 |
|
Engine Compartment Detailing |
Engine compartments can be a real knuckle buster! Here are some tips that help me keep things looking good: KEEP AFTER IT: If you want a show quality engine compartment, you have to keep after it buy cleaning on a regular schedule. Engines can be more trouble than the exterior because paint usually doesn't have a good purchase on the metal so it chips, peels and rusts more easily. I find that regular washings are a good idea to keep dust and dirt down. Even today's better sealed engines have a lot of oil fumes circulating in the compartment and if they land on dirt/dust, then it turns to sludge that is harder to get off. Regularly clean the compartment by spraying down with a gentle cleaner like Simple Green or the STP Citrus spray. lightly spray and then rinse with a low pressure stream of water. Do this on a warm but not HOT engine. Don't spray things like plug wires, coils and electrical connections a lot, but today's modern connectors are a lot more water resistant than most people give them credit for. A little water from a hose won't hurt under the hood, since lots of water gets in there on a rainy day anyway, and at high speeds, lots of water goes through the radiator onto the engine. After spraying down, take an old towel and wipe down everything you can reach. It helps to remove the battery on a regular basis and clean around and under it. Keep your battery in good shape and if you don't have a totally sealed battery, have it checked often and replace at the first hint of deterioration. Battery acid accumulation happens when batteries get old or when alternators have to work overtime to keep them charged. A malfunctioning voltage regulator/alternator can overcharge a good battery. That acid can remove paint very effectively, so clean the area often. Baking soda is still the best thing to neutralize battery acid and then rinse it away. Use our Battery Mat under your battery to help prevent acid damage under your battery. After cleaning the terminals and area around your battery, a light coating of grease on the terminals is OK, but I prefer a spray of clear-coat paint. Mask off the area with newspaper and spray the terminals with high temp clear to help slow down more problems. there are other products for this purpose, and if you have something you like, let me know and I will try it and post it here, or maybe add it to my products! UPDATE: Since writing the above paragraph, I have since found a better product that I get from the Interstate Battery distributor in my area. It is a Battery Terminal spray that is clear (they used to sell one that was red, I never liked that one) and it has worked great for me. Better than Clear paint, and much less messy than coating with grease. Also another DCCarCare.com visitor recently sent this comment: "I always use Vaseline on battery terminals (after a baking soda and water cleaning) to protect them against future corrosion. Probably accomplishes the same thing as your "grease" suggestion. But I like the Vaseline as it's essentially transparent. I apply it with a Q-Tip or two though a tiny sponge-tipped applicator would probably work better at getting the stuff into all the cracks and undersides of the terminals (the fibers of the Q-Tip tend to get stringy real quick!). But the Vaseline does do the job!" Bill Wright via e-mail. Wurth rubber care is great to use on hoses and other plastic pieces under the hood. spray them directly for that shiny "used car" look, or wipe them on for a more natural look. You can get engine paints at most parts stores, but some modern engines have special colors that are hard to match. For the SHO Taurus for instance, one of our enthusiasts has had a special mix of paint created and canned just for this purpose. Other makes may have the same thing, so check with the club for your brand/model of car if you can't find paint on the shelf. Eastwood company is a competitor for some of my types of products, but I don't mind pointing you their way for detail paints for many engine compartments and other restoration supplies. I use a lot of Eastwood's Semi-gloss under hood black for my 60's era cars. This will also work on lots of brackets on modern cars. A variety of brushes including an old toothbrush and several old paint-brushes will help get into corners around modern and older engines. Don't be afraid to take some things off that help you get to tight areas. Some brackets or air filter assemblies are fairly easy to take off if you study them a little so you don't break things. Many of the bolts and hardware pieces are unique under a modern hood, so be careful not to drop them! What do do about that hood pad? Man that's a tough problem. Some of My SS Impala friends take a new pad and spray it with several cans of high temp clear to create a surface that is cleanable. But I am not so sure that this won't be a fire hazard, so do this at your own risk. Most of the time, you should keep water away from these pads. Once water gets on them, you might as well really soak it. I have taken some hood pads and sprayed them lightly with flat black high temp paint. Again, this might make the pad more "burnable" in case of an under hood fire, but if you let the paint dry and only use a light coat, it should not effect it much. Of course you can always just take that pad off once it gets ugly. Usually removal of the pad won't cause your hood paint to peel, the pad is there mostly to cut down on noise reflected through the hood. Be careful, if you have a factory fiberglass or plastic hood like my SHO, the pad has a foil backing that acts to prevent RFI (radio frequency interference) noise since a steel hood usually acts to do that. Be sure to check out the radiator/AC cooler for bugs. Sometimes you can remove the grill and get to this area to brush it out. If not, then go to a car wash and use the high pressure spray to try to clean out the radiator fins. Sometimes you can get to these radiators from underneath, and sometimes you can use a garden hose from under the hood to spray from the engine side through to the grill to clean them out. CAUTION! some electric fans can come on if the engine is hot even if the key is off, so only stick your hand/hose in that area if the battery is disconnected or you have a fan on the motor, not an electric motor! I use the high pressure wash at a car wash once in a while on cars that are not show quality, but I want to keep grime down the easy way. Modern ignitions are very waterproof but still, don't concentrate on the wires more than you have too. Use an air hose if you have access to one to blow out crevices and get water away from sensitive areas. Don't forget to check all fluid levels, replace gaskets that are leaking, clean/check the air filter SUPER TIP: No matter where you park your car, mice can get to it. It never hurts to check your airbox once in a while for mouse nests. If you have a complicated intake "horn" that goes around and under the front end, check it frequently for blockage. I have solved some major drivability problems for friends by finding mouse nests that sometimes totally block off the airflow! |
|
