Give me your best engine cleaning tips, please?

E

ellssuu

New member
I'm pulling a 20 year old Porsche engine out of the car to do some preventative maintenance. It will not go back in the car unless it's spotless. Probably will take the opportunity to polish, powdercoat etc. some pieces.



It's aluminum and currently dirty from 20 years/72,000 miles of use. I've got a line on some pontoon boat aluminum cleaner. Also, have a pressure washer. I'm guessing I'll need lots of stiff brushes & rags.



What else?



Has anyone done this before? Experiences?



Anyone interested in a before/after or as you progress pictorial?



:nervous2:
 
I would not use stiff brushes on the aluminum. They may get you clean aluminum, but what good is it if the aluminum is all scratched up? Similar to paint...you can wash your car with steel wool if you want(please don't)--it'll get clean, but it certainly won't look any better overall.
 
I dunno...about the copper brushes. I find it easy enough to scratch aluminum via the abrasiveness of the sort of stuff you clean off an engine, so I wouldn't want to make things worse with the wrong choice of wash media. It's sorta like using brass on steel..it's usually safe and effective, but you really do have to be *very* careful because stuff can happen. Might work just fine though, where do you find copper brushes?



I probably wouldn't go any more aggressive than nylon for the brushes, but I'll admit that I err on the side of caution (sometimes too much so :o ). I'm gonna do some cleanup on the rotary in my '84 RX-7 and I'm gonna try to avoid mechanical cleaning methods as best I can all together.



I'd probably use a steam cleaner and an engine cleaning product, one that's known to be safe for aluminum (e.g., *not* Simple Green). I suspect (but don't know for sure) that the engine cleaners would be more effective on the sort of stuff in question than the boat cleaner.



For some reason I just hardly ever get out the pressure washer, but I'm finding all sorts of uses for the steamer (and engine compartment stuff is one of 'em). I'd want the pressure washer to be spraying hot water, the heat really helps emulsify the sort of crud that builds up on engines.
 
Accumulator, good call on the steam cleaner. I purchased the Costco one a while back so I'll pull it out on this job.



By stiff brushes I mean't stiff nylon. Also, no Simple Green on this job. I've seen it turn aluminum white.



BTW, if you doubt the aluminum pontoon boat cleaner then check the second page of this posting: Sorry haven't searched for the way to post pics in Autopia



http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/showthread.php?t=257086



As I've read it's not corrosive but works well.
 
ellssuu- OK, that stuff *is* impressive! You're right, good call.



I was just steaming parts of the RX-7's engine with so-so results. I ended up using some solvent to cut the worst of it. Guess I need to get more aggressive. You're gonna love working on it *out of the car* :D



Wally- OK, I'm convinced that those brushes might be useful after all! Where do you get your copper brushes?
 
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