Hey guys,

I cleaned my engine today, not much changed on the S2K I couldnt get a lot of the salt caked on off but I did do my wife's civic which turned out awesome. We went to Vermont for Christmas if none of you have ever seen a Northern Car this is what it does in just a week.

products used:
Simple Green (great for most areas)
Engine Bright Foam (great for tough grease)

Before



After

 

Nice improvement on the Civic!

If the S didn't clean up (and I am surprised it didn't based on what I saw saturday), then it may time for some pro attention.

Nice looking Suzuka you got, and that engine bay WILL clean! I think the key is probably in cleaning that road salt off quickly in the future. Shudder the thought give our recent weather...

if you want to give it one more go, I would try a dilute (say 10%) Clorox solution next, after covering the alternator, and I'd do it with a stone cold motor, warm water, and a brush. LOTS of brushing, rinsing, and brushing, then rinse again, brush again, and rinse again. Get it ALL outta there.

And if that doesn't help, definitely time for a pro.


Dave

 

Stop using Simple Green! It's been known to attack bare metal, like nuts, throttle linkages, that sort of thing, and turn it a milky white color. Try a different all purpose cleaner. Simple Green even makes one that's marketed as "automobile safe" or some such thing, that would be a good place to start.

Wish I'd seen the engine bay in question. S2000 engine bays clean up pretty easily. Have you got any pictures of it? That would help me make suggestions on how to proceed.

 

This one is a little old its a tad cleaner but the salt spots are still killing me.

 

The tops of the shocks should clean up with some fine steel wool. After, a light coating of WD-40 will help keep further corrosion at bay. Some metal polishes - Wenol in particular comes to mind - leave behind some sort of protective coating that helps keep corrosion in check, too, so that's another option to consider. You can actually sometimes find Wenol at the kitchen store Williams-Sonoma. Next to the All-Clad stainless cookware.

For the salt areas - I wish I could be of more help here, but it's just not something I've tackled hands on, and that photo, while helpful, doesn't show the full extent of the problem; it's hard for me to know if that's lighting, or if your intake manifold is basically white with corrosion. First start with metal polish. Wenol, Autosol, Mother's, Flitz, there are several to choose from. See if you can make a dent. In some areas, a Dremel with a fabric polishing wheel would be a big help. The valve cover lettering in particular takes well to this. Mine wasn't as badly corroded as yours is, but I did it to mine, and they came up nicely:



EDIT: now that I look at that photo close, it was taken before I polished the lettering. But, when I was done, the lettering looked just like the polished A/C line at left.

Same polish will work on your hard A/C lines too, if they look ratty. The lines are aluminum.

The intake and exhaust manifolds are probably going to be bigger jobs. Steel wool would probably clean up the exhaust manifold nicely, just keep away from the painted valve cover. It would be best to clean these items up off the motor, but that's a pretty big job.

Anyway, as with any detailing project, start with the least aggressive thing that might work, and go up from there. Metal polish is a good place to start, as it's mostly harmless, and often does a lot of good.

Does that help?

 

Either go the Engine Brite way - https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showt...0&#entry9052225

Or the CD-2 way - https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=278999

Simple Green makes an Aluminum-safe version - DO NOT use the regular version.

To get that scaling from the salt, maybe some Salt Away solution from a marine shop - http://www.saltawayproducts.com/Products.htm

 

I'm a big advocate of Meguiar's HyperDressing for engine details. You buy it by the gallon in concentrate form, and dilute it with water, to the level of shine that suits you best. This makes it very cost effective. My favorite part, though, is that it's water based. So it's easy to wipe off any excess, and it doesn't make stuff super slippery. If any of you have seen my engine bay at a meet, I use HyperDressing on it, mixed for a satin look, and wipe off the excess when done.

Everybody's different, but I've tried CD-2, and don't care for it. It's very shiny, and I found that it didn't fully "cure" on plastic parts that don't get as hot as the engine itself. Could be I did something wrong, but I abandoned its use, in favor of HD.

 

Very clean engine bay.

 

Thanks! Well, except for that sorry looking battery tie down. That thing really bothers me - I just haven't found a replacement one that I like the look of. I like the PWJDM one, but wish it didn't have logos on it. Anyway, in that picture, my engine and pretty much everything around it has Hyperdressing on it, so that should give you an idea what look Hyperdressing gives. It's not much of one - mostly it just makes stuff look newer.

 

Man. I'm in need of a Shultz Detailing special on my engine bay. We gotta work something out. Something OTHER than my wheels.

J