dirty engine :(

[briantech]

While I was under the car the other day taking out the CAGS and changing a fog light, I noticed that the underside of the engine is really really crappy looking. I can't tell if its rust, or built up dirt, or both:


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Here's a bit of a different angle, though blurry

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Then here's a look at the headers from the top down:

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Aaaand finally, I also noticed my disk brakes up front and somewhat in the back are rusted as well:

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Is there anything I can do to clean any or all of these things? I also noticed that quite a few of the other components under the car looked to have caked on dirt. Also with the disk brakes, I was going to paint the calipers so I figured when I did that I'd try and clean and polish the disks while I was at it.

And then also the engine... will a simple $5 bottle of degreaser from pepboys do anything, or is there somewhere I can take it to have them clean all that off? Or could I just get under there with a soapy brush and scrub everything? I dont want to screw anything up, but at the same time it really irks me that its all dirty like that.

[tabahr]

It looks like you have a combination of rust and dirt. The dirt will clean off with a good degreaser like Gunk or Simple Green, but the rust will not.

Here is what I did in the past...
use a pressure washer to clean the engine bay. Soak it all down with Gunk foaming engine brite first, then let it sit for a bit. Use the high pressure to blow it clean. Try and stay away from the ignition components. Towel dry and finish with some silicone spray on everything. towel off the silicone and it will leave a nice new clean look. When plastic parts are made, they use a mold release in the molding process. It leaves a light shine like the silicone.

Then.. I put the car up as high as I can get it on big 6ton Jackstands. (I even carpeted the heated garage) I then remove the wheels and start restoring the undercarriage. A wire wheel on a drill will clean up rotors and calipers. Simple green will clean up plastic and painted surfaces. I would actually take apart alot of the plastic stuff so I could clean it perfectly. Clean the insides of the rims with a heavy duty grease remover. Replace the brake pads if they are less than 50% and clean up the brakes. Another cheap easy thing to upgrade while the car is elevated is the bushings in the sway bars. I disasembled many things and repainted them also. You can bake parts in you oven to cure the new paint (kind of stinky). Under the hood I removed the air intake tube, throttle body (clean the throttle bores well), battery, many smaller hoses and detail under everything. I even waxed the bottom of the car and polished the 3" borla exhaust with Mothers Aluminum polish and steel wool. I could see my face in the muffler. This process took all winter, a bit at a time. (I was single at the time cut me some slack )

I cannot wait until my kids are a bit older so I can attack my current car this thoroughly. I'll have it looking like new underneath. Maybe next winter. It is a TON of work, bit I find it FUN!

[DJ Taso]

I heard its safe to power wash your engine while it's running at the car wash. Is that safe?

[Jeff_in_Atl]

"Is that safe?"
Opti + water = -$1000 (for replacing dead OPTI) (LT1s)
You shouldn't put cold water on a hot engine especially an aluminum on. When you heat treat metal, you get it hot then quench it in either water or oil depending on the metal to shock the particles into an alignment that makes it harder. Sometimes this shock will cause the metal to crack as it contracts. Granted the heat treat temperature of steel is 1400-1500 degrees But headers can get this hot.

A little story for you, I took machine shop in college and one of the projects was to make a hammer. Well I decided to case harden my hammer head so I put it in the furnace and heated it up till it was cherry red at ~1450 degrees. I then took it out and quenched it in the water. I used a 5 gallon bucket that was about 3/4s full of water. When I stuck the hammer head in, the shock shot all but about an inch of water straight up out of the bucket all over my face mask and the 2 story ceiling. Scared the poopie out of me. Thank goodness it was a full face mask.

[02 BlackHawk]

Originally posted by Jeff 95 Z28
Scared the poopie out of me. Thank goodness it was a full face mask.

Hahaha............I like the technical terms used by mechanical type designer guys

[briantech]

Do LS1's have this optispark thing? If so, can I remove it temporarily while spraying down the engine? If not... where is it located exactly, so I'll know to try and avoid it at all costs...

[tabahr]

No opti on the LS1. The PCM fires the coil packs individually.

[Joe 1320]

Originally posted by Jeff 95 Z28
.............. When I stuck the hammer head in, the shock shot all but about an inch of water straight up out of the bucket all over my face mask and the 2 story ceiling. Scared the poopie out of me. Thank goodness it was a full face mask.

Ahh... don't ya just love a learning experience? LOL, made my day.

[Steve95formula]

On the rotors I'd clean them up by spinning them around while cleaning them up with sand paper. Then spray high temp silver on the hubs and rotor edges. They will look pretty nice!