Some of you might of seen my beneath the bonnet thread about my valve cover grenade!!!????

Anyhoo, My valve cover went boom and there is oil everywhere. I pretty much have the mechanical end of this mess under control.... So now the fun part.

What should I use or my process be for cleaning up the engine bay oil and under carriage, suspension pieces, all over?

Should I just take it somewhere and have it steamed cleaned or something?

I would like to do it myself, but would also like it to be done right.

In my mind, I want to just cover up the air filter, spray simple green all over everything and rinse everything off with low pressure water spray...
Is this the wrong idea???? It works on our dirt bikes!!!!

Any advice woould be appreciated...

Thanks, Jasun

 

mine didn't go BOOM like yours, but i had a leaky oily terrible messy Alta
CAI that dripped filter oil from the top of the motor all the way down
below the tranny case onto the garage floor. and guess wat? those
a-holes over at Alta kept stating it was my fault and never really did
anything to compensate for my time cleaning up the mess (on the garage
floor too, mind you). outmotoring who had nothing to do with this ordeal
other than sell me the product sent me a filter cleaner for free. kudo's for
outmotoring for caring about its customers! since then i have
hated Alta and never bought anything else from them and never will.

now for the cleanup:
there's really no easy way cause you dont want to spray anything
liquid over your entire motor. put the car on ramps.

i first used paper towels...TONS of them to wipe off as much oil as i could.
placed in a bag and into my tin can that can hold combustibles. 1.5hrs.

then i took SimpleGreen, did a 100% concentration into a papertowel and
wiped down. then made another round with just water on paper towels
and wiped down where i wiped down with SimpleGreen. 1hr.

then for the crevise, i placed news paper under the car and used my
RC car's motor spray (similar to that of brake cleaner but not as strong)
and sprayed the oil out. about 45min getting to every little crack.

so after 2 rolls of Bounty and about 1/2 can of RC motor spray and
about 3.5hrs later including cleanup, it was clean.

wat a mess.

 

I definitley would NOT steam clean or pressure wash.
I have washed my engine and surrounding compartment a couple times with a spray degreaser and a garden hose, and no problems at all. It's quick and easy.

 

Not to hijack (ok it is......lol) Did you oil up your CAI or was it the original oiling?


Now back to our original programing. I would recommend something like Oil Eater. It is a biodegradable product that has worked wonders for me. I got mine at Costco. Just spray it on and hose it off.

 

Oil Eater is great stuff. Used it a few times with good results

 

it was the original oiling. :impatient

 

Isnt Aaron a great guy?

 

I use griots garage oil degreaser, then oil cleaner.

I have started using generic orange cleaner and cheepo wheel brushes. I have been having good results.

 

I personally always check Outmotoring first when I need something... Aaron's a stand-up guy (if a bit distracted lately) and stands behind everything he sells. Plus he knows a tremendous ammount about the MINI and will give you good advice.

 

The best I have used is from mequires Safe D greaser ,now don`t hold me to the spelling . A little on the high priced side but it sure does what it says it does.Also in the same line is Hyper dressing as an after treatment to the engine bay ,again pricey but worth it .

Just thought ,Mr Octane is in your neck of the globe he might have some to sell you .He has ALL the neat stuff .

 

sorry to hear about that.

 

yes he is. ive talked to him over the phone a couple of times and
he's always been great.

yep, outmotoring is one of my favorite stores too. I too check out their
store before anyone else.

yah, it's pretty sad.

 

Those are the exact same two products I use for engine/bay cleaning and shine. I couldn't think of the names this morning when I posted.

 

So I would be pretty safe with dowsing the undercarriage and suspension with simple green. Then coat the engine bay with some meguiers engine de greaser. Go at it with a light presure garden hose to rinse well, trying to avoid the intake and electrical connections. Then hit the whole thing with engine hyper dressing.

Sound good????

Let me know.

Thanks, Jasun

 

I'm not sure about it's environmental friendliness, but Castrol Super-Clean is excellent as a degreaser. Comes in a big purple container, hard to miss.

 

I used to use a hose, but then Octaneguy told me about using a garden sprayer. much easier to control where the water is going.