cleaning the engine bay

[skitz047]

My engine and the bay are REALLY dirty, what should i do to clean it? Spray it down? Buy some kind of wipes? It doesn't need to be sparkling or anything, i just wanted to clean it up a little. Thanks guys

[izmyttz]

My engine and the bay are REALLY dirty, what should i do to clean it? Spray it down? Buy some kind of wipes? It doesn't need to be sparkling or anything, i just wanted to clean it up a little. Thanks guys

I used the "SIMPLE GREEN" in the aerosol cans. I got it at Walmart in the automotive section. It's easy to use. Just spray..let it sit for 1 min and then wipe! Get some of those blue shop paper towels. They work great and the best part is you throw em away! I hate washing greasy towels! This stuff

[BMAR240SX]

Izmyttz can i see pic's of your engien?

[izmyttz]

Izmyttz can i see pic's of your engien?

Sure..here you go!

[positron1]

Geez, you could eat dinner off that thing!

[nsrZ32]

Here's a comparo of before and after on the 240sx I bought for Steph





And here's a Z32 engine bay that you can eat off of

Properly cleaning and detailing an engine bay is an art If you want I can go in depth on what to use and what to do.

[positron1]

Please elaborate!

[nsrZ32]

Ok, the first step towards cleaning up a nasty engine bay is a quality engine degreaser, pick up a couple cans. Go ahead and spray it down with it and let it sit for a few minutes to eat through stuff. Generally I have the vehicle running at this time.

Second would be...spray down the engine bay with hot water to rinse everything off and flush the junk out of the engine bay. Have it running still. You might need to do the first two steps a couple times to get things loosened up and clean. Once done with this step, you can turn it off.

Third...I generally lift up the vehicle and pull all the splash shields off the under side of the engine bay and clean the under side with some brake parts cleaner. There's always tons of caked up grime and all the stuff you just cleaned off ran down there anyway. On Steph's 240sx I went through like 5 cans of brake cleaner on the under side of the engine and bay.

Fourth...I go back up to the top side and usually use a product called dissolve all (or something milder like simple green) to break up all the deposits of oil/dirt/grime/whatever that are left after degreasing. You need to do some scrubbing and elbow grease on this step.

Fifth....I usually fire the engine back up and spray it down with hot water.

Sixth....depending on how your paint is on the fenderwells and firewall, you might want to use some Meguiars paint cleaner then polish and wax it.

Seventh...get down in all the little places, use old tooth brushes, Q-tips, tooth pics, lots of rags and towels. Make it look new.

Lastly....spray down the engine bay with a silicone based engine dressing. You'll probably need to do a few applications as the old rubber and plastic that hasn't been shown love in years will soak it right up.

After all that....you'll have an amazing engine bay that looks like it was never neglected. Its a huge turn around and shouldn't cost you much money at all.

It takes a lot of time, but its well worth it. Ask anybody who has seen the clean up work I do....second to none

[izmyttz]

i don't understand why anyone would paint their plenium primer gloss gray? Chrome plated is the way to go!!

Sweet!

[nsrZ32]

^ Chrome retains heat and a polished plenum is a pita to keep maintained. Plus everybody polishes them

I had mine powdercoated gunmetal. Its a nice deep color and looks awesome IMO. It offers a nice contrast with having the valve covers, throttle bodies, hks hardpipes, and tons of other stuff polished. I was going for a clean and not over the top kinda look

[izmyttz]

yeah you def have nice ride...good job on it. Looks kick azz!

[izmyttz]

^ Chrome retains heat and a polished plenum is a pita to keep maintained. Plus everybody polishes them

I had mine powdercoated gunmetal. Its a nice deep color and looks awesome IMO. It offers a nice contrast with having the valve covers, throttle bodies, hks hardpipes, and tons of other stuff polished. I was going for a clean and not over the top kinda look

Who powder coated yours? local shop? how much?

[nsrZ32]

Who powder coated yours? local shop? how much?

Yeah it was a local powdercoating shop. I've done a decent amount of business with them. It was like 50 bucks. They've also did my old power steering reservoir in black for 10 bucks, my strut bar brackets in red, etc etc. The only down side is that they don't do customer work, they only do huge jobs for companies, for example they were powdercoating some type of cages for some major manufacturing company, something like 15,000 units when I was there last. The guy is really cool though, I was referred to him by a friend so he does stuff for me one piece at a time since I set up an NSR account with him.

[NSR_s30]

Jerry is a little obsessed with detailing...

[nsrZ32]

^ haha yeah just a bit

Another example, here's how clean we got the engine bay on Josh's Sentra

[skitz047]

Wow! thanks a lot for the walkthrough NSR

[Watermelonwarrior]

this is an awsome walkthrough and should be under "how to"

[freakonaleash1187]

I am currently under the process of cleaning my engine bay and I first sprayed a degreaser over the whole thing and let it sit and then sprayed it down with a very light stream of water. I wouldn't trust spraying water into my engine bay with the engine running, I disconnected the battery to make sure there was no electricity running through the system so there wouldn't be any shorts. I guess Jerry just trusts that all his electrical connectors are in good shape, I don't.

[Zwicked]

I like it, and for the same reasons I detailed and colored mine as well. I usually use a cleaner like Simple Green or anything household meant for cleaning greasy surfaces, and do it all by hand.I've been told pressure spraying the engine bay isn't a good idea as it gets the connectors wet and promotes corroding in time, but I hear some people do it without ill effects.


Modified by Zwicked at 10:13 AM 5/28/2007

[DunnJH4]

Hey, anybody seen that piece in the middle ("Nissan - V6 3000") for sale? Mine is a little scratched and missing paint Dunno if repainting it would come out that well