123quattro

I use Simple Green on a warm engine and then immediately hose it down. It's how I clean the engines in all my cars.

Rob Edwards

Had to R&R the radiator and belts on my MIL's '95 Corolla. I covered the air intake and distributor with plastic bags and pressure washed the whole damn thing. Worked like a champ.

I would never do that to the top side of a 928 engine, but have done it several times to the underside of 928 engines without ill effects. For the top side I agree with Stan, brake cleaner on a rag, with elbow grease mixed in.

James Bailey

First remove engine......

Landseer

If you skip that step, the answer is "pipe cleaners".

linderpat

But not unless you are wearing white gloves

Mrmerlin

one other thing on engine cleaning if you do feel the need to use a hose make sure to plug the opening at the top of the bell housing if you have a 5 speed otherwise water will run down the release arm and fill the TOB with water it will soon fail, the TOB runs at engine speed all the time

Hilton

On my newest 928, the engine is actually too filthy to work on in the garage

I'm gonna put the front up on ramps, and run the engine until its warm (i.e. until oil pressure is no longer pegged). The heat will help dry out any water ingress faster, as well as softening oil and grease deposits a little.

Then I'll be adding bio-degradable degreaser to the detergent bottle on my pressure washer, and foaming the engine bay thoroughly from above and below, leaving it to sit for a couple of minutes, and blasting it off.. if it makes no real difference, I'll hand-spray some neat degreaser on by hand, wait again, and then repeat the pressure washer.

After that, I'm putting the car in the garage, and doing a whole heap of work to it, so I'm willing to risk a no-start, for the sake of a cleaner engine bay to work in.

Hilton

+928 on this.. stuff something waterproof in the hole. Otherwise the clutch disc can corrode onto the flywheel.

Driving the '89 out of the garage in reverse, was um.. interesting to say the least, with a clutch plate that wouldn't disengage. The starter motor gets the car moving right quick!

Made especially hard by a rockery that means I have to turn the wheel as I'm halfway out the bay of the garage.

Speedtoys

I like THIS STUFF

concor

Thanks for the tips. I've been googling a bit and this is what I'm planning to do at the carwash:

- put plastic bag on alternator and distributor cap
- use power washer on water mode on engine and body around it, both from large distance
- use power washer on heated degrease mode, at least 30cm distance
- use sponge or paint brush or something similar to clean intensely dirty parts
- use power washer on heated degrease mode, at least 30cm distance
- use power washer on water mode, at least 30cm distance
- dry with towel
- dry with compressed air, again keep distance
- run for 5 minutes
- clean outside of car

jon928se

I'll be a heretic here it seems

Protect alternator and distributor caps
1/Dowse a warm/hot engine in Diesel or paraffin or JP4 or 5. leave for 30 mins then blast it off with Pressure washer.

2/Repeat with Diesel/paraffin/JP4 with 10% dishwashing soap (the stuff you put in a bowl to wash dishes by hand) spray on leave then blast it off

3/ Repeat with a hot 20% mix of dishwash soap and water
Blast it off.

Repeat step 1 until there is no accumulated thick build of oil/mud before proceeding to step 2. Some elbow grease may well reduce the number of iterations of step 1.

On completion drive the car until the engine is hot again before parking it and forgetting about it for 6 months without which the Clutch will have rusted to the flywheel and the alternator bearings will have frozen solid.

Although if the engine was that bad to start with the chances are that all the available voids in the alternator are already filled with a nice solid mix of mud and PAS oil. Caution when you wash out the alternator in the bath (because thats the best big source of hot water) and drop the alternator casing onto the base of the bath this will leave marks on the bath that will not buff out. Ultimately this will require you to rebuild the bathroom completely. A completely new Alternator (just cause the old one is dirty) is actually quite cheap by comparison.

dr bob

Search is our friend. Look at https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...-cleaning.html for some tips and pics.

M. Requin

I think I remember learning this with an old Triumph Cub cylinder head years ago

86'928S MeteorGrey

I used quite a bit of full strength Simple Green on my engine blocks (removed) before discovering Purple Power from Wal-Mart. It cuts grime similarly to Simple Green, but cost much less. They sell it in large jugs. Be sure and buy at least one regular spray bottle of Purple Power, as they seem to last much longer when refilling compared to the standard spray bottles that lose their seals quickly with full strength cleaners. The standard sprayers work ok if you're going to mix the cleaners down with water. They still fail eventually though.

928mac

Unless you have broken hoses that can get water in them then you should be ok to pressure wash it off.
I use engine shapoo from NAPA (auto store) and pressure wash it off but I dont spray at the distributors so that water dosen't get inside.
If when you start it and it sputers then you will have to wait for it to dry off. I drove mine around the block and then waited 10 mins and it was fine.

As stated in another post it is not a good idea to wash all of the oil down the back onto a clutch.