Question about Cleaning my bus engine

[chev49]

after protecting the relays, and so forth, I use my hot pressure washer with a commercial biodegradable product similar to superclean to wash epuipment engines,  (and the whole thing for that matter). Same for otr trucks, busses, n all my stuff... As far as using a hand sprayer, i use a backpack one for weeds... only lasts abt a year cause the solution eats the seals, but a double headed sprayer does a fast job... Its not necessary to presoak with solvent with a hot washer...
I have done hundreds, and have never ruined one alternator, etc... Course, one has to turn the pressure down for certain areas...
i normally paint everything back to the original colors as this stuff is for resale.

[thomasinnv]

A fellow bus owner turned me onto "oil eater". found at some wal-marts and most o'reily's, kragen etc. works great. i use it on a cold engine and rinse with normal pressure from a garden hose. keeps the old girl spic and span and no scrubbing involved. doesn't hurt hoses, belts, paint or any thing else.

[JohnEd]

What BCO said.

I go over a dirty engine with that HIGH PRESSURE washer.  Buy one....you need it.  3,500 PSI is fine.  It will lift pealing paint but won't blow "good" paint off the metal.  Lots of the oily grime on your engine will lift off with just High Pressure water.  Why use solvents and such if there is an alternative that will reduce their level of.... 1,300PSI and below are not all that effective but certainly better than a garden hose.  Bag the alternator for the High Pressure stuff but spray it down with simple green AND RINSE IT THOROUGHLY with clean water and that includes running water inside it.  It is not water soluble and water doesn't conduct but dirty greasy soapy water will hurt'cha if you start it up with any of that in it.

My process?  Blast all the crap off that will go with HP water.  Spray the ICE COLD COLD engine and compartment with "EASY OFF" oven cleaner.  Let it soak for NO MORE than 5 minutes.  Spray the engine compartment/bay with lots of  HP water.  You are now "grease free" and can paint or spray down the compartment with Armour All if you like.  Talk to any "Detailer" and he will tell you :never ever use Armour All on anything.  It leaves a paint like layer that is nearly impossible to remove....on the interior but I have never heard of it for a engine.  FIND OUT WHAT THE DETAILER uses.  Mine sells me quarts of professional stuff for a buck and that aluminum cleaner stuff that you spray on and rinse off is the Duck's A$$.

Easy Off on a warm or hot engine will remove paint in minutes but you don't notice till it goes down the drain.

I use the local car wash in the soap mode for that first "rinse off"  with HP water.  Their traps catch all the dirt and grease cause the local ordinances require them to be non polluting.  My guy has a bay labeled "for engine cleaning".  You don't have to be "mean" to be Green.

Check what your local truck garage will charge you to have the engine "steam cleaned".

Start your engine after cleaning and look for the oil leaks.  I have seen way to many bone dry and spotless DD engines to ever believe that they can't be sealed up as well as any other.  Front and rear crank seals might present a sticky wicket.

John

[oldmansax]

Guess we gonna hafta hava "whose engine compartment looks better contest"



Won't be mine!

TOM

[boxcarOkie]

Guess we gonna hafta hava "whose engine compartment looks better contest"



Won't be mine!

TOM

Occasionally when I am showing my bus to someone, I will reach down and grab the hood lever, and then I smile and tell the person .... "Pretty and clean, stops here."  It is too much trouble to keep up with, I have enough on my plate now, I might hose it off once or twice a year, and that is about as detailed as it is gonna get.

BCO

[gus]

I just tell people that the oil in the engine compartment is an anti-corrosion spray!

[eagle19952]

This may come as a surprise to few but  the more seasoned DD hands will all tell that during WWII the Navy commisssioned GM to solve the corrosion problems on the landimg craft engines used in the South Pacific, the solution was a DD block that would "sweat".
the current PN # for the paint used is the remedy for this current "sweating" and was accepted by the EPA, deeply worded in sub paragraph 1972.
Because of the later EPA requirements GM's legal advisors decided that it was cheaper to turn the design and tooling over to R Penske.
The rest of course is common knowledge.
This is/has been substatiated by the US Department of the Freedom of Information Act Department.
Google it....

[happycamperbrat]

Great thread! Thanks for it!

Question regarding covering all the electronics- I understand the logic here and experience it in my home kitchen as well. Many appliances say "Do not submerge" But I often do submerge when cleaning. I have learned that it is okay to submerge kitchen appliances as long as it THOROUGHLY dries out before plugging it back in and turning it on. Soooo in cleaning an engine with alternator, relays and various electronic components wouldnt it work the same way? If these items get wet, let it sit for a couple weeks or more before turning the engine back on and things will work again?

[gus]

hcb,

That theory is good except that washing out an alternator moves grit and oil all around inside the alternator which does not come out. Plus, some solvents will probably soften or dissolve lacquer and plastics in the alternator.

You may be right, but I would never try it. A little grit inside a fast turning alternator goes a long way.

[artvonne]

 Be careful with pressure washers too. While they will certainly take off paint from metal, they can also blow gaskets into the engine, permeate flexible hose, blow seals out inside electrical components, etc.. Clean but broken is not what were after here. Well maybe some here, but not me.

  Im going to try the armor all/windex thing. It sounds just crazy enough it might work.

[happycamperbrat]

hcb,

That theory is good except that washing out an alternator moves grit and oil all around inside the alternator which does not come out. Plus, some solvents will probably soften or dissolve lacquer and plastics in the alternator.

You may be right, but I would never try it. A little grit inside a fast turning alternator goes a long way.

hehe! I dont have the money to experiment with something like this lol But I thought one of you millionaire bus owners would have already done this