Engine Cleaning
- Thread starter JGRIMBALL
- Start date
Register to hide this ad
G
Guest
Guest
Naw, I think the high pressure thing is a no-no. It could push water into places you don't want.
Some simple green or engine cleaner and the regular hose should do the trick.
Some simple green or engine cleaner and the regular hose should do the trick.
peter78
Super Moderator
I tend to shy away from putting high pressure water in the engine bay. I have done it over the years and sometimes it is OK, sometimes it is a problem. When I use the engine cleaning product "Gunk", I cover up electrical parts and use a normal hose to clean it up. It works pretty good for a really dirty engine.
Recently, I use Simple Green with very little water and a lot or scrubbing and it seems to work pretty well.
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?threadid=1279
Recently, I use Simple Green with very little water and a lot or scrubbing and it seems to work pretty well.
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/showthread.php?threadid=1279
PioneerMeta4
New member
When i hose the engine, what are some of the things i should avoid getting wet? battery, alternator, fuse box...anything else?
claydoctor
New member
One of the few products I use from Griot's is their engine cleaner. It does a good job and is easier to apply than the brush on liquids or aerosol foams. It uses the regular pump spray bottles. I just then hose off with hose and gentle pressure.
trd_style
New member
i wasn't sure if spraying water into the engine is a good idea in the first place. i used this Engine Degreaser and spray it on. but it says to rinse it so i sprayed it. it seems fine to me? but i didn't hose it down like crazy so i guess it's okay. but i'm pretty sure spraying ALITTLE water wouldn't ruin your engine just because your engine will heat up pretty quickly.
Marley2984
New member
I've done this for years on all vehicles and my 97 runner's engine bay is spotless. IMHO I wouldn't use solvent based cleaners or anything to strong. In the short run you will have no issues, but in the long you will see it affect the rubber under there. Clean it once REALLY good, then use some citrus based cleaners every time you wash your truck. Then give a good coat of armour all. Then sit back and wait for everyone to compliment on how nice your engine looks...
peace
peace
simple green in a spray bottle and a garden hose on a warm (not hot!) not running engine.. i do mine regularly all the time. never ever had any problems using the garden hose either. i also "dress" the rubber with rags sprayed with wd40 to help fight any drying out of rubber parts. plus it makes things shine a bit. never dress drive belts. run the motor after you are done to "dry things out" a bit.
keeping an engine bay clean is easy enough if you only allow it to get dirty. let it get filthy and you will need some elbow grease. toilet brushes work quite well and let you get in there deep. simple green works great. you can find it cheap for about 5-7 dollars a gallon. i also heard things like orange blast orange-XXXXX work well. I just never tried the citrus products.
keeping an engine bay clean is easy enough if you only allow it to get dirty. let it get filthy and you will need some elbow grease. toilet brushes work quite well and let you get in there deep. simple green works great. you can find it cheap for about 5-7 dollars a gallon. i also heard things like orange blast orange-XXXXX work well. I just never tried the citrus products.
Avoid high-pressures and "steam" cleaning (which is usually just high pressure with heat). It will force water where it shouldn't be and the heat/pressure combination could strip lubricants from various parts of the engine. I once killed a starter motor by steam cleaning... lubricants gone, it seized up about a week after the cleaning.
Personally I never clean the engine. It's an engine... it gets grimy... that's what large oil-filled combustion chambers tend to do!
I also once tried using gunk and spent forever trying to rinse the stinky stuff off, sending a river of rather polluting-looking runoff down the street. The end result was that *parts* of the engine were clean, others not. So I gave up.
Now I just wipe oily surfaces with a damp rag if I find myself getting too grimy when under the hood. And I wear cheap gardening gloves (as I do when changing a wheel).
Personally I never clean the engine. It's an engine... it gets grimy... that's what large oil-filled combustion chambers tend to do!
I also once tried using gunk and spent forever trying to rinse the stinky stuff off, sending a river of rather polluting-looking runoff down the street. The end result was that *parts* of the engine were clean, others not. So I gave up.
Now I just wipe oily surfaces with a damp rag if I find myself getting too grimy when under the hood. And I wear cheap gardening gloves (as I do when changing a wheel).
Last edited:
I start with water. . rinse the whole thing down. Then i douse it in a simple green/water mixture (1:2). I let that sit about 5 minutes, then spray again and agitate with a series of brushes I have (small as a toothbrush, to 3" painters brush). once I am satisifed I rinse again and dry all the PAINTED surfaces. . Water spots will etch into those really fast under that hot hood. Armor all/water (1:2) on all rubber and plastic, and Vanilla moose the painted surfaces I can reach. Done. . all in all takes me around 45 minutes to have a SPOTLESS engine.
