Do you just soap it and spray water at it? Will something bad happen if i do.. PLease i don't know how to clean an engine bay lol... just answer the question..

 

Here a quick little write up on how I do it...

Best way ever is the following, take it for what it's worth, it's tried and true..

Products needed: Simple Green, Turtle Wax F-21 tire dressing, several rags.

Here's a link to F21 so you know what it looks like:

http://www.turtlewax.com/main.taf?p=2,1,3,5

Here's the simple green for those that have never used it:

http://www.simplegreen.com/products_...se_cleaner.php



Start engine, get it warm, not hot, just nice and warm. As an example if the car was fully cooled, run it for 5-8 minutes. Turn off engine.

Cover the alternator and air filter on your intake, Aluminum foil works great since the motor is warm. Everything else can be subject to light rinsing type spray, including the covered fuse panel. All of these areas get hit by water when driven in the rain.

Lightly spray entire engine bay with water from hose, you will see some light steaming, this is good.

Spray the entire engine bay, including firewall, plastic parts, metal parts, loom, coils and hoses with Simple Green. Set the hood down, not fully closed, just to it's safety catch point, and go find something else to do for 15 to 20 minutes. Let the simple green do it's work. Closing the hood let's the simple green interact with the steam you created with the warm motor. This loosens the tough stuff up so you don't have to work so hard in those heavily soiled areas.

Open hood, look for heavily soiled areas, wipe them with a rag, use more simple green if necessary. Rinse lightly with hose.

Spray entire engine bay with F-21, it foams, coat everything just like the simple green coating you did.

Close hood again, walk away for 10-20 minutes or until nearly all the foam has dissipated.

Open hood, Wipe up any areas that water settled and such. Wipe up any areas that the F-21 didn't dissipate on it's own.

You will note that the F-21 restores the black plastic parts to the same oem flat black color they were when new.. It leaves the paint shiney with no streaks on the fenders and fire wall. Best of all, it is not greasey to the touch.

 

Don't even bother with it!

I took my A8L to the best shop in the city and they did the engine bay...

5 engine coils, 2 catylitic converters and 26 hours of labour later I got my car back. Thank goodness for warranty.

This would have easily been a $6000 fix from the dealership. The detail was $300.

Let your motor look like a motor......OR clean it by hand.

 

I used to have an Infiniti QX4 - which I just took to those coin car washes, rinsed it with a high pressure hose, then used the soap feature, then rinsed it down again - it would look great, and never caused me an issue.

Then I bought an Audi, popped the hood, saw the exposed alternator, remembered it was German, and closed the hood again =)

 

Pressure washers I stay away from. The high pressure will get you water where no water ever should get. Good tip Jhull, the key is to use light hose, like rain. Anything stronger is past the design limits of the engine.

 

so what do you do if you wanna clean all the sludge off the engine to see if any gaskets/seal are leaking, without damaging anything, I dont have a hose so I would be going to one of those self wash bays.

 

Borrow a hose. Dont use the self wash pressure washers. If anything IS leaking you'll ram water in there like a lonely prison cellmate.

I recommend picking up some Shop Towels over at Napa. Blue super duty paper towels. You can wipe away most of it and that will help you find leaks.

 

Engine on, Degreaser Let it soak in 3-5 minutes, wash with power wash (repeat if you'd like), wipe it down then WD-40 the whole engine bay, wipe it off then WD-40 Again.
Leave engine running for about 10-15 minutes before driving. Remember to mask off whatever you'd like! good luck!