Anyone have any best practices and/or products to use to spruce up under the hood? With all of the electronic crap these days I'm unsure of what and how to get under hood show room clean.

Thanks

 

I usually stay away from under the hood. If and when i do clean under there, I usually use simple green. I spray simple green all over lightly and let it sit. I use a light spray to wash it down with the engine running. After it dries off I use, elbow grease and simple green to wipe everything down.

 

Many thanks. Will give it a try. Yea I too am very hesistant about doing too much rubbing and scrubbing under hood.

 

The manual will show you what to cover up. (At least the 04+ model manuals do)

The general consensus around here is avoid it if you can because it is so risky.

I do it because of my recreational trips to the mountains.

Be careful and good luck.

 

I use a combination or Simple green, QD and water (seperately, not all mixed together) with cotton and MF towels to clean under the hood by hand .. then I spruce it up with Meg's Hyper Dressing.

I have never been an advocate of spraying water under the hood, although a lot of people manage it with no problems..

 

The manual actually recommends it....

weird huh? Seems risky for everyone trying it if they don't take precautions.

 

Do not use Simple Green under your hood! It will cause the aluminum parts to turn white and oxidize and could cause the plastic and rubber parts to fade. I only use a citrus based clean under my hood. They are much safer.

 

My preference is to use a citrus-based cleaner (ie: orange clean) and mix in a very diluted ratio. Use 1 rag wet with this solution and 1 rag wet with normal water and 1 dry rag. Use the cleaner 1st, water 2nd, and wipe dry 3rd. This prevents messing up the electronics, while cleaning everything. Also, the citrus cleaner prevents damage as opposed to simple green. Also, interior detailer solution/meg.s vinyl/rubber protectant works great.

But, some prefer to spray on engine degreaser and simply hose off, which works well for some and wreaks havoc for others.

I'll bet, though RP has some suggestions

 

I never clean under my '01 F150s hood, its a rust victom so if i do eventually down the road I will start running into mechanical problems.

F250 however is beautiful under the hood, every weekend i clean it with water & thats it! looks brank new.

 

Most here will tell you to stay away from water, but I have always ALWAYS used a steam jeanie under the hood of my vehicles. Never any problems and always very clean.

My use of a steam jeanie is no worse than the mud and water my trucks see from use.

 

I like all your rides Red Lariat,

Where can you get your engine Steam Cleaned and how much does it cost?

Alot of gas service stations used to do it, but I don't see them anymore.


Anyone use the Meguairs Detailer line Degreasers?

 

Thanks!


I have no ideas on the price of someone steam cleaning the engine. I bought my own steam jeanie from a coal mine supply company years ago. It is diesel powered and should last me a lifetime.

 

Awesome,

Lucky!!!

 

I use Black Magic Engine Shine. It says you don't have to cover up anything and you can spray anywhere in the engine compartment. I was skeptical at first, but it works really well. Of course, even though it says you can spray everywhere, I didn't really take too much of it to the intake. I did use it normally on all the wiring. Wait about 15 minutes and spray down witha steady stream of water. I've had absolutely no problems with it. It comes out clean but not too shiny. I'll try to remember to take pix next time.