Emgine Compartment Maintenance

Ira R.

Registered User
Engine Compartment Maintenance

I have a question. How do you all keep your engine and the compartment in general as clean as some of the pictures show them. Short of taking pieces apart and cleaning and repainting them I mean.

I am loath to just grab the pressure washer and climb in there for fear of screwing up all of those electrical components in there, and I don't have access to a steam cleaner. Any suggestions??
 
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Put on your dirtiest clothes, grab something to cover your seat with, go get a couple cans of engine degeaser and head out to your local car wash armed with about $5 in quarters.

You know what is coming next.......


Put on some protective eyewear and totally soak down the engine bay with degreaser. Pop open a Coke and chill for about 10 minutes while it soaks in. Then armed with the wand set to kill (actually just high pressure soap will do fine) go after all the nooks and crannies. Pay particular attention to the K member and motor mount areas if you can get to them. Hose down the HB area but good, and try to get the underside of the blower snout. Let your time run out, then clean the goldfish out of your goggles and survey the damage. You will undoubtedly find lots of areas you missed.

Time for round 2. Get down on your hands and knees - make sure no one is behind you - and get the wand up under the front aiming at those lines that go under the motor and always get soaked and nasty every time you change the oil. Hose off the K member really well and anything else you can reach.

Add another quarter or two and go back after the top where you missed some goo the first time. When you run out of quarters, call it a day.

Congratulate yourself on a job well done and start the car up. Amazingly enough you will discover that the engine bay of the SC is impervious to water, just like your mom used to tell you about your ears. :D

Oh, and if you can find Julian Miller, tell him how much better you feel with a clean engine bay, he needs the moral support.
 
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XR7 Dave said:
You know what is coming next.......

Amazingly enough you will discover that the engine bay of the SC is impervious to water, just like your mom used to tell you about your ears. :D

Oh, and if you can find Julian Miller, tell him how much better you feel with a clean engine bay, he needs the moral support. ;)

Excellent! That's what I wanted to hear. Do it the old fashion way - sitting on the crossmembers with a can of Gunk on the battery and the hose in one hand and a beer in the other!

........and who's Julian Miller, and why do I think I should know that name??

Ira
 
julian miller had the dirtiest engine bay at the shootout. :rolleyes: so how long should you wait before starting the car back up? i've been wanting to do this but im nervous about spraying high pressure water onto the engine.
 
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Keep in mind you need to stay clear of electrical components with the water. In particular the alternator on these cars seems to not like getting wet at all. You might consider covering some items with aluminum foil to protect them.

Also don't be suprised if you find some vacum lines popping off after being hit with high pressure.
 
Mike8675309 said:
Keep in mind you need to stay clear of electrical components with the water. In particular the alternator on these cars seems to not like getting wet at all. You might consider covering some items with aluminum foil to protect them.

Also don't be suprised if you find some vacum lines popping off after being hit with high pressure.
Well now, this pretty much contradicts what XR7 Dave said. So, although I pretty much know better then to aim the spray directly into the alternator or in and around the rotor, do I have to wrap everything in plastic wrap or not??

Confused........... :confused:
 
i found out that getting the degreaser and just the garden hose works well
and for tough areas a can of bug and tar remover works good
 
irar said:
Well now, this pretty much contradicts what XR7 Dave said. So, although I pretty much know better then to aim the spray directly into the alternator or in and around the rotor, do I have to wrap everything in plastic wrap or not??

Confused........... :confused:

Hey caution is good. I guess. :D


I hose off every one of my SC's in the manner described above as often as I deem necessary. That would include probably 12-15 different SC's over the past few years. Never had one miss, fail to start, or end up with any other sort of issue. If you aren't comfortable with that then do whatever else you feel is prudent.

Nothing I hate worse than working on a dirty SC motor. I mean these things are a PITA enough as it is, no need to turn yourself into a grease monkey in the process.
 
Dave, I remember using gunk on my 88 GT when I had it and after the cleaning, the TPS went bad, had to replace it. Maybe just a coincidence, but it did go bad right after that. With my luck, maybe it was just me. :rolleyes:


David
 
I wash mine every time I wash the SC, watch what your doing. Most everything is sealed for water. I start it up and let it dry with the hood up.
 

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Flip said:
I wash mine every time I wash the SC, watch what your doing. Most everything is sealed for water. I start it up and let it dry with the hood up.

See, that engine bay looks sweet. :)
 
Flip said:
I wash mine every time I wash the SC, watch what your doing. Most everything is sealed for water. I start it up and let it dry with the hood up.


Hey Flip, now that you've gunked it and got it looking sweet, you need to get the leaf blower or rake out. :eek: :D , That's ok, I got mad leaves at my house too. Have to clean off the car everytime I go somewhere. Parking under an oak tree doesn't help at all. :(

David
 
NCredSC said:
Hey Flip, now that you've gunked it and got it looking sweet, you need to get the leaf blower or rake out. :eek: :D ,

Happens every time I open the hood, house and shop is covered with Live Oaks. These were taken before the wash job that day. :D :D
 
I mentioned keeping water clear of the alternator based on what I was told by a rebuilder.

The alternator comment came as a result of a replacement I had to do recently. In getting an alternator rebuilt, I spoke to them about the cause of the previous units failure. The regulator was fried as well as the stator. The rebuilder felt that it may have simply been defective or that a bad battery caused it to have to charge all the time, eventually burning itself up. He also cautioned against soaking the unit with water, like cleaning the engine, and then starting the car up.
 
Flip,

How did you get the coolant overflow tank so clean ? Mine is nasty looking and I've tried filling it with soapy water, bleach and a few other things to clean it up, and it still looks like crap.

Since it's so filthy I can't even see the coolant level, I'm thinking I might as well just paint it black.

David
 
David N. I know this wasn't directed at me but what I did was I went to a junk yard and pulled one off a 96 cougar and it looks like new with a little cleaning. I used simple green inside and out with about 10 min soak
 
David Neibert said:
Flip,

How did you get the coolant overflow tank so clean ? Mine is nasty looking and I've tried filling it with soapy water, bleach and a few other things to clean it up, and it still looks like crap.

Since it's so filthy I can't even see the coolant level, I'm thinking I might as well just paint it black.

David

Well to tell the truth I bought a new one, cost me around $50 bucks, but I did clean one up for my 89 with Simple Green like Jake said, keep it in my work sink for about 2 weeks and let it sit full and did a little scrubbing every one in a while. You can buy some used ones for about $25 and start the cleaning process and change it out once it gets clean. It is an obsolete part so it’s nice to have a back up. I started storing a backup of some parts.
 
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