Thinking of going steam.....

9

91LSMAN

2002 Chevrolet Corvette
Ok, First of all-HI-have not posted on this forum for a while. I've got a pretty clean engine bay, but I know I can do better. I used to use Gunk Citris engine bright, but that seems to attract dust, and build up. I've got some build up on a few parts and I'm thinking about investing in a small steam cleaner to make my engine bay look even better. I'm starting to have portions painted so a degreaser wont always be possible. Yesterday I used a degreaser, then dryed it with a leaf blower, then sprayed Poorboys Bold N Bright-here are the results:

3_27_06__2.jpg



As you can see, there is some build up on some of the clear plastic-it has a very greasy feel. It's leftover from the old Gunk product. I think I could make it look amazing with steam.

What do you think of any of these?
http://shopping.yahoo.com/search/all?cop=mss&p=steam+cleaner

Anybody have a steam cleaner they use on their engine bay?

Oh-I don't always get E-mail notifications from this forum-hope I don't forget about this thread. LOL
 
Long time no see. Your engine bay looks pretty good to me. If the process you're currently doing isn't too taxing, I'd just stick with what works.

And from what I can see, the paint is looking sharp as always.
 
audiboy said:
Long time no see. Your engine bay looks pretty good to me. If the process you're currently doing isn't too taxing, I'd just stick with what works.
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But the degreaser isn't good for the painted parts and I'm going to have more done. And the degreaser isn't strong enough for some portions. I was looking at steam cleaners in that link and some of them mention that they can do engine bays. I feel this would actually be easier than what I'm currently doing.


EDIT: Hey- E-mail notification worked. LOL
 
91LSMAN said:
But the degreaser isn't good for the painted parts and I'm going to have more done. And the degreaser isn't strong enough for some portions. I was looking at steam cleaners in that link and some of them mention that they can do engine bays. I feel this would actually be easier than what I'm currently doing.


EDIT: Hey- E-mail notification worked. LOL
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Well, I guess I can't be of much help then. I haven't had any experience with steam cleaning, so any advice from me on that subject probably wouldn't be of too much value.
 
I purchased a piccolo seico from costco for $45.00 and did the enginebay yesterday and wouldn't you know i forgot to use it. for the money it looks to be a decent machine for the enthausiast. btw, the flames look totaly real,looks good..
 
Honestly I wouldn't try using your steamer as a replacement for degreaser.... there are some times I find that even with the steam, I still have to hit it with some Castrol Super Clean (diluted of course) to get everything looking tip-top. For quick in-between touch ups or whatever, though, I think the steamer is great.
 
Thanks for the compliments on the flames. A painter on a Corvette forum did them, and will hopefully be doing more.

I'm thinking about a steamer because of the build up of older degreasers/shiny stuff. I used a brush on a plastic piece once and ended up scratching it, being that my engine bay never gets really dirty, I'm thinking I could last longer between big cleanings if I use steam.

But If I get one, I want it to really cut through the grime. We'll see. I just don't know how powerful I need.
 
I also have the Piccolo steamer and in my opinion it takes WAY too long to do an entire engine bay with it. It works really well in small areas but I gave up trying to do my engine bay with it. Just my opinion YMMV.
 
The Mcculloch one can be found at Harbor Freight on sale $89, reg $119. I haven't used it but had planned on getting one. Fortunately for me I found a Shark 1 1/2 quart model at a thrift store for $10. As for engine cleaning it would certainly be able to clean in small areas and areas were degreaser might be too harsh. I haven't used it on my engine but I've used it on a lot of things and it works well. The downside is that it can be a slow process depending on what you are trying to do. On your engine it might not take that long. On my engine I anticipate it would take a while, which is why I haven't tried it. I have another steamer which is handheld (bissell steam n clean $2 yard sale lol) that I've used to spruce up a few customers engines (I don't clean engines normally). It worked pretty nice for what I was trying to do. It didn't have the heat that my Shark has though and sometimes a mild cleaner would help in greasy areas.
 
I just can't decide if I should buy a small one, or spend some money and buy a larger, more powerful one. hmmmmm

Decisions Decisions.
 
Some things to consider are how large a tank it is and how it heats up. I bought and returned a small steamer that heated things up like a pressure cooker. It took 10 minutes or so to heat up and that didn't work for me. In addition ones like that usually have to cool down before you can uncap and refil them. Both the ones I have must use some sort of inline heating as they can be refilled while in use. They also are ready to go in 30-60 seconds. If they can be refilled at anytime then capacity is not that big of deal. Next would be the heat output. The bissel I have is fairly hot but if my hand is close to where it is spraying (like with a microfiber), I don't worry about being burned instantly. The shark on the other hand is much hotter and I've heated up things that I was steaming that I couldn't pick up right away as they were too hot. On the hotter models you have to be a lot more careful. The higher heat tends to produce more consistent steam which is a good thing.
 
