[pgoodier]

I serviced my Pajero over the weekend, and came up with an excellent cleaning agent for cleaning the engine bay and engine out.

I mixed Clean Green with water and oven cleaner, and poured the mix into a spray bottle.
Once I had removed all covers etc., I sprayed the engine and engine bay out, wiped it all down, and then sprayed with the hose (thoroughly)

The results were incredible...

[GertM]

I mixed Clean Green with water and over cleaner,

Did you mean OVEN cleaner?

[4ePikanini]

Be careful. Oven cleaner is bad for rust and rubbers/plastics.

[4ePajero]

I would not use oven cleaner either.
Any small residue will corrode the component badly, especially aluminium.

I prefer a bio-degradable soap such as Prepsol. You can wash it off on the lawn and it will not damage the grass.
No (petro-based) solvents for me.

Remember also that soap needs time and water to work.
I wash the engine with either clean water or a mild dishwasher solution, to wet everything, and loosen the worst grime. I use the Karcher hi-pressure washer on low pressure setting for this. Lots of foam all over.

Leave for a while, and rinse down with water (while engine is running).
Spray with Prepsol and leave for a while. Rinse (again while engine is running).
Take for a drive to get engine to operating temp and evaporate all water.

Spray lightly with diesel.

Repeat often. If you prevent grime from building up, cleaning becomes easy.

[4ePikanini]

I agree with 4ePajero

I wait until the engine has cooled a bit but still warm, spray prepsol all over.

I then use a bit of prepsol and foam it up with water in a bucket. I then use a foam spunge and get foam in as much places as I can.

Leave for 5 minutes and hose off with pressure washer on low setting (and never closer than 40cm)

I don't spray anything afterwards to make it look shiny as I live on a farm with 4km of gravel to the nearest tar road so it just attracts dust.

[pgoodier]

Oh crap.

Thanks for the heads up. I did really thoroughly spray it out, but I am going home tonight and doing it again..........

[macjohnw]

Spray lightly with diesel.

Is the diesel only to make it look shiny, or for another purpose? Wont it collect dust more easily?

[4ePajero]

Spray lightly with diesel.

Is the diesel only to make it look shiny, or for another purpose? Wont it collect dust more easily?

Make it look shiny? - Yes
Collect dust? - Yes
Other purposes? - Yes, it stops corrosion (we live at the coast!)
Other purposes? - Yes, it makes the next cleaning effort so much easier.

[macjohnw]

Ahhh, the coastal factor!

[pgoodier]

....Apparently living at the coast can be a bit like cleaning your engine with oven cleaner!!!

....i've heard