Could use some Engine detailing advice

[JRs_Z71]

I just picked a 2004 Chevy Silverado Extended Cab Z71 up a month ago. Its engine bay wasn't too greasy but had tons of road dust and grime. I doubt the engine bay had ever been touched. I gave an attempt to clean up and detail it. For the most part I'm pretty happy with the way it cleaned up.

A couple area's I could use advice about is how to clean up those hard to reach areas. If you look closely at my photo you'll see the valve cover is pretty grimey still. I didn't shoot any engine degreaser on the valve cover because its cover in ignition coils. I just didn't want to risk fouling them up. Also the intake manifold is another tricky area I didn't want to risk spraying degreaser or running a stream of water around. I'd appreciate any advice you guys have to give about how you handle these types of tricky area. Do you guys just clean these up with rags and elbow grease?


Here is an after shot (didn't think to take a before)

[joyriide1113]

Give a hose and degreaser a try. As long as you're not flooding the engine or spraying directly onto sensitive areas you should be fine. I like to use a sweeping motion fom 4 feet above the engine with low flow water on a rinse setting of the hoze nozzle.

If you're still skeptical, you could always spray degreaser and use a chemical pump sprayer with wand to rinse those hard to reach areas.

[Prenderville]

Hi I usually cover the coil paks with plastic and wrapping ends with rubber band, GM, Chrysler easy to work with Ford engines do not like water sprayed on them. I have found Slam to work well, mixing it 80 slam 20 water (stops spotting on aluminum, alt. etc.) it reaches all crevices and hoses off easy, I to do not saturate with water enough to remove dirt and grease. I usually run engine after cleaning, when dry spray with QD leaves a great look. Your pictures show you did great job.

[JRs_Z71]

Thanks for the replies. Thanks Prederville for the compliment. I was pretty pleased how it came out. I was even more surprised at how well armorall is holding up in there. These engines run hotter than I'm used to and I thought for sure that any armorall would just cook off.

I am still very skeptical about me getting that stuck on grime off the valve covers. I appreciate both your advice for sure but its real tight in there. There is a bracket that bolted to the top of the valve covers that holds the 4 ignition coils per side and a half dozen connectors along with plugs in there. I could see gettin some water in there if I bagged the coils but that bracket is so close to the covers I think I'm gonna have to disassemble everything to get this crud off. As a detailer I can't see going this far for a client but its my truck so I figure I'll do it something this summer when I'm tinkering around. I'll probably hit the brackets with some fresh paint. My truck is a 2004 but its surprising the amount of surface rust thats in certain spots. Its disappointing really.

Btw after wiping off a little of that crud I found out that the valve covers are aluminum. I wish I had seen this engine when it was new. It was probably fairly cool looking.

[RobertP]

On my Vortech engine detail, I just used some cleaner on a paint brush and swabbed down the valve covers and other sensitive areas, I then rinsed it with a garden wand attachment on my hose. The garden wand allows you to rinse in close quarters without the fear of soaking sensitive areas.