Detailing the engine...

[invisiblem0nst3r]

ive never detailed a engine on a new car before. my engine is filthy and needs to be cleaned bad. what is the best way to clean all of it ?

 

[unity]

Steam clean seems best. That way little water will make it into the plug holes - its CRITICAL that you prevent water from getting in there. Sure, they look sealed but anytime someone has taken a hose to the engine they seem to have major issues.

Steam cleaning can be done pretty cheap at many places. Once done, you can do the finer cleaning details.

And make sure you go to a decent shop.

 

[twinbopilot]

I just used the local car wash and got great results, but the previous poster is correct about water in the spark plug area. It can cause coil pack failure. I had to replace two after I cleaned my engine last time. Next time I'll just remove the coil packs before I clean the engine compartment. Its a good idea to clean them anyway occasionally to remove oil, grease, etc.

Before detailing:

After detailing:

 

[danny_holtermann]

you need a new crossover pipe, take it off and powder coat that thing, the rest of your motor looks superb but that pipe

 

[twinbopilot]

Danny, you read my mind. Should I go with silver powder coat, or something a little more racy???

 

[Go Fast Get Tickets]

I used the car wash as well, but I have a Gen 1 and no coil packs. I left mine running when I did it.

Before :

After finish detail:

Yes, it is the same engine comprtment

 

[1bad4.6l]

Damn!!!!

 

[Lownslowlsc]

I used the car wash as well, but I have a Gen 1 and no coil packs. I left mine running when I did it.

Before :

After finish detail:

Yes, it is the same engine comprtment

that is the most disgusting thing ive ever seen.

on a side note....it looks fantastic now. you did great work!

 

[Sapperfire]

uh, except Gen1s have 2 coil packs...rofl
and damn, i realized my car started runnin like crap shortly after i washed the motor, uh, its misfiring but im getting spark from coil to wire, but theres one wire when i unplug it nothing changes, could it still be a bad coil or the wire?? ive already changed my plugs from the E3s back to Motorcraft
ive got a new set of Cobra 10.2mm wires being shipped, ill see what happens with that i guess
any comments on the coil would be great

 

[bryantaylor]

simple green and a garden hose has always worked fine for me.

last time i cleaned this was a few months ago and it still looks decent right now. i need to armor all the plastic again.

 

[Sapperfire]

armor all FTL! that stuff dries plastic out.. try CoverAll, it comes in a blue spray can, i got it at Oreillys, its for tires and interior protection, i love that stuff, plus it smells nice

 

[02LSE96LSC91SE84TC]

I did it the hard way. I removed alot of stuff and used brushes, rags and brake cleaner.

 

[XLRVIII]

ive never detailed a engine on a new car before. my engine is filthy and needs to be cleaned bad. what is the best way to clean all of it ?

first..off
Do not spray anything into, directly onto or indirectly into the alternator.

get a bottle of simple green.
then before you start the engine one day(cold motor)
spray it down with simple green
let it soak for 10ish minutes and resoak it with simple green
let it soak for 10 more minutes and resoak it with simple green

you want to use most of the bottle during these three steps, but leave some for spot cleaning afterwards.

Then start the car and lightly spray off everything.
always spray away from the alternator and dont directly spray the spark plug covers.

by running the motor you will instantly know if you spray a spot that makes the car unhappy, rather than blissfully soaking something that's gonna cause a problem later.

after you hose it all off..let the motor run..and dry itself.
that will help prevent water from running down and getting some unhappy spot wet.

then let the motor cool for 2-3 hours, and go back and spot clean any crap or crud you missed the first time.

this will make your motor really clean, you'll be happy.

 

[jolinc01]

Tommy nailed it. If you're scared to use a water hose on the engine, or if the engine isn't that dirty you can use a bucket of diluted simple green and a rag. I do a 50/50ish mix of simple green and water in a bucket, put the rag in, ring it out good, and wipe away(with the engine OFF). Start the engine and close the hood for about 10 minutes. Then dry off anything that's still wet, and use whatever shiney you prefer on the plastic.

 

[Go Fast Get Tickets]

uh, except Gen1s have 2 coil packs...rofl
and damn, i realized my car started runnin like crap shortly after i washed the motor, uh, its misfiring but im getting spark from coil to wire, but theres one wire when i unplug it nothing changes, could it still be a bad coil or the wire?? ive already changed my plugs from the E3s back to Motorcraft
ive got a new set of Cobra 10.2mm wires being shipped, ill see what happens with that i guess
any comments on the coil would be great

Gen 1 "coil packs" can take the water. Gen 2 COPs can not.

 

[richduty455]

just put a little armorall on the engine cover...hahahahaha j/k

 

[Kstills]

I sprayed down the engine using the simple green. Then brushed what I could reach with a variety of long and short handled brushes. Then sprayed it down with SG again.

Repeat.

Then I filled an old bottle of SG with water, and sprayed the areas that I had brushed last.

I was pretty fraidy scared of running any kind of stream of water into the engine bay, so spot spraying with water seemed a better bet. It takes a hella long time, however cleaning the engine is something I do on really nice days with the radio on in the garage and nothing else that needs to be done around the house.

So I have never minded spending the time doing it.

 

[danny_holtermann]

Danny, you read my mind. Should I go with silver powder coat, or something a little more racy???

do you have any accents to teh car, like leds on the inside or a color you are thinking about accenting the car, otherwise do gunmetal silver to closely match the aluminum look seeing how your aluminum isn't coroded at all, or just redo it in black

 

[thaywood]

I know. Old thread. But I think I killed the engine in my wife's '97 LSC. I haven't cleaned the engine since we bought the car. So I decided to clean it off Sunday. I did what I always do to my '96. Sprayed it down with Purple Stuff, let it soak, sprayed it again, let it set, and hosed it off with the garden hose. I've cleaned the '96 that way more times than I can count with absolutely zero problems. Now the '97 has a terrible miss and is running like pure $hit. It never occurred to me that the COP's couldn't take a good cleaning. Now I'm probably going to have to get a new set of coils. Anybody got some cheap?

 

[BAD97LSC]

thay i'll be willing to bet all thats wrong is too much water in one of the plug journals, i did this to multiple gen 2 motors, remove the coil covers and pull the coil packs out, i'll bet you have at least 2 journals full of water, blow the journals out with an air hose, blow the coils off dry and put them all back, if you still have a miss you might have a bad coil pack ( s ) and will have to replace. you didnt kill the motor, just got water somewhere you shouldnt have. no biggy, just get the water dried out of the spark plug journals first.

 

[thaywood]

Cool. Thanks. That's what I'll be working on today.

 

[kustomizingkid]

Too bad you probably killed at least one coil if you nran it with water in the wells.

 

[thaywood]

I'm puzzled. I went out this morning and replaced a couple of dryrotted vacuum lines and cranked it up. It cranked fine and ran smooth as silk. Wierd. I'm going to drive it to work today and see if it acts up again.

Also, I saw the man I bought it from this morning and he said it did the same thing with him the first time he washed the engine. He said water got into the back two plug holes and he had to dry out the holes and coils and it was fine after that. But if it continues to run fine, I'll probably just let it go and see what happens.

 

[thaywood]

Well, the rear spark plug hole on the driver's side was full of water. And there was a little bit of oil in there too. Hope I don't have to replace that valve cover. Anyway, cleaned it out and dried everything off and she's purring like a kitten again. A real loud, angry kitten.