FocusCanada Forums

First off guys, I must confess. I am a clean freak when it comes to my engine.
What I want to know is if any of you guys and gals are using anything behind the grill of your car to keep the guck out of your engine bay.

In the summer I keep my engine as clean as my car and I would love to prevent some of this stuff from getting all over the place.

What are you using?

Cheers!

I wouldnt put anything there. I'm sure it wouldnt make a difference, but a cooler engine is a better performing engine. ;)

One thing I know for sure is that front plastic piece above the rad, make sure you didn't remove that because it stops allot of the gunk from getting on your engine. I had it off for a long trip once and my engine bay was covered with bugs and such...not fun to clean off :P

I don't think it would help much to cover the grill, dirt will come up from under...

hardk0re,Feb 26 2007, 02:44 PM Wrote:One thing I know for sure is that front plastic piece above the rad, make sure you didn't remove that because it stops allot of the gunk from getting on your engine.  [right][snapback]228216[/snapback][/right]

dont know if you remember when my cylinders got full of water, I think its because I didnt have this peice there in the 1st place. <_<

Like a clean engine do we?

Leave everything where it is.

Get the engine clean to the point where all it needs is a quick rub after washing the car.

Works for me. And I can confidentally say I have THE cleanest engine bay on here ;)

How do you guys clean your engine bay? What cleaner you guys use?

First off.

Grab a can of compressed air from grand and toy. The kind you use to blow out your computer hardware and keyboard./

Go around the engine and blow out all the sand and grit. Once you do this, you'll notice dirt won't collect as much anymore.

Cover the intake, coil, MAF, stereo fuse, fuse box etc...with bags., Spray down the engine with (watered down) simplegreen. DON'T LET THIS s*** SIT TOO LONG...it rubs off all your logos and stickers etc... My engine is completely unbranded :P

Take a small brush (like the kind you use to clean your golf clubs) and scrub out all the dirty areas, the grooves in the coolant tank, power steering resivoir etc... spraying your simplegreen as you go.

Hose off the engine (while it's cold) with the mist setting on your garden hose. Don't EVER blast the engine.

Completly dry the engine best you can with towels. remove the bags and start the motor to dry the rest of it off. Apply a SMALL amount of armour all to a clean rag. Go around to all the black stuff and shine it all up.

I like to take a piece of cardboard and a can of BBQ paint and go around and paint all the rusty parts (engine lift loops, mounts, nuts and bolts etc...)

Get some black wire wraps. Canadian tire (about 10.00)

These work wonders in hiding ugly stuff. I wrapped all my hoses and some wires, with these. Ithey work well because you can cut them to length and cover the rusty hose clamps etc... Just use some black zipties to fasten them to the car.

Take another dry rag and wipe off all armour all residue.

Leave hood up to bake in the sun.

What you have done is remved all the dirt and baked in a nice slippery grease free coating of protection that helps dirt wipe right off.

I also took the liberty of removing the mouldy black fire-wall sound dampner stuff off the fire wall. It;s held in with about 3 bolts and some wacky metal fasteners. This leaves the firwall with only a nice black plastic cove that shines up really nice with some armour all.

One piece of advice...don;t use tire gel to shine your plastic pieces. The tire gel is a magnet for dirt and dust. (Beacuae it's sticky.)

My car is a 2002, driven all year around in all weather and is NEVER kept in a garage and my enginle looks like this.










Hope this helps.

If you need any other tips... I have a few up my sleeve.

A.

lol and if you have no inner fender wells like me good luck.... nothing is going to rust though there is a 1/2 CM of rubber coating EVERY thing mud and water could spray on.... lol thank you falken rust proofing!!!

lol nice write up Anthony
i think this should go into "How To" :D

NikiterZTS,Feb 26 2007, 07:11 PM Wrote:lol nice write up Anthony
i think this should go onto "How To"   :D
[right][snapback]228246[/snapback][/right]

It should. Moving it to the detailing bay

Congrats AD, your 1st worthy post.

:lol:





(im, f***in kidding)

As for the wire cover...This makes a HUGE difference.

A freind of mine came over after we finished putting in my new engine, and he got upset of the mess I left. He knew I had about enuff at this point (second time ripping tranny out for a !!@#!@ sensor) anddid it all for when i was gone. Nice surpirse. Cleans up the engine really well.

I use it with home Speaker, internet, phone wires to!

Nice write up!! I will try to clean my engine bay when the weather get warm.

That looks pretty Anthony lol. I've always just sprayed mine down with some soap + water, seems to work fine for me :)

I'm going to do a bunch of write ups in the detailing section this weekend.

Spring is around the corner I think it will be useful for everyone to know how to detail the car within an inch of it's life.

Anyone else interested in me doing up some stickies this weekend?

If no one cares, I won't bother.

I certainly wouldn't mind. Esp. things like the wheels... I'm always fighting to keep them clean in the summer <_<

NefCanuck

Sounds good to me, I'll be doing my best to give the Duratec the royal treatment this spring.

AnthonyD's engine is the sh!t. It's so clean you can eat off of it!!
I tried simple green on my engine once.. and it worked pretty good. If you do it more frequently like arround the same time you regularily wash your car, it stays very clean.

My engine isnt that bad right now but it used to be terribly Durrty! I'm keeping it clean more frequently.

i just follow Anthony's advise....clean really good ones and then ones a week or 2 give a rub
:)

Simply put, if you routinely give all visible parts a clean down, they are a breeze to clean off when dirty. I still clean the engine bay through the winter, every few weeks or so I'll give it all a once over with some sort of Armor All type of cleaner, I've been using Turtle Wax F21 Super Protectant, works great and smells alright in the car too. I find those types of cleaners coat the plastics leaving them even easier to wipe off in the future, and give everything a little shine.

The only thing I have a hard time getting looking good is my ugly SPI valve cover.. Anyone have any hints (aside from chrome..ha..) to make it all look a little nicer?

I'm sure I need to simple-green soon, my bay is covered in salt and dirt.. I'd like that write up :)