I keep a clean engine bay for 2 reasons:
1. It makes it easier to FIND a possible problem as well as making it a cleaner environment to work in.
2. Increases resale value (people think yoiu never drove the thing or took ridiculous care of it).
Wowing the friends with a 60K mile engine bay that looks like its straight from the Factory is fun too!
I keep a clean engine bay for 2 reasons:
1. It makes it easier to FIND a possible problem as well as making it a cleaner environment to work in.
2. Increases resale value (people think yoiu never drove the thing or took ridiculous care of it).
Wowing the friends with a 60K mile engine bay that looks like its straight from the Factory is fun too!
trd_style
New member
This is how i clean my engine bay.
-First i have 2 plastic sacks. One sack covers the air filter from the intake. And the other covers the battery. Of course you could cover other electronics but those are the 2 primary ones you should cover.
-Make sure your engine is cool down just because the water will boil and it might boil your paint up inside your engine.
-Now lightly spray your engine just for rinse.
-Use a engine degreaser or 'simple green' and spray it on. Make sure you don't spray outside of the hood because it might ruin your paint.
-Rinse again.
-Use tire foam to make it looks nice and clean. And yes it works and will not ruin anything inside your engine.
-Let it sit and it will look very clean. You can wipe it down afterwards if it gets too oily.
like ellsworb said, i would keep my engine clean just to check if there is any leakage or any maintenance to the vehicle. good luck with that!
-First i have 2 plastic sacks. One sack covers the air filter from the intake. And the other covers the battery. Of course you could cover other electronics but those are the 2 primary ones you should cover.
-Make sure your engine is cool down just because the water will boil and it might boil your paint up inside your engine.
-Now lightly spray your engine just for rinse.
-Use a engine degreaser or 'simple green' and spray it on. Make sure you don't spray outside of the hood because it might ruin your paint.
-Rinse again.
-Use tire foam to make it looks nice and clean. And yes it works and will not ruin anything inside your engine.
-Let it sit and it will look very clean. You can wipe it down afterwards if it gets too oily.
like ellsworb said, i would keep my engine clean just to check if there is any leakage or any maintenance to the vehicle. good luck with that!
junoirT4Rboi
New member
i tried using those high pressure sprayers a couple years ago
the T4R did'nt start i was like wow...
the T4R did'nt start i was like wow...
99LimitedKS
New member
I work in detail at my local Toyota shop (family is great to have in the biz) for the summer and on our major details, we DO powerwash the engine bay. Be sure to not get close to any of the parts.
If you get a good 3-4 feet away from the engine, battery, ect, and use the part of the spray jet at the end where its not so much pressureized.
It is safe to spray all of the components under the hood. What happens when it rains anyway? Engine degreaser is a good thing to have in the garage. You can also uses it on the front bumper and windshield to get all the bugs off from highway/country road driving. IF you choose to use engine degreaser, make sure that you keep the car wet. You dont want that stuff drying up.
Good luck on you engine cleaning. You could also use a regular hose without having to worry about pressure on parts.
If you get a good 3-4 feet away from the engine, battery, ect, and use the part of the spray jet at the end where its not so much pressureized.
It is safe to spray all of the components under the hood. What happens when it rains anyway? Engine degreaser is a good thing to have in the garage. You can also uses it on the front bumper and windshield to get all the bugs off from highway/country road driving. IF you choose to use engine degreaser, make sure that you keep the car wet. You dont want that stuff drying up.
Good luck on you engine cleaning. You could also use a regular hose without having to worry about pressure on parts.
I'd wet it down first then spray some simple green on it, let it sit like that for a few minutes (5-10). Then on the tough really dirty spots use one of those hand-held stiff nylon floor brushes to loosen up the stubborn stuff, then rinse it off with the power washer (couple- 3 feet away depending on the washer). Make sure you do this on a cold engine.
I cleaned off a Miata engine compartment this way when I was selling it, did a pretty good job. For the really greasy spots I suppose Gumout engine cleaner would probably work best.
I cleaned off a Miata engine compartment this way when I was selling it, did a pretty good job. For the really greasy spots I suppose Gumout engine cleaner would probably work best.
jharris2 said:
i just used the pressure washer and sprayed everything off. It did the job pretty good. what would simple green have done? isn't that just a degreaser? Once the dirt got wet it was pretty easy to spray off. Just the places that were kind of hard to reach is still a little dirty. If its hard to reach with a pressure washer i think it would be harder to try to clean with my hands.