engine cleaning (when removed from car)...

pete69zx · Post by **pete69zx** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 7:21 pm

Ok, so i got the AAV motor removed Sunday gone & now i want to clean it up some (but i dont want to take any of it apart).

Any suggestions as what to use & how to use it?

The motor is already on an engine stand, so accesibilty isnt an issue.

Many thanx people

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 7:31 pm

You could go out and buy a couple of tins of gunk or similar, but it's expensive stuff and petrol does just as good a job. Take a jerry can of petrol, a paintbrush and a hard bristled cleaning brush (a dish washing brush and a toothbrush were my weapons of choice

). First clean the loose rubbish off with the hose and brush, then let it dry and paint the petrol on. Leave it five minutes to soak in, scrub it with the hard brush and then remove it with a hose and the cleaning brush. Repeat a couple of times as necessary and it'll get the grease off.. might then be worth attacking with a wire brush, then painting it while it's out. There are also some vinyl coating products that you can paint on the engine bay to keep the grease off and make it easier to clean, although I don't know if that'd stand up to the heat on the engine itself.

One thing to remember, first time you take it out on a dirty motorway it'll look revolting again, so you'll have to keep cleaning everything every couple of weeks to keep it looking half reasonable.

pete69zx · Post by **pete69zx** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 7:38 pm

GC... cheers

I might actually attack it with a presure washer and some gunk (possibly petrol as i have about 20quids worth sat in the fuel tank still on 'Don Polio'

)

Im not too bothered about how clean this looks as i will probably end up keeping it sat around to use as a 'spare' if things goes t**s up with the GT engine.

Think i will repeat this process with the GT engine in the next month or two aswell, in preperation to go into the silver sh*tter

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 4:04 am

after you've done with the petrol, a weak solution of bog standard fairy* liquid should be good to remove any remaining stubborn mineral oil based gunk - or solvent (ie the petrol!)

very underrated stuff, is washing up liquid. detergent of that strength is good for far more than just dishes.

* other brands are of course available

PS if you've made a big mess of the driveway and dont fancy farting about dribbling (expensive..) dish soap everywhere, go for biological (if you can - non bio works but not as well) clothes washing powder and sprinkle it all around (on a day without much wind!) and scrub it in with a brush. Leave a few hours and then hose it away or let the rain do it. Give it a second application and see if any more oil soaks in - it'll be pretty obvious. Keep going until the powder stays white and presto... clean driveway/roadway... for not very much outlay, if you've been careful with the sprinkling

PARTICULARY important to be quick with that if you have a tarmac drive or freshly laid road surface outside BTW

mk2keel · Post by **mk2keel** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 9:08 am

probably the best thing to use is a wire brush to get all the rush off and use some white spirit and 10,000 paint brushes to get all the oil/grease/road crap off. I did all this to the entire engine and gearbox, does look pretty bling now

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 5:32 pm

would a water pressure-washer be a dangerous idea?