Whats the best way to get the engine bay nice and clean and shiny like the day I bought it?? Keep in mind, where I live, I CANNOT wash my own car in the driveway. Freaking hippies and groundwater...all that jazz... Anyways, I only have access to a DIY wash on base...yeah...the pressure washer and foam scraper....errr....brush. So....is there a good cleaner that won't damage anything underhood, and I can perhaps use on a hot engine, then spray off with a low pressure spray?? I've never really cleaned the motor of any car I've owned...I know..horrible. Any ideas??
Heh, I was just thinking about the same thing! I just got my BT underhood kit and there's some dust in there I want to get rid of before installing that stuff. Perfect. I was going to hit Rick up for that. He did it a while back. Light spray of something that wasn't death to paint that you could spray in there and just rinse off and it all sparkles again . I think all he did was put a baggie over the air cleaner? I though I saved that but I can't find it now...
I drive it in, pop the hood and spray it off...no soap. LOL on the baggie over the air cleaner...I was reading a thread recently about people sucking in their air cleaners when they forgot to take the baggie off...LOLOLOL. I have always just avoided spraying the air filter directly. I never thought about even putting a sack over my air cleaner, which is good because I would have sucked in my air cleaner when finished!
For general cleaning i high pressure rinse, but stay back about 3 feet, it's mainly to remove dust and loose heavy debris, spray entire engine compartment with Simple Green liberally, let sit a few minutes, rinse with high pressure and staying back, then low pressure spot free rinse. Drive home, and douche it down with Meguaires interior spray (comes in a red bottle, and smells great) and wipe down excess...comes out nice and sparkly.
Well, I haven't had need for any kind of serious de-greasing so I've just been using the same soap I use on the outside. I got a long, soft bristle brush from the parts store and scrub it up.
I've been wondering when I'll have to do this on my 06 SRT! Never touched it up and it still looks new, however, I only have 8,300 miles on it so far!