Cleaning your motor Good or bad idea?

[Mark6]

I been wanting to pressure was my 82 mark vi cfi 302 bay area along with the motor with degreasee of course cover the cfi and alternator, is there anything else I should cover or is this just a bad idea to do period??

[1Bad55Chevy]

I own a small BHPH car dealership so I know a few tricks about detailing (I watch my wife do it because she has higher standards of clean then me). Pressure washing dosen't really do anything when trying to clean off baked on oil. The best way to clean everything under the hood is a steam cleaner. If you want it really nice you will need to disassemble everything and re paint. Just Google "how to steam clean engine compartment" and start watching videos.

[Mark6]

Not trying to steam clean and buy steamers etc, I've done 350 chevys before with no problems

[bd94s10]

My feedback is be careful what you are pressure washing. Example... a buddy of mine had an early 60s sedan in stock that he was tinkering with some before he was going to sell it. He pressure washed the engine bay and shortly after it would not start. I checked and low and behold the distributor had water inside it. He wasn't even really hitting the pressure washer there but water did get in there. We had to dry it out and all was good.

My feedback is just try to avoid ignition and getting water down where the spark plugs are. Hitting the side of the block underneath such as the oil pan, crossmember, etc. shouldn't be an issue at all. I pressured washed my entire engine bay before cleaning it in my '64 Lincoln Continental convertible however my engine had been pulled. A really good cleaning will do wonders! If your car is in really nice condition and you want to go the extra mile checkout the dry ice cleaning for the undercarriage. Checkout out Dennis Collin's video on the dry ice process. It is insane. I've seen it done and the dirt, grime and gunk magically disappears.. it is not cheap though! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqIC6fiOBlE

[Mark6]

Well my motor ain't as bad just wanted to hit the manifold and block a little bit but guess I'll hold off but mainly wanted to do my fender whells top area

[Mike]

Pressure washer mixed with engine cleaner or degreaser works great. Watch what you spray the water at. When I worked at a shop it was a regular thing to do for certain jobs.
Keep in mind it wasn't intended to be cleaned regularly. I don't do mine. The grime helps keep everything nice

[frasern]

Modern engine degreaser is worthless, it used to work, but not anymore. I accidently spilled some old gas on my Diesel engine before I rebuilt it and that worked, but of course, I would never do that intentionally.
Anytime I clean an engine, I plan to leave it sit a while afterwards, with the distributer cap lifted, it will dry out.

[Lee]

Modern engine degreaser is worthless, it used to work, but not anymore. I accidently spilled some old gas on my Diesel engine before I rebuilt it and that worked, but of course, I would never do that intentionally.
Anytime I clean an engine, I plan to leave it sit a while afterwards, with the distributer cap lifted, it will dry out.

Fraser, that might be a Canada thing. You can still get Gunk’s original formula (mostly naphtha and kerosene) here, except in California.

[Mike]

Canada is usually a step behind the U.S. in wrecking good products.

I haven't used engine degreaser lately.

[TonyC]

I think that question is best located in the "Cleaning & Detailing" category, but...

I've never gone into that sort of cleaning, usually keeping such a task limited to spots that need cleaning off. I'm not discouraging such actions; but I would suggest disconnecting and isolating the battery fully before doing any extensive cleaning, then waiting for the bay to dry completely before reconnecting the battery. That will prevent any damage to circuits, which I know are far more sensitive in '80s cars than in older cars.

---Tony

[1Bad55Chevy]

Pressure washer mixed with engine cleaner or degreaser works great. Watch what you spray the water at. When I worked at a shop it was a regular thing to do for certain jobs.
Keep in mind it wasn't intended to be cleaned regularly. I don't do mine. The grime helps keep everything nice

What degreaser do you use? I honestly have had no luck with this in the past. I typically find brake cleaner and a brush works the best to get oil off the side of an engine or the frame. I don't pressure wash engines simply because here in Texas the heat destroys the plastic wire looms on late model vehicles then the high pressure blast the remaining bits of the loom away. I would rather have a dirty engine with wire loom!

[Mike]

Pressure washer mixed with engine cleaner or degreaser works great. Watch what you spray the water at. When I worked at a shop it was a regular thing to do for certain jobs.
Keep in mind it wasn't intended to be cleaned regularly. I don't do mine. The grime helps keep everything nice

What degreaser do you use? I honestly have had no luck with this in the past. I typically find brake cleaner and a brush works the best to get oil off the side of an engine or the frame. I don't pressure wash engines simply because here in Texas the heat destroys the plastic wire looms on late model vehicles then the high pressure blast the remaining bits of the loom away. I would rather have a dirty engine with wire loom!

Usually that gunk one or whatever is easy to get. I don't do it enough to have a favorite. Something has to be pretty messy for me to want to clean it because frankly I'm scared of the water getting somewhere where it's not supposed to and cause problems or you end up with some part or fastener that looks rusty or corroded because you've cleaned off whatever was protecting it.
I've found a pressure washer does a better job of getting stuff off then only using a hose but not using any sort of deagreaser makes it worse because the water only seems to move any oily sludge around or bring what was dry back to something that's messier to handle. But I can see how it would wreck those looms. On some makes barely touching them makes them crumble.

I don't know what we used at that shop years ago it was bought in bulk cobtainers. But I'll never forget the smell of it when it dries off after with engine heat.

[frasern]

When I cleaned that engine above, It was getting a ring N valve job, so it was out of the truck. I had some of the Gunk, but not enough. I couldn't find any more, so I got a CLR product, which says "eco" and "Biodegradable" on the label, I can't really say if it is a left wing edict, or just a supply chain thing, but that was all I could get locally, this is not a big city.
Usually, when I get a used vehicle, I will give it a good cleaning, then the grease that builds up is mine, not a previous owners.

[1Bad55Chevy]

If you already have the motor/trans/axle out of the vehicle oven cleaner works wonders! I wouldn't spray it on any parts of the vehicle but I would definitely spray the drivetrain! Spray it on and scrub it with a hard bristle brush then rinse away.

Honestly it doesn't matter how you do it because it's a dirty job that's a real pain...