Engine Detailing

A

airjames

New member
MY last attempt at detailing my engine was not a very good one. Seemed like it took forever for the engine to cool down, I faded out my air cleaner intake tube but that's about it. I want to make my engine look sharp this time. It's been several months since I last did it and I would like to try again. I have some EF Engine Degreaser and P21S Total Auto Wash. Now that I know more about engine detailing, here's my plan





Mask off engine - alternator and ECM (anything else I need to mask off??? )



Rinse off engine with garden hose



Only use EF Engine Degreaser on metal areas using shop towels



Car Wash in a spray bottle with water mixed for rubber and plastics, again using shop towels



Rinse engine



I"m not sure what to use to dress my engine with, any suggestions here????? IS my plan ok ????? Thanks everyone

:xyxthumbs ,,,,,,,,,91
 
Your ECM is under your dash. No need to mask it... :D



Cover your rotor! It's a round, softball sized thing with nine wires sticking up out of it and running to each sparkplug and the coil. It has a little venthole that lets water in, and keeps your engine from firing.
 
:up



Thanks Colin,

My truck is a 98 so it doesn't have a distributor. It has coils. What's weird about it is my truck is a Ranger with the 2.5L dual plug setup, i.e, It has 2 spark plugs per cylinder. I"ll mask that off as well. I think I will try it today and see how the engine looks. Thanks,,,,91
 
My problem is there is so many nooks and crannies in my engine I don't even know where to start. Anyone in Ohio who will be willing to help me here???? I would rather just pay someone on here to do it so they can show me then I would know how to do it,,,,,91
 
Ah, I thought you were working on a '91 F-150. Assumed that from your name.



Not too familiar with the Rangers, but does it have Coil On Plug (COP. a coil for each plug) or a coil pack or two? If it has COP, PULL THEM OFF! If just coil packs with wires cover them up. COP coils are very, very sensitive.
 
Well at Carmax we would powerwash the crap out of the engines (without covering any electrical components) and only the VW Jettas and Chevy Trucks seemed to have problems afterwards. I also once had a dodge ram give me problems after washing the engine. Some would misfire and others wouldnt even hold an idle. This was very rare though, even after washing 200 cars a week for years! Never had a problem with a Ford though (and I've cleaned 100's) so as long as you cover things up you should be fine.
 
Thanks guys,



Gives me alot more confidence to work on it. I want the best for my Ranger and I want to do the right thing.



Colin,



At the time I registered at this site I had a 91 F150. Brown and Tan with the 300 I6 engine with some basic mods to it. The Body was in awesome shape, no bondo or rust. It looked great but mechanically it was dieing. I had a K&N Filter, y pipe unmuffled duals behind the cat and Pioneer CD player. It was a damn good truck but it just started costing me way too much.



My Ranger has 2 coil packs on it. There right there on top of the engine and I"m thinking the easiest way to do this mark the plug wires where they go and just take them off, and mask off the coils, spark plug ends and alternator. From there What I"ll do is instead of having to use 2 different products on the engine is take my P21S Total Auto Wash and mix it in a little bucket of warm water with some shop towels. Take my time and wash the engine down by hand. Hopefully this will work out ok, any other suggestions I"m wide open too. Thanks again everyone,,,,91:wavey
 
NozeBleedSpeed is right. Make sure you start the engine immediately after cleaning and let the water burn off the engine while you are wiping down under the hood (watch for fan belts and other moving parts).



My car does have a distributer so I make sure I tie a plastic grocery bag around it. The one time I didn't bother was the one time I had to pull the cap and wipe water out of it so my car would stop missing.
 
use some belt dressing on the belts, i would put wd40 on metals and things that shouldnt get wet... in order to avoid the water... and finally... stoners works excelent to dress everything else... if not use turtle wax tire wax its also good and meguiars natural shine works good too... but for ease of use i would go with stoners... i personally do not dress my own engine... i prefer a clean engine bay that is easy and clean to work with, but clients love the shine and whatnot so i dress it for them:xyxthumbs
 
I've always gone to the power wash, left the engine running and sprayed the heck out of everything but trying to keep the direct spray off the distributor, alternator , etc. Never had a problem in probably 15to 20 washes.
 
F-150_91- The P21S TAW is good stuff, but *I* use it straight (undiluted) for jobs like yours. *I* would also have a solvent (prepsol, etc.) on hand. Some people use brake cleaner, but it's a good way to blow up the garage if you make a mistake.
 
ok this is frustrating and really getting on my nerves bigtime:mad: :down :down :grrr :grrr I open up the hood of my truck and it's like I don't know what to do. I know I sound like a crybaby whiney little *****. I want to do this right the first time. My main problem here is masking. Like I said before, my Ranger has dual plug ignition and 2 coils. 4 plug wires on each coil. so 2 coils. I need to know the best way to mask off. I sit there with plastic baggy and tamper around with the stupid thing and,,,,,,,,,,well you get the point. Point is I"m about ready to say screw this because I don't know what to do. I"m about ready to pay someone to just show me how to detail the stupid thing. I got $35, anyone care to help me out, please???????? I Am truely lost here. :mad:
 
I did some thinking on this and I'm pretty sure I have found the best way to do it for me. I'm not even going to mask off anything. I just bought a 200 box thing of shop towels for $10 at Autozone. Using P21S TAW mixed like I would a regular wash bucket and just wash the engine wiping everything down and taking my time. I plan on doing the entire engine from the air cleaner to the engine block. I'm going to take it section at a time using as little water as possible but enought to thoroughly rinse the engine. I don't expect it to be perfect but I do expect a damn clean engine:D I don't have any engine dressing so I"ll have to live without it for now. I already took some before pics of the engine and about couple hrs later from now I'll take some after pics,,,,,91
 
When drying the engine compartment do you guys use a leaf blower to get water out of all those little spaces? I've done so a number of times, worked real well.
 
F-150_91- Your plan with the shop rags sounds good to me. Try to get the WORST of it and then maybe let the rest of it go until the next wash- don't let it get overwhelming/frustrating by trying to do it all at once. Once it looks BETTER you won't mind working on it as much.



To mask stuff off in there without going nuts, try aluminum foil. *I* find it a LOT easier to deal with than baggies, etc. Easy on, easy off.
 
Well I motorvated myself to detail my engine. Mixed up P21S TAW bought a box of shop rags and Stoners Trim Shine. I didn't mask off because I'm still not sure how to do it right. Yea, wrap the foil around it but how do you keep it there and this and that. Didn't short anything and the engine looks awesome:xyxthumbs



Just a side note: When using Stoners Trim Shine, make sure you got plently of ventilation because that stuff stinks to high heaven and oversprays like hell. Pics to come,,,,,,,91:up
 
Products i use when cleaning my engine bays.



1. Tooth Brush

2. Copper Wire Brush

3. Steel Wool

4. Old MF towels

5. Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish

6. wd-40

7. Simple Green

8. Vinyl & Rubber Protectant

9. QD



Once you get in there and start working you will figure out where to use everything.



Here are the engine bay of my cars.



10954dsc01274.jpg


10954dsc01661.jpg
 
Looks great, Mantic. What did you use to make the black things truly look black? What vinyl and rubber protectant?
 
I am not sure if anyone will agree , but I spray my 2 Rangers engine compartments with 50/50 Bleche/white, rinse (lightly, Dry, then Armor All foam and its clean and shiney
 
I use Meg's super degreaser 4:1 and Hyper Dressing 1:1 to clean and dress engines. Put soap on the sides of the car around the engine to prevent any problems with the paint when cleaning engines.
 
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