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Dan the workingstiff
Samba Member
Joined: July 03, 2006
Posts: 828
Location: Downriver, MI
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 Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2024 4:40 pm Post subject: Engine Cleaning under hood |
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What are everyone's thoughts on cleaning under the hood of your late model car or truck? Power washer, car wash wand or at home with a hose and your own special home brew?
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'69 Beetle
'66 FG buggy
My other air-cooled's
'76 IH 1200
'75 IH 1200 |
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67rustavenger
Samba Member
Joined: February 24, 2015
Posts: 10995
Location: Oregon
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| Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2024 5:43 pm Post subject: Re: Engine Cleaning under hood |
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On a late model car/truck.
I spray gunk on the engine and hit it with a hose.
The under side of the hood? If I was inclined to clean it, I'd use a cleaner trigger spray bottle.
Depending on the amount of grime and caked on oil. I use whatever can remove it without damaging the paint.
Light grime, I'd use Simple Green.
Heavy caked on grime, I'd consider Purple Power.
Be very careful with that stuff. I consider it a spray on immediate wipe off cleaner. I never let it dwell on anything I use it on, other that grimy nasty engine bits.
Pressure washing the under side of a hood on any modern car/truck, you take the chance of damaging the insulation.
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I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
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There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
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Dan the workingstiff
Samba Member
Joined: July 03, 2006
Posts: 828
Location: Downriver, MI
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| Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2024 10:30 am Post subject: Re: Engine Cleaning under hood |
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Sorry for any confusion, just the engine bay, not the hood
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'69 Beetle
'66 FG buggy
My other air-cooled's
'76 IH 1200
'75 IH 1200 |
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hobthebob
Samba Member
Joined: December 08, 2021
Posts: 458
Location: Austin, TX
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| Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2024 12:59 pm Post subject: Re: Engine Cleaning under hood |
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| There are a lot of fancy electronics under the hood of many cars these days... If you're going to do it, do it carefully. |
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raygreenwood
Samba Member
Joined: November 24, 2008
Posts: 23094
Location: Oklahoma City
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| Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2024 10:29 am Post subject: Re: Engine Cleaning under hood |
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| hobthebob wrote: |
| There are a lot of fancy electronics under the hood of many cars these days... If you're going to do it, do it carefully. |
Yes...I have some rules for modern car engine washing.
1. First, replace any vacuum hoses that are really shot so you dont trash them while washing.
2. Know where all of your electrical plugs are and check the condition of the boots first.
3. Bring along a can of duster (canned air) spray or have an air hose handy.
4. Call it a quick connectovoty project and go out and buy a kit of De-oxit contact cleaner and connector enhancement spray.
5. Warm the engine up very well. Use a foaming dfegreaser. Let that do most of the work. Gun Engine Brite is really good.
Do not use super high pressure. If the engine degreaser is working well...just low pressure, high volume fan spray at the car wash should get it.
Start immediately and drive to dry it off.
Then stop, pull each fuel injection plug and spray with deoxit and reconnect.
Ray |
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my59
Samba Member
Joined: August 13, 2003
Posts: 3966
Location: connecting the dots
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| Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2024 7:16 am Post subject: Re: Engine Cleaning under hood |
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| raygreenwood wrote: |
| hobthebob wrote: |
| There are a lot of fancy electronics under the hood of many cars these days... If you're going to do it, do it carefully. |
Do not use super high pressure. If the engine degreaser is working well...just low pressure, high volume fan spray at the car wash should get it.
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Any degreasing at our local car washes is a big no no, big signs, and I've seen folks get booted out when they pop a hood. It's because they drain to LI Sound, and DEP goes at them hard.
Local marinas in the otherhand , have all the gear to capture run off and manage the crap.
Otherwise, knowing someone who already owns a DEP brownsight makes the process very simple...
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my59: Well son, my grandfather died before I got to drive it, so does that answer your question?
our79: sunroof bus w/camper interior and 2.0 FI
Other:'12 Jetta, '77 Benz 300D, and a 74 MG Midget. |
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Dusty1
Samba Member
Joined: April 16, 2004
Posts: 2090
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| Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2024 7:28 am Post subject: Re: Engine Cleaning under hood |
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Yeah, yeah! 
I still have most of a case of Gunk engine cleaner. I used to hose my incontinent old beaters' engines with Gunk and power wash 'em. I even brought in cruddy old heads and "poor man's parts washed" them at the local self serve.
We have a nearby self serve car wash behind a Greedy Mart. They get a little huffy when a whole line of Jeeps wash off after the trails. They don't seem to mind my motor cleaning antics.
Gunk converts oil into soap, anyway.
I rarely need to power wash anything on my Toyotas. Except for differential housings when they rust through. Grrrrrr.... 
| my59 wrote: |
| Local marinas in the other hand , have all the gear to capture run off and manage the crap. |
I was at a marina on the New York side of Lake Champlain a while back. They were pumping the storage tank for the head on a docked boat. I sensed an all too familiar odor. I used to work for a trucker whose lot was next to the South Kearney, NJ municipal sewage treatment facility. New York marina owner's honeydipper hose was patched with duct tape. It was spewing seasoned poo all over his dock and intp the lake. 
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raygreenwood
Samba Member
Joined: November 24, 2008
Posts: 23094
Location: Oklahoma City
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| Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2024 9:56 am Post subject: Re: Engine Cleaning under hood |
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| my59 wrote: |
| raygreenwood wrote: |
| hobthebob wrote: |
| There are a lot of fancy electronics under the hood of many cars these days... If you're going to do it, do it carefully. |
Do not use super high pressure. If the engine degreaser is working well...just low pressure, high volume fan spray at the car wash should get it.
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Any degreasing at our local car washes is a big no no, big signs, and I've seen folks get booted out when they pop a hood. It's because they drain to LI Sound, and DEP goes at them hard.
Local marinas in the otherhand , have all the gear to capture run off and manage the crap.
Otherwise, knowing someone who already owns a DEP brownsight makes the process very simple... |
Actually....they should not be directly draining to anywhere. Most car washes (at least in the states I have lived in)....GA, TX, OK, AR, LA, IA.....all first drain to sumps, are treated filtered and then diluted by further water addition to the top of the sump and then to the drain. Much of it is actually reused at most car washes.
Yes, in plenty of places some of the car washes I have seen frown on HEAVY degreasing.....Like people showing up with a pickup truck full of greasy engine blocks....because it clogs up the sump and filters......but otherwise most do not have an issue.
I guess the issue where you are is because they are discharging straight to open water instead of to the city sewer lines where it gets further treated in a digester.
Unless someone is literally....secretly....pouring off their old solvents, anti-freeze and motor oil at the car wash, what you typically get entering into the sump is not any worse than what runs off the pavement and into the storm drains during rain. That would be anything and everything that drips off of cars, including brake dust, rubber dust and all of that cra0 that drips out of the back of the garbage trucks.
Ray |
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