phil74501

I noticed the other day that the bottom of my engine is filthy. The car had an oil leak and the bottom is covered with oil and dirt and crud. So how do I clean it off? Go through and automated car wash? Which I don't want to do. I'm open to ideas. Thanks

MichelleJD

This worked okay for me

Mighty Shilling

Jackstands and your favourite toothbrush

Mighty Shilling

oh yeah...Kerosene too...

phil74501

Wouldn't work Porschephile. My toothbrush is dirtier than the underside of my engine.

Mighty Shilling

Huh... Well then, I geuss you could go BUY a toothbrush, but why spend the extra money? try letting your dog lick it off...

silverBean

Jacks or rapms, jacks will get it higher. Then pressure wash the hell out of it. If you are w/o pressure washer, degreaser and put one of those "pressure heads" on your hose and rinse. You could also use the thumb over nozzle technique

testarossa_td

Just remember your environment.
Simple Green first
STP degreaser last.
I used to drive to a car wash with a jack and wheel chocks in the back.
Use the stall that says ok for blah blah blah Jack the 928's nose up and load it up with STP. (of course remove the drip/skid pad before you head to the car wash) Wait ten-15 minutes, Start the engine, so as to reduce the chance of fouling anything. Then hit it with the high pressure. That stuff cleaned like nobodies business. It would make the underbelly look factory fresh.
Let the engine continue to heat and clean and enjoy until the leaks come back

KuHL 951

Every major city has a truck washing company. They will drive your car onto a rack and steam clean/pressure wash it for about $25. Beats the hell out of buying all those chemicals and having wash into the local creeks. Out here they all use recovery systems. A real steam cleaner will get anything off. This is only practical if your car is driveable.

Granite 944

I've got a pressure washer that I use for this also. I HATE working on dirty/filthy engines and such. I use my long frame floor jack, one side at a time, and have a great and wet time! Warning however......be as carefull as you can about blasting into some areas (especially, since your doing it with the engine still in), as the high pressure will force water into places you really don't want to penetrate or damage, for example, clutch area, starter solenoid (not really sealed all that well), distributor cap, vacumn hoses that have the braided heat coverings, ball joints. Hit these "scary" areas" quickly, and carefully. Clean it good, when ya think all is pretty good, take the car out for about a 10 mile or more drive, dry it out good, and all should be well. Works for me.

testarossa_td

Hit and get....a valuable lesson in pressure washing. Hit it with a passing blow, not a concentrated one.

Do they do this with your engine running? I have many fears about this, but it sounds thorough.

Lawn Gnome

Use hot water if it is available. Spray on degreaser and spray it off with hot water.

shmucklebuckle

What we use in the shop on dirty motorcycles, esp. the motors/finned parts: Cans of contact/circuit board cleaner, and compressed air. Spray, blow off. Repeat. Works like a charm!

KuHL 951

No, the engine is turned off. You can tell them not to spray anything you want(starter, PS boots, etc). It helps to have your clutch inspection plug in. I always say try not to spray up into the engine compartment. Those guys are pretty good and know what not to hit. You should see the gear they wear, you would think it was a nuke disaster. They usually degrease from front to rear and then hit it with steam. My cars have always started with no problems so far. I can do the rest of the engine bay from above at the local Spray n Wash. It's worth it to me and I need to do on the 951 again..

jgaylord

I cleaned mine recently and it looks almost like new from the factory. It made me somewhat of a fanatic because the car looks brand new especially the back-end which is highly visible on the NA. Once you get it that clean it is very easy to maintain.

I spent about four hours total over the course of an afternoon. As others have said careful pressure washer (low pressure, small tip) and I like warm to hot water to soften and cold for final rinse. I wear a rain suit and goggles and get right in there on a creeper with car on stands as high as possible and all wheels off. I found though I was only getting what I could hit directly with the PW really clean and I wanted clean all around. The key is to go to a hardware or cheapy dollar store and buy all sorts of brushes. I actually splurged a little ($4-5 per brush) and went to a True Value and purchased a half-dozen or so brushes of various lengths, stiffness, etc. They worked better than any brushes I found at the auto parts store and usually are much cheaper so you can toss the ones that get really dirty. The best was this really long (16") thin one that was pretty stiff and bendable (no jokes please). With that I could mould it into the shape of what I was cleaning and more importantly scrub the topside. I could snake this into real tight nooks and crannies and scrub like crazy. Chunks of dirt, grease and asphalt were raining down. Also you are able to choose the proper brush like stiff ones for hard metal and softer ones for brake lines, fuel lines, etc. Because you are on your back a lot I used a very large rectangle tupperware container and cut out one end a little to lay brushes almost flat in my cleaning solution. Also after doing a final cold rinsing from underneath try and hit what you can from above but again I would use low pressure and a small point so I didn't overspray or dislodge anything. Finally I washed and waxed because some overspray is inevitable.

When you are done you will be hooked on keeping it that clean not to mention it will be much faster.