Is there a preferred way to bulk degrease an engine as expediently as possible? I'm doing this on my m117 in my w126 and will soon do it on the 500E. I've been using wire brushes and degreasing products which has worked well on the front of the m117 in tighter areas but now I'm moving on to everything rear of the oil pan. Just spray a ton of degreaser on it and gently power wash? Just a lot of time/elbow grease? Any way to not leave a huge mess on your street/driveway?
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How to DIY bulk degrease an engine?
- Thread starter dionphaneuf
- Start date
I don't know how you are getting access to the underside, but I have been spreading an old sheet and/or large drip pan under the car (I have a lift) and clean using brushes and water-soluble degreaser. Then I use a spray bottle of water to rinse. This keeps the mess to a minimum. It takes very little water to rinse. If you wanted to use the power washer after the process you could safely do so without making a mess of the street or driveway.
Get a few cans of citrus-scented engine cleaner from FLAPS/McParts and visit the local coin-op carwash, ideally early morning where few people will see what you are doing. I use a jack under 1 front corner to lift the car for better access. Don't crawl underneath, for obvious reasons! Lifting one corner gives room to spray degreaser and place the spray nozzle from below. If you don't lift, you can only clean from above, and most of the crud is down low (gravity and all that).
Run the heater on MAX while you are putting on your overalls, spraying the engine, and getting the jack in place. Try to get engine temp down near ~60C before dousing it with cold water. The high-pressure rinse from the carwash will blast off 90% of the thick crud. Finish the remaining 10% at home by hand scrubbing.
I use citrus-scented degreaser because the non-scented stuff can reek to high heaven and remain stinky for days or weeks afterwards. I had used Gunk Citrus, but that appears NLA now, or at least I can't find it anymore in the aerosol can. There are some other brands of similar juice. Edit: If you use Simple Green, make sure it is the aluminum-friendly "Aircraft" version (link).
If you must do this at home, I'd get a huge plastic sheet to capture all the crud, and let the liquid evaporate. Then roll up & discard.
Run the heater on MAX while you are putting on your overalls, spraying the engine, and getting the jack in place. Try to get engine temp down near ~60C before dousing it with cold water. The high-pressure rinse from the carwash will blast off 90% of the thick crud. Finish the remaining 10% at home by hand scrubbing.
I use citrus-scented degreaser because the non-scented stuff can reek to high heaven and remain stinky for days or weeks afterwards. I had used Gunk Citrus, but that appears NLA now, or at least I can't find it anymore in the aerosol can. There are some other brands of similar juice. Edit: If you use Simple Green, make sure it is the aluminum-friendly "Aircraft" version (link).
If you must do this at home, I'd get a huge plastic sheet to capture all the crud, and let the liquid evaporate. Then roll up & discard.
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I use kerosene with a stiff brush. From stripping antiques in the past I learned to take a Chinese Brissel paint brush and cut down the brissel to half length and they become very stiff and last a long time.
Anyway I brush the affected area down to loosen up the crud. Then (this is where it gets messy) I take a simple sand blaster attached to my air compressor and put the pick up hose in a gallon kerosene bottle and proceed to wash off the krud. It works great but you need a drip pan and a plastic tarp to collect the droppings. Per gsxr let the kerosene evaporate.
Reason for kerosene is it cleans w/o having to use water on your engine and it does a great job on cutting built up grease from oil leaks. Water does bad things to engines and kerosene won’t harm anything including paint finishes.
BTW, This is for drastic engine cleaning. My 500E doesn’t need this application but I have still used kerosene and brush for minor cleaning and blown it dry with compressed air.
Anyway I brush the affected area down to loosen up the crud. Then (this is where it gets messy) I take a simple sand blaster attached to my air compressor and put the pick up hose in a gallon kerosene bottle and proceed to wash off the krud. It works great but you need a drip pan and a plastic tarp to collect the droppings. Per gsxr let the kerosene evaporate.
Reason for kerosene is it cleans w/o having to use water on your engine and it does a great job on cutting built up grease from oil leaks. Water does bad things to engines and kerosene won’t harm anything including paint finishes.
BTW, This is for drastic engine cleaning. My 500E doesn’t need this application but I have still used kerosene and brush for minor cleaning and blown it dry with compressed air.
Ah, old school wisdom. Dad had a bucket and basket of kerosine in the garage always. Great stuff, and non-flammable under most circumstances. I was just explaining recently to the girlfriend the usefulness of those straight bristle brushes. They are not really easy to find these days.
For stubborn areas, for me the only thing that works is a steel brush and carb cleaner. Of course this is only on metal as carb cleaner will damage plastic etc. It makes a hell of a mess though, and the fumes from the carb cleaner means that you must be outside and wear a respirator and safety glasses and gloves of course, so this is really just for those areas where the degreaser and such does not make much of a dent. I concur with all the other posts though, all good advice.
Citrus is the best way to go. DO NOT use Simple Green on the engine. It is very unfriendly to anything aluminum.
Brake and/or carb cleaner is also excellent. The @gsxr's method for doing it at a car wash is an excellent idea, or you could use spray citrus cleaner in your garage with a sheet underneath. I would probably put some flattened cardboard boxes on top of the sheet to catch some of the liquid and crud, using the sheet as a barrier underneath.
When I did my 2020 Top-End Refresh, I placed a LARGE plastic pan under the front of the engine (under the front crank pulley/oil pan area) and sprayed it clean with 4-5 cans of brake cleaner. Large flattened cardboard boxes underneath the plastic pan. Took off 90% of the crap, which allowed me to get the rest by hand (you can see in my photos).
The best thing about brake cleaner is that the "buzz" you get while using it TOTALLY enhances the great feeling you get from the fact that you see your engine getting cleaner.
