9redfox3

Rather than tie up Animals painted parts thread with engine bay cleaning stuff, here's a quick way to take that daily driven engine bay to show room look with minimal effort:

Best way ever is the following, take it for what it's worth, it's tried and true..

Products needed: Simple Green, Turtle Wax F-21 tire dressing, several rags.

Here's a link to F21 so you know what it looks like:

http://www.turtlewax.com/main.taf?p=2,1,3,5

Here's the simple green for those that have never used it:

http://www.simplegreen.com/products_...se_cleaner.php



Start engine, get it warm, not hot, just nice and warm. As an example if the car was fully cooled, run it for 5-8 minutes. Turn off engine.

Cover the alternator and air filter on your intake, Aluminum foil works great since the motor is warm. Everything else can be subject to light rinsing type spray, including the covered fuse panel. All of these areas get hit by water when driven in the rain.

Lightly spray entire engine bay with water from hose, you will see some light steaming, this is good.

Spray the entire engine bay, including firewall, plastic parts, metal parts, loom, coils and hoses with Simple Green. Set the hood down, not fully closed, just to it's safety catch point, and go find something else to do for 15 to 20 minutes. Let the simple green do it's work. Closing the hood let's the simple green interact with the steam you created with the warm motor. This loosens the tough stuff up so you don't have to work so hard in those heavily soiled areas.

Open hood, look for heavily soiled areas, wipe them with a rag, use more simple green if necessary. Rinse lightly with hose.

Spray entire engine bay with F-21, it foams, coat everything just like the simple green coating you did.

Close hood again, walk away for 10-20 minutes or until nearly all the foam has dissipated.

Open hood, Wipe up any areas that water settled and such. Wipe up any areas that the F-21 didn't dissipate on it's own.

You will note that the F-21 restores the black plastic parts to the same oem flat black color they were when new.. It leaves the paint shiney with no streaks on the fenders and fire wall. Best of all, it is not greasey to the touch.

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There's a few questions that I saw in scrubbing the thread:

* Simple green - full strength or diluted? Depends, for upkeep dilute - for a greasy disaster your trying to bring back to life, full strength.
* How soon can you drive? Shouldn't matter, a warm engine will dry out quicker. I typically wait about 30 minutes, which is about the time I'm finishing my final wipe down in the bay anyway.
* Should I cover COP's? Doesn't hurt, I fully believe the s197 cops are a superior product to the older models to begin with. You may want to be a bit more careful around them in the relics. The key is to not allow puddling - stick to that rule and everything will be good.
* Can I use simple green and F21 on hood liner? I wouldn't. My experience with simple green and F21 is they are not the best on fabrics. Leather they do okay in moderation, but hood liners I just wouldn't. I find the best way to clean the liner is to pull it off the car entirely. Lay it on a flat surface (driveway or whatever) rinse it down, then use a little dish soap on a soft brush. Rinse, let dry, re-install.
Here's the site some before and after pics...click below
http://www.moddedmustangs.com/forums...ok-here-9.html

Schloob

I really want to try this, got any before and after pics? (anyone)

9redfox3

The guys name is "Emay got this info from him,going to try it here's some pics of before and after and all the info....click below

http://www.moddedmustangs.com/forums...ok-here-9.html

Schloob

Well Heres my Before and After. Worked amazing.

Before:






After!

9redfox3

Ya I tried it too I must admit pretty simple to do and the results were pretty good !


The simple green is $10 and F21 tire shine is $5 My engine bay is still a work in progress getting some new ford racing 9mm red wires cap/rotor and some other odds and ends trying to keep it original best I can ! thanks for looking...

sullitf

I'll have to try this out on my MR2, been looking for an easy way to clean the bay out since the mid-engine motor isn't the easiest to reach around in. This may just do the trick, thanks!

Zero4GT

I've tried this too but used black magic engine bay shine. Works really well, just like the OP stated. Good write up!

Alec

I use a 50/50 mix of simple green and water and a tootbrush. Obviously be careful with the battery, intake and all. Spray, scrub it down and then use the hose on a low pressure to clean it all off

Zero4GT

im not using a toothbrush on a daily driven car!!

Alec

*An old toothbrush