Well, I've got a few projects ahead of me; maintenance and detailing mostly. One of those, is cleaning my engine and the engine bay.

I am hoping I can get some tips on cleaning this gunk up. I am going to get into my Simple Green once it stops raining and try to degrease as much as I can.

Here'* what it looks like right now. There'* a few clean spots where I was testing the Simple Green I got this weekend.

hmm. not as bad as my 98! yeah, just soak her in degreaser and simple green and hit it with some brushes and a hot water power washer and she'll be sparkly

Your strut towers are covered in nasty crud too. lol I've seen cleaner engines in junkyards, but it'* nothing some time and effort won't cure.

Yeah, I tried to leave those out in the close ups. Those should be white... I think...

Hmmm, crud buildup around the top of the valve covers, wetness under the TB. I'm guessing failing LIM gaskets.

Not necessarily .. many times it'* turns out to be merely years of crud that looks wet.

I always will clean and wait a couple hundred miles looking for leaks before fixing anything when they are that dirty.

I've seen worse :(

Uh, the engine'* gonna get really wet and so are you...who cares if it'* raining?

For any sheetmetal cleaning (towers, underhood, etc), I used WD40 and let it soak for 5 mins, then blast. Works like a charm!

Clean as much gunk as you can off the intake manifold, then use Eagle One etching wheel cleaner to get that final clean for it. Same with anything else that is aluminum in that compartment.

For shine, again I use WD40. Not greasy or too glossy.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were failing, because from what I can tell, my car was a little abused and neglected by the previous owner(*).