Best tool to clean/remove years of oil/dirt buildup?

Scott Bowers said

I am talking about cleaning out the engine compartment (engine is out) and all under the car. The buildup is so bad, my regular pressure washer doesnt seem to do the job well. Any reccomendations? Hoping to get it spotless to paint the engine compartment and new undercoat under the car.

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When I started restoring my Duster I put it on a rotisserie and sandblasted the entire thing. The factory undercoating is VERY hardy material. After blasting through the grease, dirt, and muck I noticed that the undercoat took a lot of effort to get through.

This made me realize something. That stuff had been in place for 50 years and was still holding strong. It was applied in a wonderful era, prior to the EPA and it's meddling ways. So, considering that the undercoating had been protecting the car for that long, I decided to leave the factory undercoating wherever it was still in place once it was free from road grunge. I applied new undercoating over the entire underside, but in some spots it just went right on top of the factory stuff. Double protection, never a bad thing right?

All this to say, if you can wash or blast away all of the muck and grease maybe you want to leave the factory undercoating in place and simply spray new material over top to protect any unprotected areas that you uncover with pressure washing / sand blasting. Just something to think about.