i have a 85 PU and it looks like the engine has not been cleaned since about then. i have used "Gunk" and spreayed it down 3 or 4 different times but it does not seem to clean it too much. i was wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks on cleaning engines.

 

Park it somewhere, cover the distributer cap and other stuff, spray some water on it (just a tad), and literally spray the whole engine bay with like a half bottle of degreaser.

Then scrub with a toothbrush really well, and rinse off. Then you can use tire cleaner and make your hoses look really black!

 

lol truck that old its not gonna get any cleaner

 

what am i covering the distributor with? cloth? plastic? what?

 

plastic grocery bag

 

I got heavy duty oven degreaser from work and it took everything off. The only thing is you need to find a place where you can do it without it getting into water. I did mine on my dad's gravel driveway. it's still there but it's not hurting anything there.

 

Doesn't that stuff eat up aluminum? Sounds too caustic to me.

 

My $0.02:

1. Run enigine until hot
2. Cover electric plugs, dist., etc. with Glad 'Press-n-seal'---works like magic
3. spray liberally (whole bottle) with simple green
4. Let is sit for 15 mins. then start scrubbing
5. Trickle water from hose to rinse everything
6. Use air hose and spray away puddles around intake, sp. plugs, etc.
7. Start engine and run until dry
8. Repeat as necessary
9. Use Tire cleaner on anything black (hoses, plastic, etc.)
10. Enjoy your brand new (looking) engine.

.....pics coming soon, my camera took a crap on me.

 

you gotta scrub

 

Thats what I did, its also easier if you sit inside the engine bay with a scrub brush (I found a toilet brush works great) and a bucket of hot soapy water too



Those 3M pads on a die grinder work pretty good on the aluminum valve covers too:

 

I would just borrow or buy a pressure washer. They make engine cleaning a breeze.

 

that's the easiest way

 

when I wash off the degreaser I hook up the hose to the hot water heater.