Car Detailing Special #1 - How to detail your engine bay

by: Tom (tstang90)

SOME TIPS ON HOW TO DETAIL YOUR ENGINE BAY!

Are you scared to pop that hood open??

Have you waxed and washed your car so many times that there’s nothing else to do but that dreadful engine bay?? Don’t be scared to pop that hood at the next show or cruise night. I will give you some easy detailing tips to help make that problem go away.

Below are some easy steps to follow that will impress your friends the next time your out.

You’ll want the following items/products before starting this project so you don’t have to run out in the middle of the job. It’ll cost ya about $10-15 to do this project.

Plastic bag

Rubber bands

Tire Foam spray , or a clear silicone tire type spray

Castrol engine cleaner, Simple Green. (I have had great results w/ the Castrol product it comes in a purple spray bottle)

Scrub brush

Some rags

Wire loom ( this is optional.. But now is the time to take a look and se if there is some that’s beat up or just missing. If your into the color scheme now is also the time to make that change.)

Power washer or garden hose

Safety goggles and gloves

Polishing compound and wax. Only for the hardcore cleaners

First off I like to start off by working on a cool engine.

You’ll want to take those plastic bags that you probably have laying around the house from food shopping and some rubber bands and cover any electrical parts ie. Alternator, Distributor, open air filter elements, basically anything that should not get wet. This will protect them later on in the project from water and debris.

Follow the directions on the bottle of the Engine cleaning solution that you use. * *BE CAREFUL most products will cause permanent dulling on polished aluminum pieces that you may have under that hood. And they also can leave some stains on chrome pieces. **

OK you know have all the good stuff protected and make sure you have the power washer/garden hose close by and ready to roll.

At this time you’ll want to take note of those really dirty areas. Once you locate them all you can begin spraying the bay down with the degreaser. The areas that you noticed will have to be scrubbed w/ a brush to help loosen em up a bit. You can spray some additional cleaner in these areas as your scrubbing. You have approx 10-15 minutes depending on the cleaner you choose to let it sit and do its job you do not want it to dry up on you. Check the directions. This step may need to be done more than once depending on the condition of the engine bay. But from my experience it doesn’t work well on a wet surface so try your best to scrub away the first time.

After your scrubbing is all done its time to fire up the power washer if one is available or a simple garden hose will do the trick.

** If using a power washer you’ll want to set it on a light fan type spray avoid the harsh stream like setting that most washers have.**

When hosing the bay down be careful not to spray the areas that may create a problem such as wire harness, any connections, spark plug wires, spark plugs, and any of the areas that you had previously covered w/ bags. You can get them wet lightly you just don’t want to really shoot water into them. Common sense goes a long way in this step. Last thing you want is a motor that doesn’t want to start up.

END RESULT:

After the wash down is complete you’ll want to take off all the plastic bags and fire the motor up. You’ll notice the car will smoke a bit. Don’t worry its just the water evaporating. It will take a bit for all the water to dry up. The inside walls of the bay will remain wet the only are that will dry up is the engine due to its heat. You can either take a ride or use a blower from an air compressor or a leaf blower to dry the rest off. Neither is needed it just helps speed things up a bit. You can very well just let it air dry.

Once the motor is dry and not cool again. Its time for that tire spray. The clear stuff or the foam works great. It will make the motor look brand new again.

You’ll want to lightly spray the hoses don’t over do this step. 1 can should be more than enough to do this and do your tires many more times to come. If you like that glossy look you can reapply it again or go a little heavier on it the first time **Avoiding your serpentine, and blower belts.**

** Note if your really ready to spend some time and get deep into this you can compound and wax the painted walls of the bay. Its abit tough due to all the harness and sharp edges. Just be careful. If you do this step DO NOT spray these areas w/ tire dressing. It will make it a nightmare to wax. But the tire spray will make most very happy as you’ll read below**

You can even spray the motor, firewall, and inner fenders you’ll be amazed what this stuff does to painted metal. It brings up a shine that you probably haven’t seen in a while.

After you spray the tire dressing on the car let it sit the white foam stuff will dissolve and the clear stuff will gradually soak in. Once you see the stuff has soaked in you can take a rag spray the rag down w/ the tire dressing and wipe the excess stuff off. Normally this appears on the radiator hoses.

Now your done detailing your engine bay. If you decided to do the wire loom you can just pull the old stuff off and replace it.

Hope this worked out for you. You can do your whole fleet with this process. And next time I see you out at the show or cruise night I want to see those hoods open.

FINISHED PRODUCT: