under car chassis cleaning question on my 308

I guess that's the difference between the coasts. In New England we have car washes that routinely do under carriage to wash off salt.

 

Not that we need salt washed off - I can't imagine all but a few of us running our cars in salt. I have seen a few F-cars that are used as daily drivers and during the winter I would imagine they would require washing - under carriage and all - right Dan?

 

I recently cleaned the bottom of my engine without a lift and it wasn't terribly painful.

1) Put the rear of the car up on nice tall jack-stands. Chock the front wheels.
2) Put newspaper under the rear of the car starting where the doors end back to around the muffler.
3) Put 1:1 dilute Simple Green in a spray bottle and also have a spray bottle of the stronger engine cleaning degreaser that says it's not safe for aluminum.
4) I suggest latex gloves or something that will protect your hands from the degreaser.
5) Stick yourself under the car and start spraying the mucky rails to loosten the gunk, then wipe them down with a paper towel. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat until clean. Simple Green works well on the lighter stuff but really caked on oil seems to require the stronger stuff. The newspaper will catch most of the drippings.

Just work your way down the car. I used the Simple Green on the bottom of the engine rather than the more toxic stuff that says it's not safe for aluminim (not sure what "not safe for aluminim" means though I suspect it just causes visual blemishes and not real damage).

By the time I was done, the bottom of the car looked pretty darn good.

My mechanic apparently noticed that I did the top (http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=157660) and bottom of the engine because last time it was in, he touched up the airbox with some black krinkle coat. Bonus!

 

I put plastic bags tied down with rubber bands over the distributors and over an evaporative controls thing on the LHS of the engine that is missing a hose in my car. Also I'd put towels or something over the "trunk" area. Spraying down the cam covers was fine as well as spraying the sides of the engine (but I tried to avoid the slot in the side of the transmission). I didn't spray any other parts of the engine bay so I can't comment.

As mentioned in my writeup, I messed up and got water in the #3 spark plug hole when the spark plug wire caps didn't seal well enough. So after you are done, pull the plug caps and check for water in the spark plug holes. Use paper towels to pull out the water if necessary.

I've heard you shouldn't let Simple Green stay on too long or else you might get blemishes Also if you use carb cleaner, cover painted surfaces like the airbox with plastic and spray very lightly to avoid overspray.

I had good luck with Armor All on the various hoses and plug wires.

 

In general washing Ferrari engines is a bad idea.............definately watch for the spark plug well seals, as they let water in but not out!

Short a plug extender that way..


Definately no high pressure it'll get past seals in sevral things and cause trouble.....

Spray a rag with WD40 and wipe it down?

 

Simple Green , eye protection, lots of elbow and old tooth brushes.. you can do it!

Regards
Axel
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The stuff to use is safety solvent, generally mineral spirits (paint thinner) or stoddard, sprayed through an aerosol wand with an air hose. Different types of brushes, rags on the end of a stick, etc., can help a great deal it removing greasey dirt and cleaning things up. Soap and water are okay to use, as long as you blow everything off good with air afterwords, especially as Tex eluded, the spark plug holes. High pressure sprayers can be bad because they can push gaskets in and destroy them, you have to be careful. The nice thing about safety solvent is it dries without leaving any residue and wont harm paint or rubber parts and its certainly not corrosive to aluminum.

Many of these cars have never had the engine out and some are pretty messy underneath. Others have been leaking oil here and there and are equally messy. Short of removing the engine some of the filth is just about impossible to get to. But if you take your time and have patience you can get to a lot of it. Just remember too, that if you start cleaning up around the timing belts, you should probably think about replacing them. Chemicals and dirt shorten thier safety margins.

I think I second others in saying that you can spend a full day cleaning one of these engines up and still not get it all. It can be a lot of work, but its very rewarding. As regards simple green, they have a new formulation for aircraft, dont know anything about it. But this letter to the Naval Safety Center should help dispell the use of the more common version:

MSgt. Larry Stulz
Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio

We appreciate your information about Simple Green. Lt. David Mims, head of the Occupational and Environmental Health Division here at the Safety Center, researched the Simple Green situation. He found that the Naval Air Warfare Center (NavAir) disapproved of the use of Simple Green for naval aviation in 1993. They have a documented incident of crazing of an F-18 canopy following the unauthorized use of Simple Green. According to an official at NAVAIR, they have tested the product at least three times since 1989. Simple Green fails sandwich corrosion and total immersion-corrosion tests for aluminum. That official also said that NAVAIR recommended that commands remove Simple Green from their spaces. It's just too easy for someone who's told to clean something to grab a bottle of Simple Green off the shelf and use it on an airplane or equipment made of aluminum.-Ed.

This letter to the editor was written to ASHORE, but it is relevant to MECH readers also. - ED

 

Yes naval aviation to include marine aviation is not allowed to use simple green to clean aircraft hell Im not even allowed to use windex on the windscreens on my aircraft.

simple green and aluminum should be avoided at all costs.




jp