Share Some Engine Bay Clean-Up Tips

[Luftwaffles1000]

The rattiest part of my 1975 Duster slant-six is the engine bay, so I want to get in there and do some work. I don't plan on removing the engine (and I wish the folks who had the car before me had cleaned up things when they had it out). So I was wondering what kind of tips you have for cleaning up a serviceable project car's engine bay. It's a daily driver, not a show car or anything.

The wires going every where are a big detractor for me. They are old and seen their better days, so I'm wondering what the risks vs. benefits of replacing and rerunning visible/accessible wires would be. Also, the slant 6's distributor is in a odd place in relation to the plugs, so that makes it harder to organize those.

Any tips on cleaning and organizing?

My first stab at it will be to use some degreaser on the visible parts of the engine. I'm not a fan of the ol' spraydown, so I'll probably just use a shop towel and a spray bottle.

Thanks! :cheers:

 

[tnts72]

Brake cleaner works great on cleaning / degreasing. And its cheap, get a lot done for $2 can. Mine is also, not going to be a showcar, just got her cleaned up and a light sanding - Satin black turned out nice for a street cruiser.

 

[ESP47]

If you really want to get into it with the wiring, you can always unplug everything that goes to the dist, alt, water temp sender etc. Put some alcohol on a rag and wipe them all down clean. Then buy some original style vinyl tape and retape everything as far back as you feel like.

My Duster had wires running everywhere. Plus many unused ones. I just wiped each wire down with rubbing alcohol real quick to clean the grease off. Then I wrapped them all in tape as far back as I could. Allowing the wires to exit the tape as they got near their destination. I even kept the unused wires and just let the tips of them come out of the tape at the end of their length in case they are ever needed for anything in the future. Basically went from wires going every which way to a 1" tightly wrapped loom that goes around the engine bay. Much cleaner.

To clean up quickly, I'd cover the carb and distributor with plastic bags and put rubber bands around them to keep them in place. Then I'd degrease and pressure wash. Making sure to not keep the water pounding on any seams or anything. If it's a normal driver, it's probably going to have it's fair share of caked on grease. I can only imagine the amount of rags you'll go through. I'd get the majority of it off with a pressure washer and then detail it with rags from there on out.

 

[jbc426]

I have had great results from using the purple cleaner from Castol. I mask off everything that doesn't like water getting into it, spray the cleaner on everything and scrub it with a parts brush. Once I feel I got everything good enough, I spray it down with a good strong stream of water. I am careful not to get the cleaner on the exterior, as it will streak.

Sometimes I have to re-apply the cleaner to particularly heavy grease deposits several times and rinse everything thoroughly.

I then fire up my gas powered leaf blower and blast the compartment with air until the majority of the water is out of it.

The cleaner can affect porous aluminum by turning it an oxidized white color, so do a small test patch on anything that is porous cast aluminum first.

I have come back the next day and sprayed some things with a clear gloss or even a spray oil product like WD-40. It makes a lot of stuff look like new.

 

[Serj22]

I didn't want to take the engine out either and my engine bay was pretty trashy, so I mixed various oil based colors till I came up with something close to the exterior, used some brushing thinner, and brushed the engine bay with a nice 2" purdy brush. The black paint that was on there just made everything look dirty all the time.

 

[barracudadave67]

Lots of good clean advice here. I'll add this about the purple cleaner, it is highly corrosive, as are lots of those type of cleaners. So what ever you do, rinse it real good with clean water.

barracudadave67