engine bay

[Jrromney69]

So tomorrow I'm going to ATTEMPT to clean up my engine bay and get it ready for my motor to drop back in..
Any advice?

[GREASEMONKEY72]

degreaser and a pressure washer to start with

[Peter82]

Yea... pull everything out and start over. ha ha

[VetteVet]

What's your goal? If you intend to just clean the grease off then just cover the parts you don't want to get water in and then rent or borrow a pressure washer and go at it. If you're like me you will want to clean and paint everything. I thought I could do it all in a few days but when I cleaned up one thing and painted it the rest of the stuff looked so bad that one thing led to another and before I knew it I had the whole engine compartment disassembled and I was sanding, wire brushing and painting for weeks.
Take lots of pics and notes and keep all hardware located and identified. I'd say you might be ready to drop the engine by spring.
This scenerio is pretty common here on this board. LOL

[chevychase]

Good advice so far. Be careful what your start! I just wanted to just 'clean' my firewall and I wound up going down to bare metal by the time I was done. Lots of work, but it was definitely worth it to me.

[special-K]

The firewall will clean right up with some laquer thinner.

[7DEETWO]

I have the same story as vettevet, I started having a beer, just cleaning up things. Next thing I remember the entire engine compartment was disassembled. Three weeks later project was completed, and I was very satisfied with the results. Just dive in have fun.

[ETsC10]

I've detailed a few and this is roughly how I go about it..

Collect your supplies: degreaser, scrubby pads, a couple scrapers, wiring tools, rags, lacquer and paint thinner, blue masking tape, tie-wraps, a bungee cord or two, gloves, lots of rags and paper towels, Prep-sol or equivalent, a drop light, any spray paint you want to use, etc. Don't fail to have a camera and notebook handy.

Tie as much wiring, hoses, and bolt-ons out of your way. I stuff a chunk of Styrofoam over the hood catch, too...nasty, the first time you snag your leg on it. Use your battery (covered) to set tools and your butt on.

Cover the floor under the truck and scrape the majority of the thicker crud.
A big, used paintbrush works good for knocking the shrapnel out of your way.
Mask or plug anything you want to protect from water. Pressure wash the area with degreaser. I follow this with detailed degreasing using paint thinner (mineral spirits)...if you soak a rag, it's a good way of getting wiring, hoses, etc clean. Degrease and rinse the whole area again. Follow up with Prep-sol or another pre-paint de-waxer.

Now is a great time to check the condition of your wiring and reroute it where needed. Do away with as much clutter as you can. Replace any really crappy looking fasteners with new. If you remove things, take pics and/or notes as needed.

Mask and paint until you're blue in the face. I use gloss black, semi-gloss black and cast iron paints a lot.

That's how I do it...usually, if the wiring doesn't need major re-work, I can do an engine bay in about 12 hours.

Just my 2 cents...

[hyarbour]

What's the matter with it? It looks a hell of a lot better than mine.