Brake and/or carb cleaner is also excellent. The @gsxr's method for doing it at a car wash is an excellent idea, or you could use spray citrus cleaner in your garage with a sheet underneath. I would probably put some flattened cardboard boxes on top of the sheet to catch some of the liquid and crud, using the sheet as a barrier underneath.
When I did my 2020 Top-End Refresh, I placed a LARGE plastic pan under the front of the engine (under the front crank pulley/oil pan area) and sprayed it clean with 4-5 cans of brake cleaner. Large flattened cardboard boxes underneath the plastic pan. Took off 90% of the crap, which allowed me to get the rest by hand (you can see in my photos).
The best thing about brake cleaner is that the "buzz" you get while using it TOTALLY enhances the great feeling you get from the fact that you see your engine getting cleaner.
Thanks for all the tips! This SimpleGreen is $$$ but rated on aluminum.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085VSXK1D?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Will be using more Citrus Cleaner going forward. It's a tedious process but rewarding to OCD and makes finding new issues/leaks waaaay easier.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085VSXK1D?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Will be using more Citrus Cleaner going forward. It's a tedious process but rewarding to OCD and makes finding new issues/leaks waaaay easier.
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Yes, this has been explicitly detailed in this post.
Recommend you use citrus, which has more power.
Saw that video last night, Totally Awesome looks to work great for general dirt/grime. I remember it up against other degreasers on Project Farm's channel.
Perhaps for caked on oil stains in the engine bay there are better degreasers like Super Clean mentioned in the video. Not sure about the safety on aluminum though.
Pressure washer and degreaser. You can also use Kerosene or diesel. Put the car up on ramps to get underneath it. Rhino ramps stack and can travel easily if you want to run to the car wash. The carwash engine degreaser or wheel cleaner that comes out of the wand will also do the job.
Its not a great idea but depends on what you spray. I prefer to use a low pressure garden hose, degreaser, and. a large paintbrush. I also have had good luck with powdered cleaner like comet.
For bare metal (on the block or intake etc.) xylene paint thinner and a small brush works really, really well just don't get it on anything painted or plastic as it will remove the finish. The bare metal will come out looking brand new but again be very careful.
I say NO to power washing an engine from
experience. I washed my 87 Starion let it dry out for a while and drove it around the neighborhood and immediately blew a head gasket. That was about 35 years ago.
Since then I only use plain old paint thinner / kerosene with a stiff paint brush to wash an engine down. Once the grime is loose I take a small siphon sandblast rig I have and put the pickup hose in a gallon can of paint thinner / kerosene and wash it clean. No water used and the solvent evaporates. Works every time.
Note: You will need to put some kind of a catch pan under the car’s engine.
Anyway, Don’t use water….
experience. I washed my 87 Starion let it dry out for a while and drove it around the neighborhood and immediately blew a head gasket. That was about 35 years ago.
Since then I only use plain old paint thinner / kerosene with a stiff paint brush to wash an engine down. Once the grime is loose I take a small siphon sandblast rig I have and put the pickup hose in a gallon can of paint thinner / kerosene and wash it clean. No water used and the solvent evaporates. Works every time.
Note: You will need to put some kind of a catch pan under the car’s engine.
Anyway, Don’t use water….
If you are using a pressure washer, or high-pressure wand at a self-service carwash bay... be VERY careful where you direct the high pressure spray! DO NOT directly spray on any electrical connectors, components, etc etc. You generally want to only spray the engine block and related items that tend to be greasy (AC compressor, P/S pump, etc). The alternator will not be damaged if sprayed but also shouldn't be greasy.
Don't go crazy and wash the entire engine compartment. High pressure washing should only be needed to clean off oily gunk/grime which tends to be roughly below the level of the valve covers. You'll probably need to clean a lot of stuff up top (and, on the engine compartment sheet metal) by hand.
Water + Electrics =
Eh, I'm not saying have @ your EZL, caps, rotors etc with pressure washer but the engine as a whole is quite tolerant to water. Any DOHC engine you need to be careful around the spark plug tubes as they can readily fill up with water.. but the 117, 103 etc...NBD. On the 117 do be careful you don't get water up In to the distributor, there are some drain holes that will allow as much.
That aside, I let the power washer Eat, and I've done one engine I've done 500 at this point. I like to jack up the front and get the underside/wheel wells while I'm at it.
...and I'm still a die hard Spray 9 beleiver. I've tried So many others but this is really the perfect combo of cleaning power while Not tearing up alloys.
Do the power washing at your local wash it yourself, they have the appropritae catch for all the gunk...
jono
That aside, I let the power washer Eat, and I've done one engine I've done 500 at this point. I like to jack up the front and get the underside/wheel wells while I'm at it.
...and I'm still a die hard Spray 9 beleiver. I've tried So many others but this is really the perfect combo of cleaning power while Not tearing up alloys.
Do the power washing at your local wash it yourself, they have the appropritae catch for all the gunk...
jono
Like @jhodg5ck says I have also had no problems with sensible use of a pressure washer on dozens of MB engine bays and never had a single issue.
I use a steam / hot water type washer. Like my Lavor here:
It uses Diesel to heat the water up to 90c / near boiling. Engine up to normal temps. I then pre rinse brefly just to wet down, then spray on a degreaser and work it in to all accessible areas quickly with an assortment of detailing brushes.
Pressure wash all off paying particular attention to really grimy areas. The hot water makes a HUGE difference it cuts the grease away very easily.
Then as soon as I am done rinsing I use a leaf blower to blow the water out as much as possible concentrating on electrical plugs etc. Leave bonnet up for a hour after at least and it will quickly dry out with a combination of the hot water and residual engine bay heat.
