Have you looked under your hood lately

TechSmith

Since I've become a driver of a four wheeeled vehichle, I've noticed something strange. Car engines are usually dirty greasy messes. Up until this van, I only rode motorcycles. My bike engine was always spotless. Why is it that car engines are so dirty?

My plan now is to replace gaskets and O-rings to make the thing oil tight and clean the entire engine and bay. Any suggestion on what to use to clean this stuff?

TomDunne

There are plenty of engine cleaner and degreaser products on the market - walk into AutoZone and pick one. In general, I'd recommend pulling the battery, covering the other electrical components in the engine bay, and rinsing it with a hose. Follow manually with a cleaner as necessary, rinse it again, put everything back together and start it up to dry it off.

It's a lot easier to get things "spotless" if you can pull the engine, but I'm assuming that's not an option (and it's a hell of a lot of work for a cleaning project.) Also, once you have it clean, make an effort to keep it clean (about as often as you change your oil) as it's a lot easier to do when things haven't had long to get really caked on.

Why are you replacing seals on your oil line? Do you have an actual leak?

TechSmith

Found three spots that are leeaking. Fixing them after I find out which part #s need ordering, and the Haynes manual comes in.

TomDunne

Man, that's a pain. Are they coming out of the sump or off the oil pump?

ElysiumGX

I detail vehicles for part-time income. Most people don't care about the engine's appearance as long as it's not caked with mud, leaves, and pineneedles. I normally rinse it out and add protectant to all black plastic peices. If you want it show room spotless, don't drive it. Otherwise, good luck.

Products such as Greased Lightning, Purple Power, and various concentrated degreasers are great for removing tough dirt. Works awesome on tires to, but don't let it set for more than a minute. Turtle Wax makes a protectant that works great on plastics, tires, interiors. Buy some good brushes too. Most of those can be found at Advance, or Autozone...or even Walmart.

TechSmith

Verm, I really have no clue yet which parts are what. I've ridden motorcycles my whole life so this is all new to me.

ElysiumGX, thanks I'll look for those this weekend. Any ideas on what to do about paint for the black metal parts. There's a bit of rust on some of them.

sonic

Usually I go to a car wash (where I live, it's 25 cents for like 1.5 minutes), and one of the selections is engine cleaner. Just leave your car on, pop the hood, and spray your engine with it, then with water. It'll take a couple min to get the water out of the engine, but it's a good way to clean it. Make sure you don't turn it off, because it'll get the spark plugs wet and you won't be able to start back up for a while.

TomDunne

That's cool, Dave. It's basically the same as with a motorcycle: oil is drawn from the oil pan, throught filter, squirted onto the cylinder walls, then back down into the sump. The obvious difference is that you have have more cylinders on a car engine, so you have more seals that might need replacing. Personally, I'd take it somewhere and have it done, as that kind of work is usually a pain (unless you're a fan of lying on your back under car engines.)

TechSmith

I understand the concept but the placement all seems weird to me. I'm used to things more being compact.
I'll probably do the work myself just because I like the sense of acomplishment.

ElysiumGX

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ElysiumGX, thanks I'll look for those this weekend. Any ideas on what to do about paint for the black metal parts. There's a bit of rust on some of them.

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I sometimes use any good quality enamel spray can for a shiny coat, and a Krylon paint to resurface some of the rough areas of the chassis. I live near the coast, so most vehicles rust rather quickly here. I made the mistake of buying chrome rims for my truck, so I have to polish over them with a fine steel wool pad every month or so.