How the Heck would ya clean the motor?

[SoCal Rebell]

Hey brat, no pics? Warm the engine a little spray the motor with gunk, hose down low pressure, once dry spray and wipe with Tuff Stuff then Armor All all the black plastic & rubber it looks great. I do it to all my show cars.

 

[Supercharged Vipermad]

I agree with the above post 100%

 

[Steve-Indy]

Try the K&N air filter cleaner for the engine...spray it on, wash off...try to avoid a lot of water, and use low pressure.

 

[Hisser]

I just go to the car wash and gunk it down and use the sprayer with high pressure and it has never bothered the engine at all or hoses. Then I use wd-40 to spray down all the hoses. On the gen1 I used to have, everytime I washed the motor, the dern computer would set off a code to look like it needed a 02 sensor and it eventually would go back off and I would clear the code by disconnecting the battery. Dodge has fixed that by covering the computer with that metal case on the gen2. I am curious what gets damaged as to using the high pressure sprayer?

 

[Frank Parise]

I use Simple Green in a spray bottle at full strength and wipe off with a clean rag. It works great on everything under the hood, including the engine. No need to hose down.

 

[Paul Fischer]

Use a short length of narrow plastic tubing, such as you might find on a fish tank, to **** up the water left on top of your block. Run the tip through the manifold crossmembers, mop up the rest with a small rag. Those paint brushes with foam heads work fine too, use a small one.

If you have spun off into the dirt blow the compartment off with compressed air first. It will save you a lot of water later. If you've got a source of compressed air or "clean wind" (air with no oil in it as some power blowers with gas motors spit lubricant) use it once the compartment is washed.

Put towels over the motor if you do the inside of the hood. The insulation can soak up a lot of grease (brake dust and tire residue as well if you have cut open the wheel arch to the hood vent above as a brake cooling measure).

Wipe off your winshield wipers once you are through splashing around under the hood. They can collect grease and streak.

Tuff Stuff is a pretty darn good cleaner, they sell it door to door here. Works great on carpets, leather, even takes enamel paint right off your skin, remarkable stuff. No odor.

 

[Frank 03SRT]

Hey, how about using a leaf blower to blow out the water. I discovered that if I use a leaf blower after washing the car, I only need one towel (all cotton Canon - Zaino recommendation) to dry it completely off. It would seem reasonable to use it to blow out the water off the engine. It sure blows the water out of the hood air intake thingies.

 

[Roland L-Ocala FL]

You won't believe this one, but Baby Wipes work just great for cleaning up under the hood! The stuff they put into the Baby Wipes is a great cleaner, and if it'll clean the poop off a baby's butt, you should check out what it does to the oil and grease and stuff on the engine. If you don't believe it, just try it, and then you can use one at the end of your cleaning job to clean your hands off. Learned this one from some friends at a car show some years ago, and have been using them ever since. It even does great on the hoses and plastic parts.

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