Tips for a Mondial engine bay clean

I never used a pressure washer. Before I stripped the thing, I found that I could use spray degreasers, sometimes/often applied by tooth brushes and then washed off with a low running hose or garden sprayer (the type with a long nozzle). I found a host of diy brushes and rags was essential. I also would stick the car on axel stands with wheels, liners and sump guard off! Some parts like alternator and starter, belt covers, are a 'relatively' easy removal to aid access. The various heat shields and air intake, for example frees up a fair bit of space - but obviously seal any 'openings'. Sad, but I miss the scraped knuckles and soaked overalls of being contorted underneath the car; but at least content that I knew which seals were good and where any corrosion was! Long thin arms and fingers a bonus. I used a leaf blower a couple of times just to help shift any pooled water. But once I got 20+ years of dirt of it, it never seamed to get too dirty, even with a fair amount of driving.


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The next time you change the timing belts, drop the engine out. Then you can climb into the engine bay, and clean it up. Use whatever it takes. A soap concentrate like Superclean, or WD-40, or Acetone. Careful with Acetone, because it will melt plastic. But it's great for hard to clean stuff like baked on oil.

 

Do not use a pressure washer. Use some aluminum safe degreaser if you must, Griots has a good product, and hose off with a low pressure stream of water, ie. a hose with no nozzle. There are too many electrical connectors, sensors and ignition items that are simply not as moisture proof as in a modern car. Ideally blow dry everything, with a leaf blower or special car specific dryer (Autogeek has some of these) and then drive the car to heat it up and dry everything well.

Then you can do some solvent, acetone or Xylene for really stubborn cooked on grease, with a rag to spot clean areas that were too heavy for the degreaser to deal with.

The spray it all with Aerospace 303 Protectant and wipe with a cloth. Then you are good to go.

It is best done as fussy work by hand.
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Wow is all I can say. Incredible pictures!

 

It's been a long winter in Toronto, I have gone a bit overboard on detailing during the down time season. Itching for spring...

 

Thanks, also a spray on brake cleaner, one that says safe on rubber (some formulas are not), or electrical contact cleaner that is plastic safe, on a microfiber cloth to scrub can also be helpful and is safer than the acetone/Xylene. But that Xylene (it is in the auto body section of an auto supply store, its used for clean up of fibreglass resin and as a paint thinner) sure works, just watch the fumes and stay away from the rubber and plastic (although I did wipe down a hose with Xylene on a rag to get rid of some old factory undercoating overspray and used sparingly seems ok, nothing else would remove the factory brownish undercoating overspray where it had been slathered all over the undercarriage of the car at the factory without much precision).

 

Nice fancy oil cap! ;-)
Alden

 

The computer brain and oil cooler fan are both below the ignition coils towards the back of the engine bay. The crank sensors are also on that side of the engine. The alternator is on the other side, down below to the lower back of the engine bay. Those are the areas to be most careful with. The most accessible frontal part of the engine bay bulkhead does not have much going on that looks water sensitive. So keeping the water running more towards the front of the engine bay would be a good idea.

If you get water in a connector you could get a short and end up damaging the computer brain, that's the worst case scenario you want to avoid. Covering certain areas, but getting water into a more remote connector could still cause a short that could damage the brain. That's why some people say keep all water away from the engine, and use rags and solvents only. Others say the car can be driven in the rain without problems so some low pressure water should be fine. You could cover the computer (remove the wheel well, easier to rag clean up in there generally with it removed on that side, less relevant on the other side), the coils with saran wrap and tape for greater certainty though.

For me, I just kept water generally away from areas noted other than some splashing and mostly avoiding the coil area and where I know the computer is.

I did rely more on rags rather than the hose down as the main cleaning theme.

The good new is once clean, the area seems to stay clean. So one big initial
effort has a long period of payback, pretty efficient result as detailing goes.

I also found that while cleaning things up carefully by hand
and going through the wheel wells you end up inspecting things as well. It is not a bad way to get to know the car and be able to spot things in the future, so payback for the efforts in another way. So if your spouse things you are a bit eccentric for cleaning an engine, you will get more support by calling it preventative maintenance!

 

Oil cap was just an ebay sticker, surprised it has stayed put for 12 years. The AldenCap is the gold standard!

 

My engine is not sparkling clean, but the fancy oil cap makes up for all of that, lol!
Alden
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