Engine Detailing/Cleaning

My engine is quite dirty, I want to give it a good cleaning. Have any of you guys used one of the air-powered detailing guns that I see at the stores. I have little crevices everywhere full of dirt, and that would definitely save some time if the pressure is enough.

Any other suggestions? I am trying to find a way to give it a good cleaning without spending two weeks on it....I have used the foaming cleaners on other cars, this one has much more electronics under the hood and the foam doesn't really do a good cleaning even when brushed. I have used several dressings, pretty much have in mind what I want to do in that aspect, although any products someone suggests I will definitely look at. (I love to try new products as long as it is safe for my car!)

I'm not familar with air cleaning guns, sorry. You need a stronger degreaser than the foamy types, something along the lines of Simple Green or Castrol Purple Power.
I use a commercial degreaser, let it sit, then agitate very dirty areas with a brush. This may have to be done twice depending on how bad it is. Also have a supply of rags that will be pitched once done. The next step is to use a pressure washer and hit the areas well taking care not to soak down the alternator, distributor cap (if it has one), fuse boxes, etc. A little common sense is all that's required here. Do rinse down all painted areas where the cleaner might have splattered such as fenders, windshield, etc. Once clean I use Stoner's More Shine Less Time on the entire area EXCEPT for belts. Don't forget to clean the bottom side of the hood.

Once you've taken the trouble to clean it thoroughly it's a lot easier to keep it that way.

Thanks, I will do that. I have never used the More Shine Less Time, but I love the Invisible Glass. I will probably get one of the air guns to try, they are only like $12. I will put some simple green in it. I figure it is like a small scale pressure washer, would be good for the little areas. I don't have a pressure washer.....will have to look into that.

I know it will be nice when it is clean, I cleaned my old car's engine up nice (it was cleaner than this to start) and when I sold it the guy kept commenting on how clean the engine was, made a big selling point.

I think I am going to take off that exhaust cover and paint it with some high-temp paint....like an aluminum color. It is quite discolored and looks bad.

Before I got a pressure washer I went to the local car wash and used the wand with the engine running. If it stalled, which it never did, I knew I sprayed something that needed to be dried out before it would start. There's not as much to worry about now as opposed to carbs, distributors, plug wires, points, condensor, etc., in the old days. Just use common sense and don't high pressure everything in sight.

Almost forgot......More Shine Less Time displaces water so it can be applied to wet surfaces. Works like magic on wheel wells too.

I picked up one of those cleaning guns while I was at Home Depot today.....$11.90. Works pretty well, I ran it at 90PSI air pressure and put the siphon in a diluted bottle of simple green. I am going to get some more tomorrow and not dilute it much and clean everything up. Will probably take it then to the car wash and pressure it off. I need to get some sort of weird shaped brush, my car has a lot of small places I need to get to.

Will the more shine less time work on the valve cover? I don't know which car you have, mine is a black metal with a texture to it. I would like to make that look nice too, it just needs a little shine.

Thanks for your suggestions....

Yes it will.

Working on it right now, had to take a break. I am using the cleaning gun I bought and a brush to apply the simple green. Then I rinse with water in the gun. The gun adds air (obviously, it is air compressor powered), so it makes a nice foam. I am using it solely to clean the parts I can't get to with a brush, does pretty decent, at least gets all the dust and junk off. I have some pretty thick grease/oil, it think a lot of it is from the valve cover seal that was replaced a couple months before I got the car. Old owner was original owner and took very good care of car, but engine didn't get much cleaning. And then, all the dust from my body work just made it work....

I am going to go pick up some of the stoner stuff in a bit when I finish, I will post a pic later.....I wish I had a before pic, didn't think of that before

I love that More Shine stuff!!!!!

Thanks for the advice! After a few hours of work the engine looks great!

I attached a pic...


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I actually took off the heat shield you're referring too a few months back while looking for a rattle that I never found. In the process of taking it off one of the bolt heads broke off that holds it to the manifold... so, I just left it off. My take on it is that if anybody that works on the car at any point is dumb enough to touch a hot manifold then they shouldn't be under the hood in the first place (including myself... )... Once I took it off though it exposed the ugly manifold underneath... so I used some flat black high temp BBQ grill paint and sprayed it with a good coat... looks great now...

Yeah, it looks bad on the front like that. I will probably paint it at some point. My old Pontiac I had before this car was reversed, intake in front, exhaust in back. Looked better that way.

You done good!!!!!! Looks great. The four banger Hondas are reversed now......intake in front, exhaust in back, I don't know when that started. Now that you put in the major effort it will be a cinch to keep it looking that good all the time.

I saw an exhaust manifold guard like yours where the guy removed it, masked it off, and did the rectangle with the "hot" (DUH!) warning in hi temp red and the rest in hi-temp silver/grey. It was SHARP!

That sounds like a good idea! I have some high-temp red from when my bro painted his calipers.....so I would just have to buy the other.

Not to mention it would compliment the Redtop Optima battery, eh?

My take on it is that if anybody that works on the car at any point is dumb enough to touch a hot manifold then they shouldn't be under the hood in the first place (including myself... )...

THAT is funny!!

What you don't want to hear from a "mechanic"....."Durn Clem, them thar pipes are hot!"

I learned about hot manifolds and exhaust when I was young (they hard way of course). My go-kart motor always needed work and I'd burn myself on the muffler when I'd take it apart (Or when I was in the mood to make some noise and some extra power)

Lol.....I guess I am the smart kind of guy that sees that it says hot and doesn't touch it.

You should be very careful what you apply Simple Green to.  I made the mistake of cleaning my motorcycle chain with it, and it ruined the o rings and therefor ruined a $125 chain.  Apparantly SG has a corrosive effect on certain materials.

Very good point. I should have mentioned that when I use Simple Green on the engine I dilute it 2-1 with water. The dilution depends on the severity of the gook you're trying to remove.

Thanks for pointing that out.  You have no idea how much I use that stuff for cleaning.  It was diluted for cleaning my engine (partially because I would have sprayed a whole gallon on it with my spray gun).....but I will keep that in mind for future projects.