[Guest]

How does everyone clean their engine? I do it the hard way w/o water. I always heard that you're never supposed to put water on the engine.

It is time again, and recalling how tedious it was last time I thought I would try and get some ideas.

thanks

 

[aznsupra]

i just use this armoral spray, the same stuff that u use on the interior. keeps it real shiny. on the metal parts, i just wipe clean with a wet rag. but once u do it, all you'll have to do is just maintain the cleaning about once a month.

 

[toysupra1]

armor-all and simple green is all you need for the engine bay. armor-all for the plastics and simple green for the metals.

oh yea, keep plenty of rags handy too.

 

[Guest]

what is simple green? either I'm stoopid or it's a US thing (I'm in the UK).

 

[toysupra1]

what is simple green? either I'm stoopid or it's a US thing (I'm in the UK).

its an all-purpose cleaner concentrate.

 

[John Minert]

I recommend a thorough steam cleaning done by a professional shop. Find someone who knows to protect the alternator and other electronics. They should follow the cleaning with a good silicone spray.

From there, you should tighten down all of the valve cover bolts and hose clamps to prevent oil from getting back onto your clean engine bay area. Then an occasional rag and glass cleaner is all that is needed.

Feel free to check my pics for the result (6 months after the professional steam cleaning...) at

www.utahracing.com/supras/john.html

Cheers and a healthy new year to our brother in the UK!

John

 

[XCELR8]

Whatever you do don't go indiscriminately spraying with simple green followed by a pressure wash. Emboldened by the fact that I got away with this on my two other cars (did a great job), I tried it on my supra. Dumb move. The car would not make power thereafter; you could push the throttle down and the car would begin to accelerate until 3K rpms at which point it would act as if it had a severe miss. I had to go in and pull every connector in the engine bay and spray them with contact cleaner before the car returned to normal. Boy, you don't know how many electrical connectors there are til you have to do that. Take a look; you'll be amazed. I'm pretty sure that the pressurized water caused the simple green to work its way up into one of the connectors where it dryed leaving a film. I will never try this again and I'll be content to use hand towels and spray a cleaner on in small quantities.

 

[supra_10]

I sure second XCELR8's warning about pressure spraying.

Also, rubber and chemicals don't really like each other. So be careful around hoses, engine mounts, etc.

Jay

 

[SupraSC]

I clean mine with Armorall, and then to keep it clean, I dont drive it much(hehe)

 

[Guest]

thanks everyone

I think John has the right idea. Really looks nice!! I just don't know if I can trust someone else to work on my car. This really would make a good tech article. Knowing what exactly needs to be masked off and what type of stem cleaner to use etc...

I'll try to use simple green with a lot of rags. If i'm not happy with the results then I will try to get it steam cleaned.

Greg

 

[Hua]

I use Simple Green and Armor-All.

 

[yasir]

I usually put some car wash stuff in a bucket and go individually over all the wires,pipes and other parts while making sure i have the alternator and other electronics covered with a plastic bag
As far as the engine cleaners go i never liked'em as they can leave some white spots on the rubber pipes that r very hard to get ride of
Once ihave gone individually over the engine parts i just rinse itoff with a spray hose and end the process by using some armorall
Regards. Yasir