Cleaning the Ugly Greasy Engine

[John]

I pulled the engine on a 1999 Forester to change head gaskets. Turns out it seems every gasket that can leak, is leaking (oil pan, rear main seal, rear seperator plate, valve cover gaskets…)

The engine would easily win “best in show” in an ugly greasy engine contest. I have spent over an hour with a small brush and spray degreaser consuming a roll of paper towels in the process, and can proudly say that 6 square inches look great.

My question: can I power wash this thing or should I just give in to hopelessness? The heads and oil pan are off so I am worried that water and chunks of nastiness would get into the engine.

Topic

[Jon Hart]

Safest bet is to just keep at it with a good strong brush or strip what you can and put it in the parts washer you can pressure wash the engine but one false move and you’ll be left with a dead engine and a load of headache.

[Ingvar]

So engine is out of engine bay? I pressure washed engines lost count how many times, on car and usually running.
I’d have simply taken it to one of those quarter car washes. They do have engine degreaser and pressure washer. If you can. If you can not, SuperClean works fine.
It’s a boxer, flat engine, right? So you’ll need to do one side at a time. Soak, wash, turn, soak, wash. LET DRY. Blow with compressed air all water out of all the plugs and holes.

[Jesse]

Use GUNK, it’s a great product, leave it on for a bit, comeback and wipe and brush.

[Lorrin Barth]

I don’t know how Subaru’s survive, everything on the bottom is exhaust and everything on top leaks. They need a fire suppression system. This spring I’m pulling the engine out of my Imprezza just to replace all those gaskets before the engine gets like yours.

[Gary]

[quote=”barneyb” post=124168]I don’t know how Subaru’s survive, everything on the bottom is exhaust and everything on top leaks. They need a fire suppression system. This spring I’m pulling the engine out of my Imprezza just to replace all those gaskets before the engine gets like yours.[/quote] Subaru makes some..interesting designs to say the least.

[Mike]

Pressure washing is fine, but I recommend doing it only when the engine is fully assembled. I regularly wash engine bays before I begin a large engine or trans job. Just put it back together and then wash it before installing while it’s still hanging from the crane. Done that many a time.

[Erin]

Another chemical that works for cleaning engine parts or whatever on the engine is mineral spirits.
You can get a gallon for like $10 or a quart for $5 at walmart.
Maybe get a spray bottle to get those hard to reach places if the engine is in the bay.
Some crap on an engine just will NOT come off.
Mineral spirits will cause plastic parts to look foggy once it dries, but that is nothing a little Armor All won’t fix.
Plus with M.S. you don;t need to wash it off with water, it just evaporates.

M.S. is stronger than degreaser. When I worked at a transmission shop, we used it to clean trans parts, valve bodies….
It didn’t have much effect on nasty varnish but anyways.

[Rereonehundred]

I laugh every time when I think about those commercial products called “Engine Shampoo”.

Even funnier is that some work very well.

[Author]

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