i popped the hood this morning to check on everything and





that K&N has only been on for 2 months and its already filthy. ive done a lot of trail driving this summer up on the ranch where the roads are EXTREMELY dusty and as you see its taken a toll on my engine bay.

i know this topic has been covered a ton and ive been reading about it, but im only 19 and have no experience cleaning the engine compartment, and i REALLY dont want to mess something up (and frankly i cant afford it). i do have some of that SimpleGreen stuff that many suggest to use, but it seems quite difficult to get everything clean down in there with stuff thats hard to reach and without hitting electronics.

i know i could probably take it somewhere to get it cleaned, is this the best thing to do since i have no experience?? if you think i should try it myself, what exact steps and precautions should i take?? thanks for any sugestions.

 

For starters, see those three square plugs on the passenger side fire wall? Cover those up very well. Can use some plastic bags, anyhting to keep the water from getitng in there. The more time you spend on that, the better. Also, i would cover the alternator. I wouldnt be too scared about cleaning it, just dont do it when it's hot. You want it to be nice and cool. Spray 'er down with some 50/50 simple green, or a similar solution of a citrus based cleaner. I would clean what you can reach with a somewhat soft brush. Too soft wont help, too hard will scratch some plastics. Rinse it well, but I wouldn't use a pressure wand, as it will put water in places you dont want it. Use care in the areas you covered with plastic to be on the safe side, but still make sure you rinse it well b/c you dont want to leave cleaner on it. It will look like crap if its not rinsed well. When you're done, remove the plastic bags and blow e/thing off with shop air if available. Fire it up, and let it get up to operating temp to burn off the water. A ride on a non-dirt road wouldnt hurt, either. GL

 

Well... thats one way to do it. I have used that method a few times before, but frankly, its not the safest route. Being 18, I definately understand your Point of view on $$$... Heres a safer method for you to get comfortable with:

Take some old rags that you dont mind scrapping at the end of the day. have a bucket of 50-50 SG to water or citrus cleaner (diluted to respective ratios, of course), and dip one of the rags in it. Wipe down what you can before the rag gets loaded with grime. Then, have another bucket with straight water in it to rinse out the crud. Then, dry off what you have done with your other rag.

I dont reccommend drying until you have the majority of the dirt off... Also, dont be afraid when you end up spending a couple of hours the first time-- after that, just maintain it. In 5 minutes, you can touch up the accumulated dust, but only after one thorough cleaning.

 

Never had a problem doing it may way.

Which is, take a spray bottle of SD or Megs All Pourpose Orange....spray it down until its all wet. Let is soak for 5 min. Then take a water house and remove any kind of spray nozel on it and just use water to wash off the spray.

Do this on a dry cool engine. After that, let it dry and come back and spray HyperDress all over the bay.

works wonders.

 

that a pacifica?? looks real good under the hood though. spray and rinse, then wipe with dressing works that well?

 

Yeah that is a pacifica, I do the same thing to my F250 but since i am traveling in Boston right now I have very limited bandwidth on the laptop so I grabbed the first photo I had handy. Sorry for the typos too...geez, it was late for me when I posted it.

To be clear, there was NO wiping done on that engine. It was all done by spray bottles. The Megs All Purpose was washed up with a hose. Then the Hyperdress was applied by spray bottle and let to sit and dry on its own. That is the result. Hyperdress is my fav product...I think RockPick loves that stuff too.

Edit, here is a photo of my F250

 

RollingRock your method seems simple and effective, so after you spray the megs it is ok to lightly hose down the bay? dont i want to cover some areas up with plastic to avoid water?

 

Sorry for the slow response was in Boston then flight back to DFW.

Just got home.

Ok, use the cleaner first then use a hose to wash it off, no pressure. It will come off good. If you are worried, start it up after that....if not fully clean, do again on the trouble spots,.

Then use the hyperdressing and walk away. Good to go.

 

Those pics look... perfect! I might have to try this hyperdressing stuff out. But I have a question first, does it attract or repel dust? That would be my biggest concern with using stuff under the hood. I learned of a similar method (just about the same exact look too) on another forum that's basically the same but using Turtle Wax's f21 tire foam spray. The number one thing about the f21 is it doesn't attract dust or leave a oily residue. Here's the link: http://www.svtperformance.com/forums...&highlight=f21

Here's a pic if you don't wanna look at the link and wanna see how good the stuff works:



Basically the same look as the hypersressing. I've been testing it on my exterior plastic on my daily beater and so far, not only does it not attract dust (it seems to repel), but drumroll..... no runs when it rains. It's cheap too!

 

Emig5m...hot truck bro, that looks nice.

I used to use that same product but moved to hyperdress when I went full out OCD.

To answer your question about repelling dust and dirt. Check this photo out. I almost got stuck in the field, slung mud everywhere...check my tires, they were IN THE MUD. How do they look to you


Note the clumps of mud on the garage floor, fender wheel and rear qtr panel. Wheels are treated with Hyperdress. Not to bad if you ask me.

It was raining so the rain spray cleaned most of the mud off, it was really, really bad when I came out of the field.

 

Not bad... and that's not my pic, that just the one from the link where I learned of it. I wasn't aware until that link that you could make the motor bay look that good! If I didn't have the internet, I'd probably still be washing my trucks with dawn dish soap and a shop rag, lol. I'll be trying hyperdressing sometime in the future, but right now I'm happy with f21 and it's easy availability.

 

I don't see to much mud but that clump of grass is pretty impressive!!!