Engine Cleaning – Part Two

By Bev Gould

In my first article about cleaning your engine; we examined how to steam clean the engine for the first time. Typically, if you maintain the cleaning routine, you only have to steam clean the engine once. I did this on my Denali a few years ago. Now that vehicle has been through the snow, mud and a lot of miles since I did that. But recently we took it to a mechanic and he was amazed how clean the engine was. Tom does a touch up clean on the engine when he does an oil change or other maintenance, but it shows you how a good first time clean will last.

Now you have your engine steam cleaned and you want to get more grease and dirt out of the engine. There are four primary areas of your engine to attack at this stage.

1.    The sheet metal on the sides/front,

2.    The painted sides/shelves,

3.    The fan/fan shroud and the trickiest  

4.    The engine parts.

There are many more areas to clean, but let’s take this in stages or you might get overwhelmed. We will cover in this article the sheet metal and painted areas of the engine. Cleaning the engine parts will probably be an article in itself, we’ll see.

     The sheet metal is probably the easiest to clean. You got most of the grease off when you steam cleaned the engine. A trick I found that works on removing old built up grease is WD-40 or Zymöl’s Strik Engine Cleaner. They both work very well at dissolving grease. Take some WD-40 or Strik and spray it on the sheet metal. Neither product will not harm your engine, so don’t worry about getting it on something. You will want to spray enough to cover the grease, but not swim in it. However, if you do get too enthusiastic, too much doesn’t harm anything except your pocket book. For now I am going to refer to the WD-40 product as mentioning both gets a bit redundant. The key is to find a product you are comfortable with and use it. I use these two as I have had good results with them.

     Let the WD-40 sit there for a few minutes and then take one of these old toothbrushes I have talked about before and work the toothbrush on the liquid in small circular motions. This will loosen most of the old dried grease cohabiting in your engine. Work the toothbrush in the crevices and edges along the sides of the engine. Next, make sure you have plenty of paper towels, some disposable gloves (it is a dirty job) and a wastebasket. Take the paper towel and wipe the WD-40 from the sheet metal. Go over the area with paper towel until you feel you have gotten most of the grease. Grease can be very stubborn and you will probably have to go over the same areas once or twice again to get all the old grease. Now take a citrus (if you are using Strik you can step this as it is a bio product) or Simple Green type cleaner and spray the area. Take another old toothbrush and use the same circular motion on the liquid. Use paper towel to wipe the area down, making sure you get the crevices and under the lips of the metal. This will pick up more "stuff" and remove any residue from the metal. This is probably the most gratifying part of the job. The metal gleans and you can wipe your fingers along there and not have to wear gloves. If your painted metal is in bad shape, you may want to entertain the thought of painting it after it has been cleaned. This is what we did, however you have to take the engine out in order to do it properly.

     You can use products other than WD-40 or Zymöl’s Strik, some work pretty good. I have had such good luck with these; I do not use anything else on old dried stubborn grease. By the way, WD-40 works great on cleaning door hinges, latches pins etc…

     The next area of attack will take longer and needs more patience. You steamed cleaned the engine and tried to get most of the yucky greasy stuff off the painted areas. Don’t be too concerned if you did not get it completely clean. The rough paint and crevices make this a bear to clean and maintain. The toothbrushes are especially handy for these rough areas. Spray the Strik, citrus or Simple Green cleaner on the paint; let it sit for a few minutes before putting your toothbrush into action. Use the same circular motions we have discussed before to work the dirt and grease from the paint. Be careful not to rub too hard, the paint may be old and can chip off. It is always a good idea to have some touch up paint in the garage, just in case. If you need touch up paint, go to a good automotive paint store and they’ll do a color match for you. As you work the toothbrush, spray more cleaner on the area. This will add new cleaner to attack recently uncovered dirt and grease. Paper towel does not work that great on this part of the engine except to mop up the excess cleaner. Do not try to rub the paper towel as it will shred and become a big mess. Use an old towel or Handy Wipe or Microfiber towel that you can dip in a bucket to rinse and use again.

Make sure you get under the motor mounts and way in the back. The area under the oil filler is a perfect hotel for grease and dirt, kicked up from the fan. Another area that gets forgotten is under you deck lid. This gets can get an oily film on it from the engine as heat, water, dirt and other materials are mixed together and then rise up to rest under the deck lid. Once you have gone over the painted surfaces, go over them again. The second pass will clean up any old debris that was not picked up the first time and you will be surprised how much cleaner it will look. If any paint flaked off, this would be a good time to touch up the paint. The area is clean of dirt and grease so the paint will adhere to the surface much better and will not flake off the next time you clean it.

You noticed I did not say to use WD-40. I do not use the WD-40 on these areas because the rough surface traps more WD-40 than I am able to clean up. If you have nothing to lose and the surface is a mess, give the WD-40 a shot. Just make sure you use the soapy cleaners to clean it all up. WD-40 has petroleum base, which could keep new paint from adhering and attract more dirt in the long run

     Next time we’ll talk about cleaning the fan and fan shroud area. The fan is an area that needs constant attention and I will cover some of the moving parts around the fan shroud as part of this article.

Let me know if you have any questions, I can be reached at bev@tcsgarage.com

Bev Gould owns TCsGarage.com with her husband Tom. For more tips and tricks, visit their website at www.tcsgarage.com, The Place for Porsche or BMW Parts & Accessories. 

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