I usa Dawn Dishwashing Liquid-it's great on the grease-and a toothbrush. On
the dirty bumper (all the schmutz from the monzas) and the monzas themslves,
I use carburator cleaner and Final Inspection.
Or I just take it to the coin car wash!
Laura G.
----- Original Message -----
From: John T. Blair <jblair@exis.net>
To: Spitfire List <spitfires@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 1999 4:54 PM
Subject: Re: Best way to clean engine?
>
> At 01:53 PM 12/8/99 -0800, Jeff McNeal wrote:
> >
> >Back in the old days, I remember a gas station that offered
steam-cleaning
> >services for engines. Is this method safe for Spitfires? Or is there an
> >easier/better/do-it-yourselfer way to thoroughly clean the gunk and grime
> >without messing up the electrical system? As long as I keep the coil and
> >distributor covered with plastic, is there any harm in using a
high-pressure
> >sprayer on a cold engine with some commercially available degreaser? Any
> >tips?
>
> Funny you should mention that. Just this last weekend I was at my
neighbor's
> (Jim) house and he was going to "degrease" his eng. and xmission. I asked
> him if he used "simple green". He said that he had, and does but was out.
I
> also use this and it works pretty well.
>
> However, he said that for a real greasy eng. that you want to degrease and
> are NOT worried about the paint, etc. he uses "oven cleaner" and NOT the
> environmently friendly one. It worked quite well, and was cheaper that
> gunk.
>
> I must point out the obvious, if it is a real dirty eng. the more of the
> caked on stuff you can scrape and pick off, the better (what ever chemical
> cleaner you use) will work.
>
> For periodic maintenance, I take my cars to the local "wish washy" the
> ones that have a wand and start at about $1.25 to wash your car. The
> one down the street even has an "engine degreaser" mode on the selector.
> I will take my cars down there at least every 3 mo. and wash down the
> eng. compartment. I only wish I could get the front end up in the air
> so I could do as good a job on the bottom and steering assembly as I can
> do on the top.
>
> Now if you are trying to really clean up - detail your eng. and xmission
> you should pull them out of the car. Now you WANT to use a cleaner that
> WILL NOT hurt aluminumn. On many cars the you alternator case and the
> bellhousing are aluminumn and you'll really have to rework them to clean
> them up.
>
> Once the major stuff is out of the way, you can tape up all the holes
> on the engine (ie. intake, exhaust manifolds, tip stick, etc.) and
> sand or bead blast it. This does a very nice job of finishing off the
> job and giving a good surface for the new paint to stick to.
>
> If you are going to rebuild the engine, then you should have it dipped
> or "hot tanked". When this is done, the engine will be as clean as a
> whistle, but WILL need all new bearings, etc.
>
> John
>
> John T. Blair WA4OHZ email: jblair@exis.net
> Va. Beach, Va Phone: (757) 495-8229
>
> 48 TR1800 65 Morgan 4/4 Series V (B1109)
> 71 Saab Sonett III (71500840) 75 Bricklin SV1 (0887) 77 Spitfire
>
> Morgan: www.team.net/www/morgan
> Bricklin: www.bricklin.org
>
>
>
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