PhaRO said:
Some things to consider are how large a tank it is and how it heats up. I bought and returned a small steamer that heated things up like a pressure cooker. It took 10 minutes or so to heat up and that didn't work for me. In addition ones like that usually have to cool down before you can uncap and refil them. Both the ones I have must use some sort of inline heating as they can be refilled while in use. They also are ready to go in 30-60 seconds. If they can be refilled at anytime then capacity is not that big of deal. Next would be the heat output. The bissel I have is fairly hot but if my hand is close to where it is spraying (like with a microfiber), I don't worry about being burned instantly. The shark on the other hand is much hotter and I've heated up things that I was steaming that I couldn't pick up right away as they were too hot. On the hotter models you have to be a lot more careful. The higher heat tends to produce more consistent steam which is a good thing.
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So in the link posted above-which one would you buy?
 
I couldn't tell for sure which had what features on the site so couldn't pick one model. I had a chance to test both my steamers out this weekend on one of our vehicles. The results surprised me. I had used my handheld on a few customers engines to spruce them up with good results. On the vehicle I tried this weekend the engine was pretty bad. Areas of grease build up and such. I original though the higher heat steamer would melt the grease away. While it did work it didn't do it as well as I had hoped. It also was incredibly slow. I had to use mf to get most of it up. This posed a big problem in areas where a mf wouldn't reach. The steamer output pressure wasn't great enough to push the grease very easily. This was especially true when I was more then a cm or two away. Not wanting to use a heavy cleaner I tried a few things out to aid. QEW, Woolite Mix and a Mild APC mix. All helped some but still not the results I wanted. I went inside and grabbed my cheap bissell handheld. I had used that on customers engine but their engines were more dusty than dirty and grease wasn't an issue. The output was greater but the temperature was lower. It improved things a little but not what I had hoped.

In the end it seems for grease and such forget about it. Unless I had some high end unit that could pump out mounds of steam I doubt it would work. If just dust and light grime either would would have worked fine without chemicals. An engine like yours I would think would be very easy to steam. The units that sit on the floor would be most useful as you'd need the long arms to reach into the engine compartment. The ones that heat up quickly and can be refilled at any time would be my first choice. After that it would come down to price and retailer.
 
PhaRO said:
I couldn't tell for sure which had what features on the site so couldn't pick one model. I had a chance to test both my steamers out this weekend on one of our vehicles. The results surprised me. I had used my handheld on a few customers engines to spruce them up with good results. On the vehicle I tried this weekend the engine was pretty bad. Areas of grease build up and such. I original though the higher heat steamer would melt the grease away. While it did work it didn't do it as well as I had hoped. It also was incredibly slow. I had to use mf to get most of it up. This posed a big problem in areas where a mf wouldn't reach. The steamer output pressure wasn't great enough to push the grease very easily. This was especially true when I was more then a cm or two away. Not wanting to use a heavy cleaner I tried a few things out to aid. QEW, Woolite Mix and a Mild APC mix. All helped some but still not the results I wanted. I went inside and grabbed my cheap bissell handheld. I had used that on customers engine but their engines were more dusty than dirty and grease wasn't an issue. The output was greater but the temperature was lower. It improved things a little but not what I had hoped.

In the end it seems for grease and such forget about it. Unless I had some high end unit that could pump out mounds of steam I doubt it would work. If just dust and light grime either would would have worked fine without chemicals. An engine like yours I would think would be very easy to steam. The units that sit on the floor would be most useful as you'd need the long arms to reach into the engine compartment. The ones that heat up quickly and can be refilled at any time would be my first choice. After that it would come down to price and retailer.
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Thanks for the info!!

I actually found this one: http://store.yahoo.com/pressurewasherzone/mcstcl.html on E-bay for $100, so I might go for it.
 
91LSMAN said:
Thanks for the info!!

I actually found this one: http://store.yahoo.com/pressurewasherzone/mcstcl.html on E-bay for $100, so I might go for it.
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I have that one, its ok it seems llike it would do more I must admit. Im not sure if I want to keep it or not yet. It is great for focusing on carpet stains and getting gunk out of tight spots on the dash.

I was really hoping that it would work for blasting wax out of trim and around badging but it didnt touch it.
 
-KGB- said:
And I will tell you right now its not going to be enough to clean an engine.
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I don't think it will either. It looks very similar to my Piccalo and as I said before, it does a nice job when working on a small area but is really too small for an engine bay. I did use my Picallo this weekend to remove some window tint and it worked really well for that (of course that doesn't help with your engine bay)!:wall
 
pogo123 said:
I don't think it will either. It looks very similar to my Piccalo and as I said before, it does a nice job when working on a small area but is really too small for an engine bay. I did use my Picallo this weekend to remove some window tint and it worked really well for that (of course that doesn't help with your engine bay)!:wall
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I have a piccolo what else is it good for.i haven't taken from the box..
 
I think I'm convinced that I'm not going to get a steam cleaner. I used to use Gunk Citris Engine Bright. This time I used a Gunk degreaser, followed by BnB. In direct sunlight you can see a green resudue from when I used Gunk Citris engein bright. What'll remove those leftovers?
 
91LSMAN said:
I think I'm convinced that I'm not going to get a steam cleaner. I used to use Gunk Citris Engine Bright. This time I used a Gunk degreaser, followed by BnB. In direct sunlight you can see a green resudue from when I used Gunk Citris engein bright. What'll remove those leftovers?
Click to expand...

Try Castrol Super Clean or Meguiar's Super D-Greaser... I've never had bad luck with either of those. :)

I wouldn't abandon the idea of a steamer altogether though... I use mine a TON, even in conjunction with the other chemicals, and not just on the engine.
 
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