so...I want to clean my enegine bay soon....cause its DIRTY.....i heard all u gotta do is cover the fuse box....cover the battery...and cover the ALT...and thats it.
And then just get some engine degreaser like SIMPLE GREEN from your local autozone...spray it all over the engine....wait like 1 minute or 2...and then use a Gentle spray from your "garden hose and spray water all over the engine making sure u rinse off all the degreaser....and THEN

you could use a LEAF BLOWER and get some trapped water out ..and then run the engine for like 20 minutes or untill all the water had evaporated....and thats it!

I am soooo paranoiid of damaging the engine though ....

 

I manually wipe down the engine. I never spray water on the engine. Maybe I'm too paranoid too but my stang is my baby.

 

Yea but ...how do u wipe down the engine??? i mean I cant fit my hands in the nooks and krannys...ya know? Some parts will look clean some won't......... i tried doing it that way...

 

Just how dirty are we talking about? There are some long brushes that I use. (Similar to toilet bowl brushes). You can get them from Pep boys or AutoZone.

 

not Badly dirty at all ..only 34,000 miles...but i want it to look new again lol

 

I know what you mean. My wife gets on me all the time because I'm cleaning my engine every couple weeks. Keep it clean and shiny.

 

I think MY g/F is jealous when I clean my car. she gets all mad n stuff lol i dunno why though...

 

Just make absolutely sure the engine is STONE COLD!!! if you dont, and then spray it with water, the block will likely crack. I think youll be ok if you just cover all the key parts and put some tape around them, then clean it off. Thats what I need to do with all this unseasonably nice weather we are having lately...

 

I always drive to my local carwash...leave the car running and hose her down with engine degreaser...let it sit about 3-5 minutes then spray water on there! Never cover up anything just make sure you don't use high pressure water when hosing the motor down! Never had any problems..and the engine bay looks very clean!

 

Be careful man, you can crack the block that way.

 

I clean mine periodically. I only do it with the engine cold. I don't cover anything but I avoid the alternator. I just spray it with 409, let it sit, then rinse it off. I usually blow it off afterwards then let it sit in the sun for a hour or so before starting it. Never had a problem yet.

 

I just vac the loose stuff off, then simple green on a cotton rag, this leaves everything shiney and really keeps the hoses good and black. I also just polish all the aluminum with mothers aluminum polish. There is just too many eletrical connections in there for me to spray it down with water. I feel its better to be safe than sorry.

 

I owned a truck before my mustang, and I learned the hard way not to spray it down with water. I accidentally got water in the alternator, cranked the motor, and poof!!!..........I spent the better part of the day putting the new alternator in and rewiring all of the burnt wires. I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon.

 

Simple green. spray it on hose it off. Not to sure about the cracking block thing???? I mean i drive in the rain all the time and i am sure that the block gets wet you know??? it's seattle

 

yeah but cover all electrical atuff ie fuse block batt alternator. or just avoid...come out looking bling bling

 

i did it twice with simple green and it came out nice.

 

yeah, just take it to the carwash if it is fairly new, or just spray your motor down at home. you can also get some of that armoral stuff that you use on your seats and dash for your hoses, it keep them shiny and i know that this 4.6 has a **** load of hoses.

 

I spray it down with simple green from a spray bottle then follow with a spray bottle or two of demin water. Always clean it cold if you can.

 

Simple green will over a short period of time eat through your hoses and rott them away till they all leak. i used to do this to my f150 for about 2 years then i had all kinda of hoses problems. I would only recomend using a cleaner made for engines. they are pretty cheap at Autozone.

 

(Spike and I are having this same discussion on another thread). If you rinse the cleaner off, hose damage really should not be a problem. Any cleaner can eat through a rubber hose if it sits on the hose and gets heated up.

Hell, I have used Armorall on my dashes and engine bays for 20+ years and never had anything crack and I can't tell you how many times someone said it would crack if I did.

Dustin, I can't argue with what happened to you. If your hoses cracked to ****, something must have caused it. Did you clean your engine bay all the time? Perhaps you clean a lot more than most.

BTW, I spray my engine bay with an engine bay detailer. I just started uusing this stuff this past summer. I don't have any now, so I don't remember what it is called. It is in a silver and orange spray can.

If anyone else has bad experience with Simple Green, please let us know.

 

i normaly do it every 2-3 weeks, i am just letting them know my experience with simple green, its hard on the hoses. I would do pretty much what you do to clean the motor but over time around 2-3 years it just ate away at my hoses. I think its just ot strong for them, i just think its alot easyer on the hoses and the mind to just use a cleaner made for the egine bay, i mena heck they are like 5 bucsk about the same as simple green, I think?

Dustin

ps-when did you get a SCT tune? i dont remember you talking about that, do you like it so far?

 

Dustin, if you tune question is addressed to me, I have had an SCT Programmer since about last May or June. I started with one tune and then added two more as the weeks past and I added nitrous.

I recently traded my programmer for a 4 position chip. The car is down for the winter and I have not yet installed the chip, but the tunes are nearly identical. I did make some changes to my tunes like having the traction control default to "off" when the nitrous tune is being used, but that is about it.

On the cleaner subject, I stopped into a auto parts store today (wife's car needed a new battery) and read a few lables on the engine bay cleaners. One of the product mentioned that it was not safe for rubber hoses and that the hoses should be covered or removed. The product contains various distillates which are essentially solvents for grease. These components are not safe for black rubber.

The simple green product does not contain distillates. I don't mean to imply that it is safe for rubber hoses, just that it does not have distillates.

 

hurm very interesting? i need ot read the backs on mine at home now ot make sure.

 

I havn't cleaned my engine yet
It's prety dirty but I'm just worried about damaging anything. I have tried the simple water on cloth method but realized that there's just too much dust and gunk, and to get all the parts would take hours upon hours...

So, I should buy some "simple Green?" and what parts am I supposed to cover up in the engine before cleaning it?

 

I use Dow bathroom cleaner on the upper portion and Simple green on the block. I use cloth rags to clean up the upper portion and just rinse the off with low pressure. I remove the air filter asembly and cover the opening with a glad zip lock bag taped to the inlet tube. The block will not crack if it's warm, they are subjected to rain and snow while running guys, think about it. That's absurd.

 

COver the Fuse box, Battery, and air filter.