How often do you clean your engine?

>>17076798

When something breaks.

>>17076798
>knowing how to open the hood

Sorry I'm not poor

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>>17076798
about once a month, when the rest of the car gets washed. makes it easier to find leaks which are going to happen with a 30 year old compact car..

>>17076852
what's your procedure for an under-hood deep clean? i'm lazy and the last time i did it, i just sprayed foaming degreaser all over the place and rinsed it off.

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>>17076865
a cheap garden hose based soap mixer/foamer with dish detergent mixed 1:10. spray on and let it sit on a cool engine till most of the suds have dissipated.

Rinse, foam it again and use a cheap paintbrush to work all the easily reachable areas to loosen any stuck on stuff.

rinse again, spray with a 1:2 simple green mix and let it sit 5 min, then rinse it all off and your done. I usually wash a wheel or something as the foam sits.

I cover the Distributor, throttle sensor, and instrument booster box with plastic bags before, and just lightly clean those with the damp brush after the last "spray"

it takes about 15 minutes total.
If you really want to use a water based tire dressing on plastic bits, but i find it just makes more dirt stick to things later on.

Redline a day keeps the carbon away.

Engine shampoo every 6 months

Wipe up dirt and other dust everytime the hood is opened which is every 2 weeks at least

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>>17076921
i've heard using electrical parts cleaner is safe/effective in getting caked oil off of alternators/ignition components and connectors.

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>>17076973
if oil is getting on my alternator, since its not directly in line with anything that can drip down onto it, i have a lot bigger issue than worrying if its clean.

In general i find any brominated cleaners (most aersol contact and electrical cleaners, brake cleaners, etc) are very hash on hard plastics often used in electrical connectors and its going to etch the outer layer and make it "hazy" and brittle.

personally think a maintenance clean with a mild detergent or "green" cleaner is better for that, and safer for the connector in general.

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>>17077052
appreciate the insight, cheers.

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>>17077072
and in general these engines are pretty bad off when i first get the, so they are never going to look like the brochure.

I do NOT ever take a pressure washer to the engine bay through. I see a lot of detailers do this and it just scares me that it will force water into electronics it does not belong in.

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>>17077094
the entire engine in the black car looked like this cross member (from the same car) originally.

>>17077094
>pressure washer in engine bay
yeah that is asking for trouble, not to mention wholly unnecessary.

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>>17076798
like the outside of it? once a month

>>17076798
Clean it?

>>17076921
thank you!

Can you just clean your engine by wiping it down and hand washing it?

>>17076820
This

>>17077956
you can, but all my cars are 30+ years old and have vacuum lines and wires all over the place, and there is very little i can do with actual hand washing : the valve cover, air box and intake are about it on the engine i can wash by hand.

I do use a paint brush on these parts, as well as any thing else thats easy to reach like wire looms, and such. the bristles are soft enough it wont scratch or embed dirt into any painted or softer surfaces, and allows little nooks to be cleaned decently well.

I rely mostly on degreaser/cleaners to loosen things so the hose can spray it off.

If i had a newer car that just had lots of plastic coverings, and all i cared about was the look of being clean, without actually being clean for working on it later, then yes i could just handwash all the covers with a sponge and water and call it a day.

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Usually do a proper clean (not like the one pictured) every spring

On all my regular cars essentially never.

I wash the engine and engine bay on my 240z pretty often. Oil fumes make it get greasy kinda quick.

The other engines don't really get dirty in any meaningful way. I also find it harder to diagnose a clean engine than a dirty one.

I never clean my car.

But I keep the 150kw generator immaculate. It's much easier and it costs 7 times what my car does

Never. The oil filter always spills oil all over the place when I unscrew it too. When dirt gets flung onto the oil puddle it turns into a nasty mud all over the front of my engine.

>>17077956
This is what I do. I grab a wet cloth and wet everything down. Granted I have owned my car since almost new so its easy for me to do it then compared to a car that has never had it done. All plastic and rubber parts I wipe with Armor All. Not really for aesthetics because I dont care that its shiny. Just in my experience it helps with preventing dry rot in the future.

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>>17077052
Need to use this electrical cleaner then man.

I clean it when I suspect a leak or grease flies out of the CV joint all over everything or something of that nature. Or if I need to work on a part of it that's all gross.

Not really worth the effort otherwise, although it is pretty neat when you see a nice clean bay.

What would you do if you tripped over that exhaust wew

Never, since if my coil things get wet they break and are expensive.

>>17077052
hatch or notch because either way its getting me wet

>>17079334
>I also find it harder to diagnose a clean engine than a dirty one.
?

>>17076798
Never because my v8 cleans itself

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>>17077102
holy moly anon thats disgusting. Working on doing a simple detailing of the interior of my Focus SE since it's nice out. Nothing like a clean car