My engine bay is pretty damn clean on the whole, but the block and intake manifold have some normal corrosion. I was wondering if anyone has tried cleaning/polishing the engine while it was still in the engine bay. I was thinking maybe a small wirebrush and some degreaser or some other type of cleaner?

Any thoughts?

Oven cleaner or a strong base is what you need to pull oxides off of aluminum. Wire brushing is fine but sandpaper works too. I think the valve cover is a smooth surface so step it down from say 120 grit to 1000 grit for a near mirror finish.

The valve cover is easy to remove if you want to clean it or even paint it. They sell aluminum colored paint I believe.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't WD-40 good and cheap product for cleaning corrosion of the aluminium parts?

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Oven cleaner is a good idea. Sandpaper will be hard to get around all the grooves and such. Valve cover is/will be powder coated.


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I thought about WD-40

Wire brush, degreaser, and some throttle/carb cleaner will get it. That and some steel wool, I find the Scotch Brite stainless steel wool most excellent for cleaning off parts. Discovered that when I took the worn out one from washing dishes and used it to clean the intake cover and manifold heat shield. Also does a great job of removing RTV silicone, in case you ever need to remove some.

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but leftover oil attracts dirt unless you really clean it off really well.

Thanks guys! I'll try it all when I get the valve cover back from getting powder coated and let you know!

I'll use this topic to avoid opening a new one for this kind of basic information:

I'm about to get my valve cover sandblasted and I'd like to do the same with the "air intake cover" (not sure if the right, marked it on the pic below), so now the question is: can I remove that cover just the same as the valve cover, or are there perhaps some things I must be careful around there (like fuel injectors, airflow sensors...) ?

The intake cover is easy to get to and remove. Remove the throttle body, bracket, EGR, then take off two nuts and 3 Allen screws and the intake cover comes off. I did this recently, and be warned. Either get new gaskets, or be incredibly tedious laying down RTV(thin bead and let cure for 24 hours too), otherwise you'll get a vacuum leak and have to tear everything back down. I'm currently going to have to tear everything back down and redo the RTV on everything. Not only did I not bead it(spread it on like an idiot) I only let it sit for an hour. So learn from my mistake. Also, get lots of carb cleaner and degreaser. If your intake manifold is like mine, it was COATED in oil and carbon. This is a perfect time to clean all that gunk out. Hard part is cleaning the lower intake manifold, but it can be done with some careful cleaning.

This post has been edited by Box: Sep 1, 2012 - 12:59 PM

yes the nice thing about the 7A intake manifold, is you can open it up

be careful about sandblasting, make sure there is no sand on the inside of the valve cover, as in the 5sfe the metal plates are not removable

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I wouldn't sand blast that stuff my friend. You will most likely get a lot of pitting from the process and it will look very poor afterwards IMHO. I would find someone that has a soda blaster and have that done. My friend and body guy has one and I would SO do that it if I was willing to take the parts I want cleaning up out of the engine bay. In fact I still may do that if I feel I can do it safely in the engine bay without hurting anything.

This post has been edited by Xander_X: Sep 2, 2012 - 8:59 PM

I hit my manifold, valve cover, ic, water inlet/outlets, etc with a small handheld electric sander, then went to sanding by hand starting with 800 grit, then 1200 grit, and finishing off with 2000 grit.

its quite smooth but theres still little pits for dirt to settle, has to be autosol 'ed every now and again

Soda blasting is the best thing ever, just saying.