[FooFighter]

OK this tutorial will cover how to get your engine bay looking new again. I will come right out and say that this IS a repost off of another site... I jut want it on here to help make the How-To section on this site more complete.

How To Clean The Engine Bay:

Supplies
Can of Gunk Foamy Engine Brite
Can of Foaming Tire Shine
Garden Hose

Instructions
Do this with the engine cold and completely dry.

The supplies...

Engine before...

On most cars before you spray anything into the engine, cover up the air filter, battery, and distributor. Seeing as 2/3 of those aren't exposed in my engine bay you won't see that done in the pictures. As long as your Distributor Cap is on tight it shouldn't get water inside it. Spray Gunk Foamy Engine Brite onto the cold dry engine and let sit for about 20 minutes...

Make sure to get it into all the crevices and the especially grimy areas...

Spray it clean with a hose...

Spray foaming tire shine onto the engine...

Close the hood and drive around for about 30 minutes until all the water has evaporated and the tire shine has dried.

Pop the hood to see how clean and shiny the engine now is. Wipe down all the spotty areas such the distributor cap, radiator hoses, and radiator.

Now the engine is nice and clean. Here it is from several different angles...

Notes:
Doing this cost me about $4.

I got this tutorial from this site Here

It is for the forth-gen civic but many of the tutorials will work for the crx.

 

[g4crx]

Thanks for the tip, need to do this to mine very soon :wink:

 

[Krix]

the distributor and alternator are a few things you dont want to be hosing down. cover those up with a plastic bag.

last time i cleaned the valve cover on my h22 i scrubbed it down and rinsed it off like ive done before. this time water got down into the spark plug tubes. The car would barely run, just a word of advice and a warning.

 

[SETI20]

I found that most grease-like substances look really good for a couple of days, but attract dirt 10x over as fast.
I haven't tried the tire shine stuff yet tho. I just used wax on the metal parts with a rag and armorall on the plastics.

Also, I did get water in my dizzy, and in one of my spark plug shafts once. Car ran rough for several days.

 

[downest]

I'm a little OCD... I do this weekly...

I don't like the Engine brite degreaser. I've cleaned the filthiest bays with only simple green. SG is cheap, smells a lot better, and it's non-toxic. You will need a stiff brush for excessive grease and grime, like the stuff that builds up behind the exhaust manifold and the bottom front of the tranny. Once you rinse it off, buff it with a soft cloth and it will all look good.

I like the tire foam, I used to use it to clean my air-cooled motorcycle because it got in between all the fins on the motor. The longer it sits on there, the better it cleans everything, I have seen that stuff completely strip a dirty motor of grease and dirt.
I don't like to use it often because I think it breaks down rubber and plastics, like the coolant hoses or the wiring. I've heard Armour-All does that and I assume this stuff is similar.

For the record, I HAVE eaten off my engine, autocross last week I set a bagel on the valve cover for lack of a better place, and it toasted it (had just driven 20 mins on the highway).

I'll get some updated pics this week, when I install the bling new tranny.

 

[ryan_long_01]

I'm a little OCD... I do this weekly...

Tom, that's clean as hell...nice job. I need to clean mine up and repaint my valve cover sometime.

 

[downest]

I'll do a full write up soon, with the wire tuck too

I actually have been slacking, haven't touched it in 2 or 3 weeks, I'll probably give it a nice scrubbing before autocross next weekend. Been spending a lot of time on stef's car, the reddest CRX bay you've ever seen!

I just painted my ZC tranny so it's about as clean as stickershop's, I hope to get that in this week.

 

[downest]

BTW this should probably be moved to Cosmetics/Detailing.

 

[SETI20]

Besides that it looks better?
Makes it nicer to work on. Clean is good.

Even if you don't work on your car yourself...makes it alot easier for the shop. Easier to spot leaks, worn stuff, ripped boots, what have you.
Less time spent taking gunk off before locating problem and swapping parts. Less labor. Less hours spent, cheaper bill.

Also makes it alot easier to see if you're getting stiffed when you get it back.

 

[downest]

It's also better for the motor to cool that way, when it's not covered in grease and stuff. When leaks happen or things go wrong you know immediately too, you can smell and see them faster.

 

[Baker]

I would love to clean under my hood, but I dunno, something about srpaying water into my engine bay and onto my motor has NEVER sat right with me.

I know ppl do this, but what are the correct steps and precautions to take before doing this?

 

[SETI20]

I would love to clean under my hood, but I dunno, something about spraying water into my engine bay and onto my motor has NEVER sat right with me.

I know ppl do this, but what are the correct steps and precautions to take before doing this?

I bet it doesn't rain where you live then.
Even the underside of my hood is soaked then I've gone driving through the rain.

But to put water directly on some parts, I would cover off, or avoid wetting the distributor, and some of the plugs. alto most are shielded pretty good.

 

[ITruns20s]

you could always just do what the car dealers do, pressure wash the hell out of the engine, let it dry, then clear coat the crap out of it, it'll shine for about a month, after that it might start cracking.