Engine Bay Detail??

Has anyone had their engine bay or under the front hood detailed. This requires a pressure sprayer to get all the gunk out and mabye a degreaser?
I want to do this as my engine bay is very dirty. What do i need to cover to insure nothing gets damaged? Fuses, plugs, battery, etc.

Let me know.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

I gently pressure wash mine every third or fourth wash, just watch out for the fuse box and the stickers that can come off and keep the wand back a bit.
Some car washes have high high pressure and some just so so.
Watch the coil packs cover, don't go blasting down there, just a frequent light spray keeps things nice. Little wipe wipe and you looking good.
Wipe the painted surfaces on the body here and there as much as possible and keep things shiney.
I drive my car everyday and its dusty like crazy up here, so a little here and there keeps things in check.
I have always washed all my engines, just be careful where you think you should be careful.
Doing my last two clutches, I noticed the connectors Honda uses are pretty nice and quality and I feel good about washing the way I do.
Done it for the last 4 years.
I always say, A clean engine is a happy engine!
Trev

I started wiping down everything with a mild cleaner. Then I removed everything that was bolted to the inside of the engine bay. Ran a paint cleaner on the paint and then topped it off with a fresh coat of wax. Put it all back together dressing all the rubber and using metal polish on the aluminum pieces and coolant tubes. Passed the white glove test. :biggrin:

WOW

That's rediculous, great work!

How many hours, days, months? I've planned the same for this winter too but I have plenty of other work to do. BTW: there's one rusty bolt I'd replace.

For my engine bay I spray it with Simple Green. Then I take a paint brush and make sure the Simple Green is in all of the areas of the engine bay. Let it sit for a few minutes, and then wash it off with a gentle stream of water. Then I spray the area with a tire cleaner/foam and run the engine for a while. Your engine bay will be totally detailed. Lot of threads on this topic. I also use a instant detail spray product to clean the engine bay in between the wash down.

nice work!

goldNSX said:

How many hours, days, months? I've planned the same for this winter too but I have plenty of other work to do. BTW: there's one rusty bolt I'd replace.

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This was about three hours of work. Just tackled one section at a time and it was finally done. My car is a '92 with 15K miles that lived in Washington state all it's life before I bought it. That explains the corroded bolts. A few mice had nibbled on the soft foam as visible on the PCV hose and ground strap. I made a list of all the bolts, screws, clips, etc. that needed to be replaced (just for cosmetic purposes) and plan to swap them out. Then the engine bay will be completely flawless.

my goodness that a super clean engine bay...

P21s auto wash, to degrease engine. Then use an electric leafblower or a compressor to dry the motor.

Vytas said:

I started wiping down everything with a mild cleaner. Then I removed everything that was bolted to the inside of the engine bay. Ran a paint cleaner on the paint and then topped it off with a fresh coat of wax. Put it all back together dressing all the rubber and using metal polish on the aluminum pieces and coolant tubes. Passed the white glove test. :biggrin:

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bay looks great, but what's comptech parts do you have?

Comptech made a whole line of Acura parts.
Not just engine bay goods.
He may have Headers, or maybe the exhaust, or maybe some suspension stuff or intake.
I'm betting on headers exhaust combo!
ten bucks worth on red.
Trev

Try Doug’s Insanely Cool Engine detailing trick:

http://www.1017.org/nsx/Enginetrick/EngineTrick.htm

I substituted Simple Green for Gunk because that's what I had available. The results were amazing:

Vytas said:

Then I removed everything that was bolted to the inside of the engine bay. Ran a paint cleaner on the paint and then topped it off with a fresh coat of wax. Put it all back together dressing all the rubber and using metal polish on the aluminum pieces and coolant tubes.

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You are a sick person ! :biggrin:

I know car salesman who do this... The run the engine part after you spray the armor all is a new one tho. I wonder how dirt accumulates thereafter though?

I just spray simple green all over the engine bay and hose it off after 30 seconds. Very effective.

I have been doing that since 1992 and never had a problem on my 8 previous Honda vehicles.

