Engine Cleaning

When cleaning your car, you normally think in terms of washing the outside and sprucing up the interior. How about under the hood? There are a number of practical reasons to include engine cleaning in your regular maintenance.


Have you ever crawled around under a car as drops of oil and bits of grease fall into your eyes and hair? Or tried to find a tiny oil leak when the engine is coated with dirt and grime? Does it bother you when smears of road grime appear on your arms and hands after performing a simple tune up?

Spray Time
Dealing with grimy mechanicals is no way to work on a car. Oil leaks can be impossible to find when the whole engine is coated in black gunk. Even simple maintenance can start to look like a Superfund cleanup site. Not only that, slippery parts and tools can become dangerous when they start sliding out of your hands.


So if there are advantages to cleaning up an engine, why isn't it done more often? There are a number of reasons. One of the most important in the last few years is the damaging effect that water can have when forcibly sprayed into delicate electronic components and connectors. A clean engine isn't any good if it doesn't run.


Another problem is that cleanups can be plain messy and even environmentally hazardous. All of that dirt and oil has to go somewhere, and washing it down the gutter or splashing it into your face can be a bad idea. So how can we get the engine clean without damaging it, ourselves, or the planet?


Let's start with what you will need to do the job. First off, we should point out that there is no magic cleaner that will simply dissolve all of the hardened oil and grease off your engine. (If it's strong enough to do that, then it will probably dissolve some important engine parts as well.) All of the common cleaners and degreasers require you to do some scrubbing. Maybe even a lot of scrubbing. Some of the best cleaners available are the "environmentally friendly" type. They work very well and they don't kill you when you breathe some of the fumes.