Engine Detailing?

[Paladin]

Good morning all. Planning on detailing my engine and engine compartment this Labor Day weekend and was wondering what type of cleaners and techniques everybody uses. I got some stuff called Super Clean in the purple spray bottle and was wondering if anybody had any experience with this cleaner. Any input and possible tricks you may have for such a venture would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance and have a Super Great holiday weekend!

 

[K201979]

Super clean used to be a lot better/stonger, but iirc it still works pretty good. Id say spray, soak, scrub, rinse, repeat and it'll take the grime off. Wear gloves, it'll eat you up. Good luck and i look forward to seeing some sparkly, clean engine pics!

 

[C10MixMaster]

Good morning all. Planning on detailing my engine and engine compartment this Labor Day weekend and was wondering what type of cleaners and techniques everybody uses. I got some stuff called Super Clean in the purple spray bottle and was wondering if anybody had any experience with this cleaner. Any input and possible tricks you may have for such a venture would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance and have a Super Great holiday weekend!

ive has good luck with simple green and the cheep spray on oven cleaner from the dollar store. (cation the oven cleaner my take off paint)

 

[CSFJ]

Yeah, my go to's have always been Simple Green or Purple Power (Tractor Supply's answer to SG) and a softer long bristle brush.

 

[82sbshortbed]

Yup, use purple power too. Works good depending on how strong you mix it. Unless you have real heavy grease and oil you don't need to mix it too strong. I usually fill the spray bottle 1/4 degreaser and the rest hot water if it's a really tough job. Rest the time I use less if not so bad.

 

[Doppleganger]

In high school I detailed cars. While my buddies made $50-60/week ($2.85 min wage x part time) flipping burgers or delivering pizzas, I did 2 cars on a weekend for $100 ea. Most popular formulation was mixing ivory liquid (Palmolive works good too) with kerosene. 50-50 or 60-40 (soap water to K1). Keep it shook up.

K1 dissolved all the oil and grime....dish soap (also a de-greaser) kept it mild so as not to damage paints.

Sounds insane but worked very well.

 

[waterpirate]

Step 1 remove engine
step 2 mineral spirits and a wire brush
step 3 repeat
step 4 paint

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[trukman1]

In high school I detailed cars. While my buddies made $50-60/week ($2.85 min wage x part time) flipping burgers or delivering pizzas, I did 2 cars on a weekend for $100 ea. Most popular formulation was mixing ivory liquid (Palmolive works good too) with kerosene. 50-50 or 60-40 (soap water to K1). Keep it shook up.

K1 dissolved all the oil and grime....dish soap (also a de-greaser) kept it mild so as not to damage paints.

Sounds insane but worked very well.

What was your soap to water mix ratio?

 

[Crispy]

Gunk engine cleaner
A little scrubbing with a soft brush
Rinse
Repeat on caked up areas.

Last engine I did it on a 185k 1.9L TDI. Looked like a low mileage engine after, I didnt spend too much time on it either. Couldve been better if I cared lol.

 

[Doppleganger]

What was your soap to water mix ratio?

I dont remember a specific recipe - from what I remember a good long 'squirt' from the soap bottle into my sprayer, then hot water.....then the K1. I also would get a GOOD 2" camel hair paint brush - and use it to scrub / break up the dirt after I sprayed the soap/K1. Was very soft and wouldn't disintegrate - got into every nook real well. Once the grime was broke up, was real easy to rinse off.

Another cheat is to use concrete cleaner on painted aluminum rims. NOT dry - but wetted down with water first.....the rims (brake dust and all) will look like they just came out of the box with little to no scrubbing. Can do a set of 4 in 45-60 minutes.....front and back. Need good rubber (HD) gloves and a mask with that though.

 

[trukman1]

I dont remember a specific recipe - from what I remember a good long 'squirt' from the soap bottle into my sprayer, then hot water.....then the K1. I also would get a GOOD 2" camel hair paint brush - and use it to scrub / break up the dirt after I sprayed the soap/K1. Was very soft and wouldn't disintegrate - got into every nook real well. Once the grime was broke up, was real easy to rinse off.

Another cheat is to use concrete cleaner on painted aluminum rims. NOT dry - but wetted down with water first.....the rims (brake dust and all) will look like they just came out of the box with little to no scrubbing. Can do a set of 4 in 45-60 minutes.....front and back. Need good rubber (HD) gloves and a mask with that though.

Sorry OP, not trying to steal your thread but I need to pick Doppleganger's brain...

Any tricks for shining up the factory aluminum rims that came on our square bodies! My K5 could use some help and I'm lazy! LOL!

ETA: Didn't complete my question but somehow hit a button that posted prematurely. Duh!

 

[yevgenievich]

Nu blue coil cleaner or oven cleaner if it is ok taking paint off. I use purple power if paint needs to stay.
For wheel polishing some sort of power tool and polishing compound after washing

 

[Doppleganger]

For just straight raw aluminum rims I'd use a scotch brite - there's several grits of those too. The maroon and gray are course but not not as rough as the hardware store green. IIRC there's about 4-5 more colors too but those are the three I use. Scotch brite will almost polish any light corrosion - will smooth it out good. I use it with a soapy cleaner (even the K1 mix) which helps too in getting the brake dust, etc off. Purple clean is pretty harsh and will haze them if you leave it on too long. Then some Mother's Mag polish for the win. I had a set of ARE's that were very rare and in decent shape....edges were beginning to pit / corrode. I used a green, then a gray scotch brite on it. If its REAL bad, you can go the emery cloth route but dont get too carried away with it, then come back to the green-gray to smooth it out. Then I buffed it with the Mother's and (on this set at least) I cleared them. You can buy 2K clear (with hardener) in a bug bomb now. Works amazing. That set has been used for about 5 yrs now and still look great.

But 90% of all my rims are painted aluminum (or magnesium) anymore, so I go the concrete cleaner route. lol