Cleaned my engine bay

[1st Gen]

Unfortunatly, this thread was closed due to poor forum manners. The information in it is valuable and I hate to see it lost to the obscurity of forgotten threads.

I washed my engine bay the other day with pretty fair results. A spray bottle of Simple Green and a high pressure nozzle on the garden hose seemed to be all I needed. I did get some water down the spark plug holes which cause some problem but all I had to do was pull the wires out when the engine was warm and let the water go free. All was well again and my engine bay looks much nicer.

Thank you Goldstar for the information provided in the original thread.

[monoxidechild]

i still prefer the no hose, no chemical wash. and still turns out better then most people using hoses, and pressure washers. but without any of the risk. for my engine, or the ground water.

[SleptWithURWife]

My first Protege I used some heavy degreaser and a power washer. I covered the plugs, dizzy, air filter and fuse box. Everything else was pretty much fair game. I was really after cleaning the firewall and shock towers, they were disgusting. When I was done I let the car idle for 5-10 mins and all was good. After that I could get away with a bucket of water and a damp rag.

[92dx]

haha I remember that..

With 3 BG proteges, they all had nasty greasy bays and I have on more than one occasion blasted the engine bay with degreaser and the car wash wand on all of them. I leave the engine running and stay away from the no-brainer areas as mentioned. Never had a problem.

Hopefully no one sprays the **** out of their disty and fuse box lol.

[goldstar]

Unfortunatly, this thread was closed due to poor forum manners. The information in it is valuable and I hate to see it lost to the obscurity of forgotten threads.

Thank you Goldstar for the information provided in the original thread.

Your welcome, Jon. I couldn't believe how such a non-controversial thread, with some added attempts at injecting some humor into it, could degenerate into a personal attack, trash-talking diatribe.

I'm glad your engine bay cleanup went well.

Happy Motoring!

[SleptWithURWife]

Gotta love the internet and the male ego.

I'm anxiously awaiting spring to arrive to give my car a good under hood cleaning.

[1st Gen]

Turns out there's a problem.
Now it idles rough and has hesitation on acceleration. Hrmmmm. My plan is to warm up the car and then pull plugs, let them stand for a bit, then reinsert them. Don't know what else to do.

[92dx]

probably water in the cap or in the spark plug wells.

[1st Gen]

Turned out I had a loose plug. After I had dried out all the spark plug holes and reseated the plugs that were affected (tps plug I think), all was great again.

[KaleoXtreme]

Whoa! How did I miss all of that? I didn't even know about the shenanigans until it was linked here.

Oh, and someone said Cali has the best weather out of all the states. I beg to differ *cough* Hawaii *cough* *cough*, lol!

[meGrimlock]

i've used Purple Power in a 10:1 ratio. didn't do a full cleaning, just wiped off gunk in certain areas so the results were alright. i might ramp up the strength to 5:1 but afraid to use it full strength on areas like the alternator, coil packs.

i've also dressed the intake snorkel as a test using Vinylex on 1 half, and Armor All on the other. the vinylex went on easily, the armor all was very similiar. the charlie sheen on armor all was a little glossier at first but after a while you couldnt tell which side had what anymore. both held up about the same. might apply the rest to other plastic components.

[firelizard]

I found that coatings like Armor All (no experience with Vinylex) attract dust and dirt like crazy due to their greasy nature. It may seem bizarre, but the best results I've had with plastic were with Zymol leather cleaner and a microfibre cloth (after the inital clean). Nice matte finish with no greasy sheen, because it's actually clean. It also doesn't dry out the plastic, so it doesn't grey afterwards.

I believe it's because the leather cleaner is designed to lift crud without removing oils (which would try out the leather), but leaves only a slight residue which keeps the 'new' look convincing.

[meGrimlock]

used purple power 10:1 a few days ago to clean a little of the strut towers. got a strut tower bar on ebay and wanted to make sure it was free of any grease and debris before installing.

after warming up the engine for about 5 minutes to loosen the gunk, i decided to spray some of the purple power on the valve cover and started brushing a couple of corners. the areas i did not get to would dry out and the purple power would leave white spots. i think its the hot aluminum + purple power so work quickly to avoid any spots.

i've heard a citrus based degreaser is better for the job, so i might try that when the bottle runs out

[smokstac]

Items such as Purple Power owe their grease dissolving ability to caustic chemicals (think drain cleaner or oven cleaner which are largely sodium hydroxide). Caustic chemicals break the bonds and allow the grease to be surrounded by water (which gives the grease the apparent ability to wash away). Normally greasy compounds are non-polar which is why they float on water. Caustic compounds alter the composition to give the grease a polar end (water is highly polar) and it's this ability that allows the water to wash away the grease. The stronger compounds literally change the grease into soap (this is how Drano works...it turns the fat/hair clog into soap which can then be washed away with water). Caustic chemicals feel slippery on your fingers because your skin is literally being turned into soap.

Unfortunately caustic compounds are not safe for light metals such as aluminum or zinc. This is why you can't use oven cleaner on aluminum pans, etc. as it causes pitting and erosion. This is why Purple Cleaner pits and turns your shiny aluminum valve cover into a white ugly mess.

Best bet on aluminum is to use a kerosene based product which will sort of the do the same thing but safer (and slower) or do like I do and use Liquid Tide or carefully use carb cleaner.

FTR I hate Armor All too. It's especially annoying when some idiot coats their tires with it and the excess sprays all over your vehicle when you get behind them

[Ace]

mines very clean IMO.

I always use purple power or simple green and a pressure washer or a water hose with a nozzle.