[Hayes]

Do you use the dye- and perfume-free Johnson's or the regular Johnson's baby shampoo?

 

[RavenTai]

I do not do it often but sometimes use the leftover car wqash stuff for the top of the engine, oil on the bottom gets gunk engine degreaser, water rinse on a cold engine only.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Simple green followed by high pressure car wash.

 

[topend yobbo]

Degreaser then garden hose .

 

[Bear80]

greased lightning around and the soapy option at the car wash.

 

[Gumby]

occasionally, I dunk it in a stream.

 

[ginericLC]

I've used that Castrol Super Clean and supposedly it is safe for rubber. It works well. I've been using Military Grade Simple Green for quite some time. I got a barrel at an auction. I do dilute it. It is pretty harsh compared to the stuff you get in stores.

 

[tarbe]

WD-40 mostly...