Cleaning engines

[Vertigo]

yo
now, i know my bluetop 4age isnt the newest thing on the block, but id still like to make it look sparkly clean. at the mo its completely black. is there any way to make the block shine like bare metal again? or did they never come like that?

[moose.cannon]

have you tried engine degreaser?

[Silent Knight]

have you tried engine degreaser?

Sandblaster.

Anyway... use a shitload of that Super Cheap Degreaser as it's very cheap.
Then get a steam blaster and steam clean the lot. All the degreaser and the presurised heat from the steam should clean it all very nicely...

[MrOizo]

just take to it with a water blaster - thats what i always do on my engines to make them look factory bling again

[sergei]

if it is 16v 4AGE be ready to pull out plug leads and blow out water with compressed air - there will be litres of it.

[RS13]

Haha, I've just finished degreasing my engine bay, all I used was a can of degreaser from supercheap ($2.25), a brush and the hose on full noise. Looks awesome, and I find that spraying the black plastic bits with bumper shine or tyre shine makes them look brand new..

And regarding the 4AGE, I had that problem, I degreased it using the above method, it was sweet that night, drove to work the next day just fine, but leaving work it decided to start running on 3, then 2 cylinders.. yeap, water in the plugholes. Something to watch for! The guy that bought the car commented on how clean the engine looked, lol.

[flat_0ut]

Good old elbow grease

[summin]

You can buy this real nasty alloy cleaning/degreaser stuff from supercheap. Just brush it on and rinse off, have to wear gloves and stuff apparently...Friend of mine's dad has used it on his escorts and lotus racecars for years

[toyrota mota]

It may be expensive but that $9-12 degreaser think its called hot shot is atleast 10 times better than the supercheap branded stuff. Itll proablily work out in the long run you'll use way less hot-shot than the supercheap stuff. Oh and having your engine warm makes all the crap come off way easier.

[B1NZ]

Once clean, use a can or 2 of silcon spray for super blingyness

[Vertigo]

cheers guys. silicon spray you say? how shiny can these blocks get?

[rallymazda]

if you cant see your face in it then it isnt shiny enough!

[B1NZ]

Silicon spray is mainly for hoses and other ubber bits etc, to add a shine to them, it'll make your car look like its just come off a yard

[Skin]

i find once you have sprayed the silicon on, wipe it back off again with a clean rag. It will still look super new, but wont have the greasiness that the spray does. Plus you watch how fast dust etc sticks to freshly siliconed parts....

[mycoolcar]

Whatever you do make sure you don't use the degreaser on the paint work of the car. I groom cars for a rental car company, most of these have had degreaser used on the paint work roughly once every 1 or 2 weeks when the cars have been cleaned. Thd older rental cars are showing bare metal at parts where the degreaser has stripped the paint off. Sure that is prolonged use, but it still pays to be careful.

Once a year shouldnt have much affect on the engine paint.

[matt dunn]

make the block shine like bare metal again? or did they never come like that?

They were never shiny to start with. You may get i clean, but it will still look like cast steel, not flat shiny steel plate.

[$CENSLS1$]

make the block shine like bare metal again? or did they never come like that?

They were never shiny to start with. You may get i clean, but it will still look like cast steel, not flat shiny steel plate.

Unless you get it polished...