What is the best way to clean/degrease/de-spider web under the hood of a car that has been parked for 25+ years? It starts and runs, i am just afraid its going to catch on fire with all the crap on the engine. Have never had much luck with standard degreasers. I have heard of using oven cleaner, but never tried it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Cover the carb and distributor with plastic taped on, spray on some heavy duty engine degreaser, let it sit for hours, then pressure wash with a GOOD pressure washer. You might have to repeat some heavily caked areas or even use a paint scraper, but it will eventually get it real clean. Don
Thanks for the ideas. Should I expect any leaks from old gaskets and seals after this process? Nothing showing under the car yet>>>>>>>>
I'd figure that you already have leaks since its so dirty but this process will help you find out where they are coming from.
Oil Eater, You can get it at the parts houses or at Costco some times. put some in a squirt bottle and spray it on and let it set a bit and then pressure wash it off. It's a bit nasty if you get it in your eyes though so you need eye protection.
Are there still steam cleaners out there? Maybe a rental place. Steam was THE way to clean engines years ago, but I haven't seen one in a long time. Don
Check out some of the line shops at your local semi dealerships like Kenworth or Peterbilt. Most have a good steam cleaners to blast the millions of miles of grease built up on the motors and frames before working on them. talk to the service manager. If it's not being used they might let you use it for cheap, or free.
oak down several times with diesil fuel in a hand sprayer and then Hot steam clean with pressure. Be prrepared for grease freckes .....................MO
120,000-mile Olds 307, out of a car I'm pretty sure was owned by a guy that lived at the end of a ten-mile gravel road. The crud was an honest inch thick in a few places, and the various nooks and crannies of the intake were basically smoothed out by layer after layer of dust and oily gunk. My "cleaning cycle" was to scrape with a combination of a putty knife and an old screwdriver, then spray on a thick coat of Easy-Off Heavy Duty Oven Cleaner, wait a few minutes, then hose it off with the pressure washer. The blast radius was measured in yards, so keep away from the good stuff. (Wife's car, wife's flowerbed, wife, etc.) After two cycles, she's clean as a whistle. (The engine, not the wife.) I had it out of the car and had all the holes and vents plugged. It's a bit tricker when it's in the car, but the same general idea remains. There's no "magic bullet" spray- if there was anything caustic enough to strip off the oily dirt without needing to be scraped and scrubbed too, it'd dissolve paint and eat hoses too. Oven cleaner and/or oil eater (both are essentially the same chemical) is about the most powerful cleaner you're going to be able to get for this, short of a garden sprayer full of gasoline. Doc.
I have used the Easy-off oven cleaner with good results to clean an engine, but, it was out of the car like doc's. Like the man says, it takes off everything including the paint and is corrosive as hell. The last engine I did in a car, I sprayed it down with kerosene and a garden sprayer then used the hot water at the car wash to hose it off. Then I sprayed it down with simple green (or mean green at the dollar store) and used the high pressure hot water at the car wash to hose it off also. The simple green gets rid of the oily residue left after the kerosene wash. Worked real good... Of course, steam cleaning works best and some detail shops still have one...
FastOrange works good on hands. Works pretty good on a greasy engine too, and isn't caustic. A parts-cleaning brush helps. I once borrowed a big steam-cleaner years ago...that thing took it off right now.
Get oven cleaner at the dollar store, much cheaper than Easy Off name brand stuff. Although it is $1.50 at the local dollar store now...... A pre-wash with apressure washer helps get the loose stuff off and then the oven cleaner can work on the tougher stuff. May take a couple cycles of the oven cleaner. Oven cleaner is caustic, and etches aluminum. It will make polished parts turn dull. As-cast parts do not really look any different besides clean.
yeah...the leaks usually make themselves known once everything is clean. I just did this to my the straight six in my F100 and discovered that the oil pan gasket was basically non-existent. So...beware, you get that thing clean and it creates a whole bunch of work for you if you want to keep it that way.
-Ditto. Once I had that 307 clean, I found out that most of the oil pan gasket had disintegrated. So before I plunked it in the car, I replaced it. I'll probably have to do the valve cover gaskets next, but so far, they haven't even begun to weep yet. And I found that the oven cleaner didn't seem to affect the paint. Stock factory paint that is, I don't know how it'd affect spraycan paint. And yes, it'll etch aluminum instantly, and if you leave it long enough, it'll strip anodizing. Don't use it on your braided hose fittings. Doc.
I just want it clean enough not to catch on fire when it warms up for now. It has 25 years worth of dirt, cob webs, and cat hair on it. Smokes pretty bad when it warms up.
I buy oven cleaner at the 99 cent store and it works good and can be washed off with water. It also doen't smell for days after like the foaming engine douche I used to use. Don't work near anything nice since when brushing etc the crud gets on everything around you.
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