cover up the alternator and filter and all the electrical wiring exposed so you make sure no water mess up anything!
I run the eninge for a few min to get it a little warm. Then with the hose wide open I just soak it down. Then spray down with simple green. After being sparyed down I take a soft brush and just go over the enigne. Let it sit for how ever long it states on the simple green bottle (i can not remember). Then just hose down the engine bay and wipe down the heavy water. Then just start up the engine and let it try the rest of the way.
It is nice and simple and I do it about once a month now.
cover up the alternator and filter and all the electrical wiring exposed so you make sure no water mess up anything!
hm... what about if you have a CAI?... i'd be scared ot start the car after spraying down my engine with a hose =(
I just use warm water for the most part and I try to clean my engine bay once every 10,000 miles or so when I do my oil changes. I do keep a can of Simple Green handy for the tough spots though.
I wash under the hood everytime I wash my ep3. You don't want your engine too hot when you wash it. I never cover anything with plastic and so far no problems. The car is designed to be driven in the rain, plus I still have a airbox.
To be honest, under my hood looks like a brand new car. At home or at the local car wash I use normal car wash soap and then I rinse under the hood with lots of water so there's no leftover soap in the engine bay. Then I towel dry everything I can.
I heard that Simple Green is not the greatest to use on painted surfaces, I would dilute it with water for sure and not let it sit on there for too long. If you stay on top of cleaning the engine bay it will never get to the point that you need to use Simple Green. My engine bay is so clean that half of the time it only needs a water rinse to stay looking like new.
You could always wash the engine bay while the engine is running if you think it is safer.
get the car warm.
spray on some simple green or engine degreaser (they sell them everywhere).
let it sit for a bit.
go at it with a brush if you want.
hose it down.
dry it off.
get some trim shine or something and spray down your bay so everything is nice and glossy black.
done.
Don't ever spray down a warm engine bay. You're asking for stains.
1 - Spray the bay with a hose (cover SRI's with a bag)
2 - Spray down with Simple Green
3 - Brush under hood, engine bay, etc with a soft brush
4 - rinse with hose
5 - repeat
Let it dry and you're all set. It'll take you 5 minutes. If you do it at every wash you'll minimize the time spent. My engine bay still looked brand new when I sold my EP after 5+ years of New England driving.
Mel
i use a honda motorcycle aerosol cleaner called honda brite. it works awesome...
i got it for free when i bought my cbr and used it on the bike w/ no problems...
works good under my hood too
if you all really want to clean your engine bays good go to your local honda dealer and pick up a bottle of HondaBrite. it is the absolute best i have seen so far. we use it to clean the engine bays after working on them and the grease starts to come off as your spraying it on.
http://www.hondapartsworld.com/index...OD&ProdID=4326
Never heard of hondabrite anyone else use it?
its very common to use on motorcycles, where all the engine peices are sitting out for the world to see and still get greasy and grimy, and get so more so than under the hood of a car. you spray it on, leave it, and rinse it off and it gets everything pretty clean, its not perfect but its really good at getting almost everything off
never really cleaned my engine bay. Was always a little concern with water getting somewhere it was not supposed to. These posts hold some good information pertaining to the process.
At my ex-high school's auto garage we used to wash teachers cars' engine bays with engine degreaser and a good scrub with the brass brush. Then rinse it down with a hose... I have no idea if its bad or not, but thats what we were told to do.
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