How To Clean Your Car’s Engine

Owning and driving a car are two things, but knowing how to clean a car engine is an altogether different topic. If you don’t consider yourself an automotive-savvy person, you might feel discouraged about cleaning your car’s engine. However, it’s highly essential for you to conduct the best car engine maintenance and cleaning methods. These methods need not be complicated as long as you do them all piece-by-piece.

Continue reading to learn more about the basics of cleaning your car’s engine.

How can you clean your car’s engine?

Knowing how to clean your vehicle’s engine has many positive trickle-down effects on the way your vehicle runs. For example, a spotless engine can help you increase your vehicle’s fuel economy. This simply means that you’ll be able to get more mileage out of your car and run it for much longer distances before the fuel tank goes empty.

On another note, a clean engine can also help avoid further instances of your vehicle being the subject of potentially major damage. By beginning with simple cleaning methods and working your way towards slightly more complicated processes, your vehicle will be able to have a clean engine in no time.

Allow Time For Engine To Cool

If your vehicle has been sitting untouched in your garage for quite some time, then you can skip this step altogether. However, if the engine has been running and you suddenly decide to clean it up, it’s best to wait for it to cool down.

Simply pop the engine hood open and wait for a period of at least 15 minutes. A hot engine may harm you if your skin comes into contact with it.

Remove Plastic Parts

Your car engine is made up of different components made of different materials, including plastic. Remove these parts so that they can be scrubbed separately.

You should also choose to remove the entire engine to avoid any sort of electrical damage when your engine components get in touch with water. Aside from this, you should use a material such as a plastic bag to protect electrical components when you’re rinsing the engine with water.

Wire Brush Rusty Parts

The level of corrosion your engine might have been exposed to depends on how old it is or how frequently you clean it. When you find rust developing on some parts, clean them using a wire brush. You may also need to apply baking soda and water paste for added effect. After wiping off the rust, you can begin lightly rinsing the engine with water.

Brush With A Multi-Purpose Cleaner

Once you’ve rinsed the engine body, you can now brush the parts with a multi-purpose engine cleaner. You may also make use of an engine degreaser for the same desired effect.

To make this process convenient, apply the cleaner only as you’re about to clean a particular component. This avoids instances of the substance drying up and being wasted. Add generous amounts of the cleaner for as often as you need to, depending on how dirty the engine is.

You should also have a small brush in hand to clean narrow spaces. As for the plastic parts which you removed earlier, you can use the same type of cleaner to scrub off the dirt.

Rinse

Before rinsing the engine, wipe off any dust and dirt which might have appeared during the cleaning process. When washing the engine with water, you should work from the back going to the front. This is to wash off any residue from the degreaser or the multi-purpose cleaner. Avoid washing electrical components as much as possible.

Dry The Engine

After wiping off all the residual dirt and grime, you will have to dry the engine. Compressed air or a vacuum works best, but if you don’t have one available, you may simply use towels to make sure every part of the engine gets dried.

Place Back Together

Once the engine has completely dried off, you may now begin putting back the plastic parts as well as the battery that you removed earlier. Remove further unnecessary materials like plastic bags, towels, and the like.

You can follow the same procedures in your next engine-cleaning session. Always remember to follow safety protocols to avoid potentially harmful accidents.

Key Takeaway

Maintaining your vehicle’s engine may be overwhelming if you don’t know the basics of how to clean a car engine. But you don’t have to fear, cleaning it is relatively simple and only requires the use of readily-available car-cleaning materials.

The best piece of advice is to not let your car’s engine accumulate too much grime, dirt, and grease. With the guide above, you’ll hopefully be able to clean your car’s engine on your own the next time around.