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I seriously need to rinse it off I guess, do you think it would be safe to rinse it off real quick, my friend said to run a pressure washer over it real quick, but I know how sensitive a bunch of that stuff is under hood. Any help would be appreciated, thanks fellas.

 

just spraying it with water won't do too much since a lot of that dust is held there by a layer of grime. it'll look nice when you do it, but when the engine dries, it'll look dirty again. you'll need to degrease it.

remove your intake and tape up the maf opening really well. disconnect your battery (i remove it to clean under there too) some guys seal up the fuse boxes too, but i don't. get some engine cleaner and go to town. i spray like crazy, all over the engine, stick the straw on the cleaner in the gaps and clean as far down as possible, and underneath the hood lip, lotsa road grime there. let it sit for a minute and rinse. i use a garden hose and just let it stream over everything, don't need too much pressure, just a nice continuous flow.

IMPORTANT: i do this first thing in the morning, when the engine's cold. i wouldn't risk this with a hot engine and cold water. so park it the night before in a spot where you can do this. it's illegal where i live to let this crap drain into the sewer, so you may have to plan this carefully. the runoff leaves a oily residue so you don't wanna do this on your driveway anyhow. if you do this on a lawn and figure it'll just soak into the grass, it'll prolly kill your plants.

also, this is a good opportunity to clean out your TB and cone filter if you have one. do the filter first and let it dry while you clean the engine. then reapply your k&n oil and voila. i also like to clean the battery terminal connects since they tend to get flaky. just scrub with a small pad of steel wool.

 

thanks for the info buddy

 

 

I use Simple Green and some clean rags. EDIT Don't spray SG on your hoses. As a matter of fact don't spray it directly on anything unless its filthy. SG is very harsh but can be easily diluted. I just spray it on to a damp rag to clean. You can also use less harsh products that are citrus based like Eimann Fabrik's.


I finish it off with ArmorAll wipes on the plastic and hoses. If you do this make sure you wipe off the excess or the dirt will just stick to it worse.

Here's a pic I took yesterday... not show quality but enough to make the Advance Auto guy say "Wow that's a clean engine!" when he went to put in the battery.


Also, there may be some good info in the detailing forum. Think I'll go take a browse over there now.