What do we use to was the engine while mounted on the car? I am tryng to clean up my engine , it's not too bad , just small grease and dust. Nothing too bad but the thins were painted with high heat spray previously . Ideas???

I like GUNK spray on foamy cleaner or their gel cleaner.


KT

simply green and a roll of paper towels up top,
All by hand...

Underneath,
Gunk spray on and a hose.

Rich

Cover the distributor with a plastic bag.
Spray on Gunk, let sit for a few minutes. Spray off with garden hose or even better use the hot water at a do-it-yourself car wash.
Pretty effective.

royle purpule and a hose would be a cheaper version of the gunk solution!

Do you still have the sound deadening pad on your firewall? If so, I would remove that since it traps water, whatever you clean with. I really like simple green as it cuts through light grease and doesn't leave much residue. Underside, I would take the rear valence off, drive the car to a self service car wash with a roll of quarters, a can of Gunk, a pair of ramps and a change of clothes. You will need the valence off to back up on the ramps. You will need the Gunk because their degreaser won't cut it. The quarters and the change of clothes are obvious.

do a search for 'Oil Eater' and see if you can find it locally. Costco, if you have one, used to carry it. non petro based and it really does the job. way cheaper to use for initial deep cleaning than a case of brake/engine cleaner.

ramps, rain gear and a spray wash is the ticket. after a nice clean bottom side, hooking lengths of hose to a HOT water bib and a hard spray/stream hand wand makes for easy maint.

If you clean off the gunk on the bottom of the engine at most self service car washes and it goes down the drain, it will end up in the water supply. If someone sees you and calls the police, you can get in trouble.

Umm, No. Waste water runoff goes in to storm sewer. Which in some places leads to ocean, and in some places, like here in California, it is illegal to dump chemical cleaners and solvents directly into storm sewer. However, even in restrictive California, no law against cleaning with a solvent or degreaser and the resulting runoff going into drians.
And, a commercial car wash would have to properly prepare for ANYthing going down those drains.

Anyway, I also am big fan of simple green.

Do NOT do it on your driveway! It will stain it and enough of the ( GUNK type solvent ) chemical left in one spot can create spalling in your nice finish of your concrete

You're probably right. The self service car wash I use has a sign for no engine cleaning.

I have a ex-military training bio-hazard suit from surplus.
Works great as a high pressure engine cleaning garb as well as a Halloween costume.

However, you WILL get some strange looks while wearing it at the local DIY car wash....

Stu

Wurth makes a decent engine degreaser. Doesn't oxidize the engine case like some of the other engine cleaners. Just picked up a product called Oilflo to get off some burned on oil on an exhaust on another car. I'll let you know how well it works. Suppose to be quite aggresive without harming metal or paint. Plastic and seals are another story. Some local detail shops suggest PS21 total auto wash for engine bays. Haven't tried it.

Can be hard to find, but the stuff works great. Way better than simple green IMHO.

......ECHO