Auto Engine Detailing
How to Detail a Car Engine

Clean is Good, Dirt is Bad

While any car enthusiast views a clean and detailed engine as standard protocol, many other people question the need to clean or degrease a car engine. Auto engine detailing serves a few roles when it comes to car ownership that you may not have considered.

Why Keep Your Engine Clean and Detailed:

• Dirt and grease are damaging to the many materials to be found underneath the car hood as part of the engine bay.
• I believe that auto mechanics treat your car accordingly when working or servicing your cars mechanics; clean engine means a higher level of respect towards your car.
• A clean engine means any leaks or other problems that are indicated with visual signs like excess oil, dirt, or grease, are detectable earlier rather than later.

Understanding the Basics of Engine Detailing

This area of car care and auto detailing will find as many opinions as there are people. Most of which are filled with unsubstantiated warnings about getting the fuse box wet or the alternator wet. Once again, common sense should always be applied and I would never recommend allowing gallons of water to enter a fuse box or alternator, but a little understanding will go a long way into understanding the nature of modern day car engines.

Engines of Today are Not Engines of Yesterday

Back in the day, let's say 20 years or more, when cleaning a car engine, it was necessary to cover certain areas of the engine bay to prevent water from entering. Typically this meant removing the air cleaner to cover the carburetor opening and/or covering exposed fuse relays and connectors. There was no shortage of stories from people who had attempted auto engine detailing themselves only to find the car engine would not start. But most of this was due to cracks in rubber boots on spark plug wires and coil wires.

The Analysis of an Engine

Above is a picture of a Chevy Camaro RS engine. If you examine this picture closely, you will see just how a modern day engine is fully protected from the elements of weather and minimal water exposure. While this does not make cars submersible underwater, it does mean car manufacturers have greatly used plastic shrouding, covers of many types, and updated electrical connectors to reduce exposure from the many threats of car ownership such as dirt and water. This all means good news for car enthusiasts and anyone else looking to perform auto engine detailing and cleaning. No more covering exposed areas like engines of old; simply apply a little degreaser, hose off, and you are good to go.

Steps to Auto Engine Detailing

Yes, that previous description was a little oversimplified, but not by much. Follow along as I lay out specific steps and products you can use yourself when detailing under the hood of your car and will go as follows:

• Spray degreaser to entire engine area including under side of hood, entire engine bay area, etc.
• Agitate heavily soiled areas manually with brush.
• Hose off with water from either garden hose with pressure nozzle, or some form of pressure washer.
• Blow excess water from all engine components and engine bay with electric leaf blower or pressurized air.
• Start engine and run for about 5 minutes to complete drying process of all engine components.
• Apply engine dressing if desired for amazing shine and professional results.

Expert Products for Engine Detailing

Now that you have useful understanding to the engine auto detailing process, let's break down the specific products and tools you can get for yourself so that you can enjoy the benefits of a clean and detail car engine.

Auto Engine Degreaser

Meguiars D103 All Purpose Cleaner Plus

• All-purpose cleaner can be custom blended to suite your cleaning and detailing needs.
• Also an ideal All-purpose cleaner for many other auto detailing tasks.
• Dilute to desired strength according to manufacturer's directions, and spray liberal amounts on cool to warm car engine.

Pressurized Sprayer

Anyone who has used a traditional hand help pump sprayer knows how tired your hand can get when pumping these prayers for any length of time. I love these hand held sprayers you can pump to pressurize and simply spray away.

Wolfgang Chemical Resistant Pressure Sprayer with Double Barrel Extension

• Perfect for use when degreasing car engines.
• Also ideal for use with wheel cleaners.
• Ideal for use when degreasing under wheel wells and over-sized car tires like trucks and off-road vehicles.

Mothers Brush Set

Instead of shopping for a single engine brush set, this one from Mothers has 3 separate brush sizes that will accomplish many of your car cleaning and detailing needs including auto engine detailing.

Mothers Tire, Wheel & Well Brush Kit

Pressure Washer

While using a pressure washer to clean your cars engine is not mandatory, pressurized water will make any of your cleaning products and tasks more effective. An electric pressure washer is ideal for many around the house uses along with many auto detailing tasks such as engine cleaning, wheel cleaning, etc.

Home Essentials Pressure Washer 1800psi Electric

• Perfect amount of pressure for most auto detailing applications.
• There is a difference between pressure of water rather than volume of water. Pressurized water is better as well as more effective than volumes of water.

Electric Leaf Blower

While many of you will already own a leaf blower, you may not have thought to apply its use to the world of car care. Whether you are blowing the engine off after degreasing it, or blowing excess water from the many seams of your car after washing it, a leaf blower is a great solution to a simple and aggravating problem.

Craftsman Electric Blower

• Perfect for blowing excess water from engine bay after engine auto detailing.
• Also perfect for blowing car off after washing; no more skid marks down the side of your car from excess water being trapped in side mirrors.
• Also ideal for blowing off extra dust before or after driving for all you OCD car enthusiasts.

Dressing the Engine After Auto Engine Detailing

Professional detailers know that auto engine detailing requires some form of dressing for truly professional results; the only difference is the type of dressing and how it is applied. It is unrealistic to think you will be able to detail every component of a cars engine by hand. Some jobs just require water, pressure, and dressing, and detailing a car engine is one of them. You will be getting the bulk of the dirt and oil off with the degreaser and water, but when the engine dries completely, it will look less than perfect. Applying a layer of dressing will raise the appearance to a level you will be amazed by!

Car Engine Detailing Before

Car Engine Detailing After

The dramatic pictures above show the level of results that are possible when all the right products, tools, and techniques come together!

Engine Dressings

Meguiars D170 Hyper Dressing

• Water based dressing that can be custom diluted with water to suite your needs.
• Unlike solvent or silicone based dressings that are made to be water resistant, we want a dressing that can be easily cleaned off each time before a new application is applied; this is known as creating a sacrificial layer.
• Dilute according to manufacturers labeling; I would dilute at least 3:1 for auto engine detailing.
• Spray entire engine after it has cooled down a bit from letting engine run.
• Also a quality dressing for tires and wheel wells; remember you can dilute according to your gloss requirements.

Stoner More Shine Less Time Spray

• For the ultimate in convenience and a light application of engine dressing.
• I use the Stoner product in conjunction with the Hyper dressing for the more intricate areas of the engine to be dressed.
• One of my favorite products that is also effective for lighter interior dressing applications.

Darren's Professional Engine Detailing Tips

• Common sense is a good thing, so always apply when doing anything, including engine detailing.
• Keep engine degreaser off painted areas of car; keep a wet cloth handy to wipe up overspray from car paint.(Not to raise too much alarm as degreaser will not damage paint, just strip any wax from paint.)
• Do not hold pressure washer tip too close to sensitive areas of engine; if it hurts your hand, then back off by giving more distance between tip of nozzle and area being sprayed.
• If you are degreasing off-road vehicle, you may still want to consider applying engine dressing despite the fact that dirt and dust will stick to engine; it creates this superficial layer that will make clean-up of dirt and dust easier by creating that sacrificial layer between your engine parts and dirt.

Pay "Auto Engine Detailing" Forward

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