UKPOC forums

Hello!

So I am now starting to clean up my engine bay, just to give at a nice freshness ready for next summer.

I have given it a quick blast under the bonnet which has got rid a lot of the loose grim so now its time to get the elbow grease out.

I will probably replace a few of the black hoses and rubbers for new where easy to get hold of as well as getting new jubilee clips and trim panel parts etc as they are cheap and easy enough to just replace as I go around the engine bay.

I'll use the recommended and Autoglym product for the rest of the rubbers etc under the bonnet and auto sol for the final shine to the inlet manifold and rocker cover etc.

What do people find works best in terms of a solution and tools for getting the more baked on grime off of the IM and RC? The RC isn't too bad but the IM is pretty tainted. My initial thought was the WD40 Brake Cleaner but is that I bit too potent? In terms of tools is it save to start with a wire / brass brush for scrubbing and then go down to wire wool perhaps?

Any tips much appreciated!

Regards

Trevor

Mojo will be the man to give you some tips as he has it down to a fine Art now

I use Autoglym engine and machine cleaner.

It strips off grime really well.

I tend to spray it on the underneath of the bonnet, then stand back and let it 'sink in', then spray the whole of the engine compartment, then work it in with a painting brush on the really greasy bits. Then lightly hose down the engine bay, and leave to dry.

Result: a spotless under bonnet!

You can get a proprietary aluminium cleaner that will most definitely do the job, but from an industrial chemical company, not the high street.
Only problem is that its a bit vicious so you have to wash it off very thoroughly. I cant remember where I bought it or what it was called, but I also bought Vactan, an industrial and marine rust converter, so find someone selling Vactan like icspecialities.com and they will probably have an aluminium cleaner. That said, gunk is quite good with a bit of elbow grease. I presume ic stands for industrial chemicals!

I use wd40 to generally clean the engine bay and only use autosol on bright work, rubber cleaner on the hoses, loads of long handle paint brushes and a lot of the stuff we call elbow grease, and a few cut fingers,
And you could end up with a engine bay something like this


Or