Underhood Cleaning

[Off Road Red]

I want to clean the engine and the whole underhood area of my truck and was wondering what would be the best thing to use for that brand new kind of a look.

[carguru]

I use Simple Green to degrease the underhood area.  While underhood is completely cool, spray Simple Green all over, wait 5 or 6 minutes, use an old (or dedicated) sponge to scrub inner fenderwell, fanshroud, etc., and rinse with light water pressure (don't use too heavy water pressure especially around the edges of the intake manifold).  Dry everything off well with towel or absorber (again, use a dedicated one because of underhood greases, fluids, etc).  Use your favorite protectant to shine all the plastics up.  I usually use Lexol Vinyltex.

[95 Silverado]

a word of caution, some of the stronger degreasers will remove the paint from some brackets, air cleaners, etc. you might want to limit the degreasers to where they are really needed and use a milder engine cleaner for everything else.

[carguru]

Simple Green is pretty mild compared to most specialized engine cleaners.  I've used it for quite a few years on all of my vehicles and have never had any problems with underhood painted areas.  Castrol Super Clean on the other hand will take everything off.  Besides, some of the engine cleaners contain petroleum distillates that can do harm to the rubber and plastic parts underhood and if you accidently get it onto fenders and hood, can damage the paint.

[LarryE]

all i've ever used has been the gunk brand cleaner and it's great..  but on the silv with all the electronics I just use a rag on my hand and dampen it.