I am new here...i tried to do a search and couldn't find much...i recall a while back there was a post about this...but if anyone could recommend products and a how to, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

I clean the engines in my car regularly. HEres what to do:

1) Make sure the engine is cool as cold water on hot metal will cause fatigue in the metal.
2) Water proof and cover your dip stick, distributor cap, and air cleaner
3) Get some simple green and a small brush. Spray the simple green sparingly. A little goes along way and try to use as little as possible. I'll explain why later.
4) scrub the dirty parts down with the brush and rinse
5) let the water flow out of the hose and don't spray high pressure streams around the compartment.
6) Make sure to RINSE THROUGLY. I mean really really rinse the simple green off good. Simple Green while excellent at cleaning dirt, grease, and grim is HIGHLY corrosive to aluminum. If you do not rinse well over time the simple green will corrode and eat through aluminum parts like your head and block if its aluminum. This is why you should use as little as possible. But don't be scared just rinse well and you'll be fine. Let the water run from the hose and flow over the parts you applied the simple green.
7) start your car and go for a 20 minute drive bringing the engine to normal operating tempature. This will evaporate all water sitting in the engine compartment.
8) when you get back use a rubber protectant like Lexol Vynlex and wipe down all rubber hose and fittings you can reach. This will protect the rubber hoses and parts from dryrotting and cracking over time.

Look at your new clean engine and be happy :-D

After this you can just wipe the compartment down every 3-6 months with a damp wrag to get the dust off.

Here is a picture of my allmost 5 year old Audi engine. You wouldn't know by looking at it

 

Why would it look dirty? its all covered in Plastic.

 

ummm. i hope your joking? because ahh umm plastic gets dirty too.

Here what it looked like before i cleaned it.

 

thanx Audi2Honda for the tips. The results look great but I am bit scared of messin the car up if I don't follow your instructions to the point. I'll give a go though.

 

nice engine bay. wish mine were that clean but I dont quite have the time...actually, nm. i dont have the effort.

 

i can beleive you went from Audi to a Honda. I mean i know why you did but still

 

the grass is allways greener on the other side. if you know what i mean.

 

picture looks a little doctored....but I still believe you.

 

doctor'ed? LOL like i would spend time photochopping a clean picture of my engine. It isn't that hard you should give it a try. Funny i take care of my car, clean the parts people don't see, give someone detailed and extremly useful advice, and i get accused of lying....whatever this board is pretty thin..i think i'm going to take my suggestions and help elsewhere. Most what i see here is 1/4 times for automatic I4 accords and n2o. kiddy stuff.

and i haven't see or learned much technical information in my short stay

have fun later.