Tried it on my friend's Miata and water got into the spark plug area...Oops.

simple green is a bad idea... it is corrossive on aluminum.

you mentioned an aluminum polisher, which aluminum polisher did you use? THanks..

ffffanman said:

Comptech made a whole line of Acura parts.
Not just engine bay goods.
He may have Headers, or maybe the exhaust, or maybe some suspension stuff or intake.
I'm betting on headers exhaust combo!
ten bucks worth on red.
Trev

Click to expand...

Actually, I don't have a single Comptech goodie on the car. It's stock. I bought a set of wheels from Driving Ambition (owned by Shad Huntley formerly with Comptech) and and that was thrown in the deal as it was the last intake manifold cover he had from the last of the stuff he got from Comptech before they folded. It looks nicer so I just kept it on there.

As for the polish used on the aluminum, I use Mothers mag polish. It's a white cream like polish that works very well.

socalx said:

simple green is a bad idea... it is corrossive on aluminum.

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Really? I was about to chime in on how Simple Green works for me as well. Been using the stuff off and on since I got my car in 99. Now you just made me paranoid. :tongue: More info. please....

That's an exquisite engine bay. Great job!

I've been using the Doug technique since I bought my NSX and for the rest of my cars too. Though, I will say that if you have a fairly open engine bay (Yukon) Doug's method seems to attract a lot of grime.

im not an nsx owner, but have done some engine bay details. What I do is start with some meguiars All Purpose Cleaner (Detailer brand) diluted 4:1, a cleaned out wheel brush (one with a decent handle), meguiars hyper dressing diluted 10:1, and the hose. I take the APC and spray the engine with it. Let it sit for 30 seconds, then take the wheel brush and brush down everything. Hose it down and take a leaf blower then blow off all the water. Then turn the engine on for about 10 minutes with the cover closed. Open the hood, any water left is good, as it will just mix with the Hyper dressing. Spray the under hood area with the hyper dressing, close hood and drive around for a little. After that, open the hood and if there is any pooling or an area a little "thick" just wipe it. It will look fantastic.

Here is my car:

socalx said:

simple green is a bad idea... it is corrossive on aluminum.

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I heard this before, but interestingly Fikse, the maker of my wheels, says to use Simple Green to clean my aluminum wheels.

I've been wanting to do the engine bay and under the hood but I am too chicken. :frown:

Jett said:

I've been wanting to do the engine bay and under the hood but I am too chicken. :frown:

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Don't be!

It's really quite simple. All you need are 3 things: A good degreaser, a good brush, and common sense. (of course also water, MF towels, etc.)

Start off with a cool engine, grab your hose with the sprayer attachment and put it on "shower" or "center". Then get everything wet, moving the hose rapidly to keep the from the water saturating one area, and possibly damaging something. The idea is to just get everything wet.. not try and loosen dirt. That's what the degreaser and brush is for.

Next: spray on a GOOD degreaser, I personally use a combination of P21S TAW and Meg's APC+. Once you spray it on.. let it dwell for a few minutes. Then grab yourself a good boars hair brush (i prefer the swissvax brush), and start agitating the dirt. Every so often, rinse off the brush to keep it clean. Once you are satisfied with the agitation and it's starting to look clean start to spray it down.

Next: Using the same method, spray down the engine bay using the "shower" or "center" position, but don't keep it in one area too long for fear of over-saturation. Once everything is rinsed off start to blot dry everything you can reach.

Next: Admire your new and clean engine bay. It looks good.. doesn't it!!

Optional: A good dressing goes a long way with an engine bay. The key is to find one that leaves a very nice satin finish. I personally use two products: Meguiars HpyerDressing diluted 3:1 (satin finish) and 303 Aerospace Protectant. The idea behind the dressing is to add a little bit of spice.. which is what the Meg's does. But 303's product goes a step further and conditions the plastics, as well as protect them. It reduces the static cling of the plastics, therefore reducing the amount of dust it attracts.

Cleaning an engine bay is quite fool proof under these circumstances: Do NOT use high pressure.. that's a CEL waiting to happen. Steer clear of the alternator, coil packs, abs for obvious reasons (they can get wet, just don't saturate them). And lastly.. do it while it's cool. Some believe it should be warm. I disagree for the safety of your hands, as well as it reduces potential water spotting on the paint around the engine.

Good luck, post back when you get it cleaned up!!