While the engine is cool, I cover the intake with a plastic bag. Then I spray a weak solution of simple green on everything, and close the bonnet. Then I do some other detailing project for about 10 minutes. Then pop the bonnet and wipe everything down with a regular guy, cheap MF towel. I use more simple green where needed. Then with another cheap towel, soaked in regular guy water, I wipe/rinse everything. Then I use either 303, or Nero, spraying everything, then close the bonnet, and work on other projects for about 10 more minutes. Now the fun part, not sure if it really helps or not, I go for a 10 minute hard motor, getting everything hot, Pop the bonnet, wipe excess product off. Beer time Once, many years ago, I sprayed the engine at a coin-op car wash, with the engine clean setting. When I was finished and started up the MINI, lights were flashing, wipers turned on and off, door locks cycled, all kind of goofy stuff. Shut down the car, while freaking out, restarted, and all was normal. I will never do that again:frown2: Mark
I won't be doing any engine cleaning today, but I will be doing some interior detailing on Poco, and beer drinking Mark
Thanks for the write-up. If you don't mind, can I hit you up on a few noob questions. Since getting my MINI I have become somewhat OCDD, but these skills are new to the MINI and I've never cleaned an engine compartment in my life. As far as covering the air intake (I'm assuming CAI) are you in an S or Justacooper? I ask because I'm in an S, and since there's a cover on my CAI either I don't need to do this or am not clear on what you mean. So if I hear you right after you apply 303/Nero you let the car sit for 10 minutes, then go for a hard drive for 10 minutes, and then wipe everything off? How often do you need to do this to keep up with it? I got my 08 in Nov., and as indicated haven't done a cleaning yet. Any tips for the first one? So, you're just using towels? No brushes of any kind? Any thoughts on that goldish/tan glue looking stuff that was there when I bought it?
There is no real issue with needing to cover anything on a stock 2nd gen MINI, I was referring to any aftermarket intakes with exposed air filters. You probably don't need to heat up the engine, just the way I learned to do it before wiping off any excess. If you keep the engine bay clean and wiped down, about once a week, or after motoring in rain, dusty conditions, it takes no time at all, and you can generally skip the simple green step, or just use it were needed. I just use towels, no brushes. As to dealing with the goo, simple green will take some off, alcohol works, as does WD40. Mark
Engine cleaning / maintenance requirements vary widely depending upon driving conditions, too. I almost never drive on dirt or gravel roads. In the winter here, we occassionally get some brine treatment on the roads, and very rarely get some sand and salt treatments. But my car never sees heavy snows and mag chloride and all the nasty stuff... so at it's DIRTIEST, my car is about 5% as nasty as folks who have to deal with real winter weather. As a result, All I need to do is wipe down my bay with a towel once a month or so as part of my normal wash... and it's pretty much car-show clean all the time. But staying on top of it with whatever level of wipe down, cleaning, or whatever is needed where you live is the key. Lots of folks who live here and don't drive as many miles as I do have DIRTY engine bays at our club meets... and it's just because they never do ANYTHING to their bay... they just let the crud accumulate over time. And if you let it, it will.
Well, I got rained out today, but 03Indigo and I have an engine detail date for next week. Paul, I'm hoping after this initial effort I get to the simple wipe down stage at least for most weeks. I pretty much do that anyway on every wash. The problem is I never cleaned it the first time so there's a lot of crap that should have been removed to start and I'm now seeing engine grime creeping in. I do live in one of the nasty winter area's your talking about, so I'm probably prone to some extra effort. We'll see how it goes, but if last winter is any indication I don't see to many winter detail sessions. It's more of a minimum effort between snows at the self serve car wash to get the big stuff off and get by. We'll see how it goes, but I foresee a full engine cleaning once a year as part of my spring detail with regular wipe down and spot treatment as needed every wash through the summer and fall.
^^ wow, looks fanastic. for me, i try to keep it clean as much as possible by dusting off every now and then using a dry MF towel (DP platinum to be exact). then apply some of that Prima Nero goodness on the plastic and rubber parts.
anyone know how to get rid of the hydraulic fluid that leaked out of my crap ass mount and all over my passenger frame rail!!!! Its hardened into this black nasty crust and I can't seem to get it off. Any help would be great thanks Steve
I bet steam would help... strong solvents are likely to remove paint, too... Long term soak with Simple Green? GoofOff? (may remove the paint). The non-clearcoated paint in the bay comes off WAAAY too easily. Ask me how I know. But I'm good at repainting it...
hmmm.. I might have to give this a try over the weekend. my engine bay is pretty dirty. maybe I'll do before/after pics... thanks for the info!!
Paul I know exactly what you mean. I decided one day that I wanted to "clean" my engine bay so I picked up a bottle of Simple Green and soaked everything in it. Let it sit for a few minutes and scrubbed some of the paint on the shock towers......OOPS! at least half of the paint was gone and left behind all these scrub marks of what paint was left over. That's why I was hoping maybe there was something else I could use to get this stuff off. Its really nasty looking! Steve
Putting 2 and 2 together, maybe, Mark mentions in OP that he uses a 'solution' of Simple Green. Perhaps watering down helps cut the grime but not the paint removal factor?
I think the first step might be to try to physically scrape most (some) of it off with a plastic scrapper. Then, soak a rag or paper towel with whatever de-greaser you want to use (Simple Green, Goo B Gone, etc.) and let the rag sit on the stained parts for a while (hours maybe). Remove, wipe and repeat. You might want to line the area underneath with aluminum foil or some other thing to catch any stuff that drips. I think with this stuff the key is patience! Good luck!
I'm still betting that a small portable electric steamer would help on some of this stuff, to "melt" and loosen it so that a mild degreaser could get it off.
So, Paul, what kind of paint are you using? Original touch-up paint, or something that is close to a color match.?.? I am going to have to paint my "cleaning marks" too.
I have three different paints... 1) 2oz brush bottle from Paintscratch.com. Not a bad match for small chips if used with Langka, but not perfect. 2) Dupont Basemaker pint that I bought for some projects - NOT a good match 3) Standox pint that I bought after the dupont failed. Not perfect, but much better match than the other two. It's what my body shop guy uses and he says it's what BMW/MINI recommends for best color match. But it really depends on what color you have. Cool Blue is very hard to match due to the pearl effect. Most other MINI colors are MUCH easier.