cleaning the engine bay?

[kolosy]

i know there's lots of conflicting opinions out there on power washing vs garden hose vs whatever else.

mine's got 150k on it, and when they did the VCG it wasn't cleaned up super well. would be great to give it a spruce up. what's your favorite method?

[Johal E32]

Simple green and pressure washer on a cold engine.
I have done this to every single car I have owned and never had an issue.

[Helmsman]

Originally Posted by Johal E32

Simple green and pressure washer on a cold engine.
I have done this to every single car I have owned and never had an issue.

Done this during my 10y with the car. Engine typically warm from driving to the car wash. Not spraying crazy but enough to keep it clean.

[GiorgioE82]

Cover with a microfiber towel in the intake duct to protect it from getting water inside. You may want to tape the EDC connectors as sometimes they get exposed where the cable exits the actual connector.

Start with a cold engine. Spray All Purpose Cleaner (diluted depending on strength of product) with either a spray bottle, pump or foam sprayer. Use a soft brush to agitate where needed. Then pressure wash from at least a foot and a half away. With an electric power washer.in the 1k-2k psi range and a larger nozzle orifice it should be no problem as they actual flow in GPM is not that great (actually less than a garden hose which. Is why I prefer a pressure washer). Don't use a gas pressure washer as the psi and gpm in those is larger and may cause issues. After rinsing, apply Koch Chemie Motorplast liberally on all surfaces. Remove the microfiber from the fiest step and Close the hood. Walk away.
Come back 2 hours later and wipe off any pooled excess from the Motorplast. That product (Koch Chemie Motorplast) is a gamechanger.

[Erickuokwa]

Well said^

[shimmy23]

APC, several different style brushes, garden hose. shouldn't need anything else.

[jayzbird]

Plain old compressed air is great for blasting the gunk out of crevices and electrical connectors you don’t want to get wet. Also works well for the interior.

[MikeHawk7]

I picked up on the tip of using Scrubbing Bubbles (yes, the bathroom cleaner) and garden hose; it seems to work quite well on dirt and minor grease and I like buying it from Costco which makes it cheap. Doesn't seem to cause any issues with the plastics, rubbers, and paint. It's easy to apply, rinses nicely, and the foaming action is fun. Additionally the smell isn't offensive.

[tbuck]

Originally Posted by Johal E32

Simple green and pressure washer on a cold engine.
I have done this to every single car I have owned and never had an issue.

^This. Have done this on every car I have ever owned. I use full strength simple green over the whole bay. use a soft brush to hit the worst areas, and the pressure wash away. If you do this often there is never enough buildup to make you do anything more involved than this. Really very easy and there is no need to cover anything so long as you are careful where you put the water jet. Bay stays looking new.

[timothy2001]

Have to come clean here.......for the first time in seven years I washed my engine bay. Used full strength Simple Green and with light pressure from a garden hose. No boggie man, no check engine light no issues. Blocked off the intake with a micro fiber cloth and went to town.

Thanks for this post, it got me over my irrational fear of arching and blue smoke after applying water.

[amg6975]

Best degreaser I've ever found: https://www.spartanchemical.com/prod...roduct/652000/

It foams up so it gets in everywhere, and is water based so you can just unload the can all over the place then use a paint brush to work it in wherever you can/wherever is really bad and then rinse off with low pressure water.