Mucky Mitsubishi Engine Bay Clean

Hi there and welcome to another car cleaning guru video. Today I tackled this 98 16-valve Mitsubishi Colt engine which, as you can probably tell from the before shots, hadn't been cleaned for quite some time. This provided the perfect opportunity to attempt to show what can be achieved on even the most neglected of engine bays like this, as well as hopefully capturing some decent before and afters to illustrate the turnaround. Before getting to grips with the cleaning, the first step was to cover any sensitive areas such as the alternator, the battery terminals and electrical connections with plastic to prevent any water from penetrating. I chose to go with a thorough pre-foam to begin with and while this isn't essential, it can be a great all-encompassing way of lifting light dirt from every surface of the engine bay prior to degreasing. And before anybody asks, it's no more risky than wetting an engine with a hose pipe or a pressure washer, so long as the sensitive areas are covered you're completely safe to snow foam. While you could rinse the foam straight off, I chose to agitate it with a couple of soft bristle detailing brushes to help the process along. This easy detail brush is an essential tool when undertaking a thorough engine bay clean as it reaches deeply into areas that may otherwise be missed. Following agitation with the brushes, I then went on to a thorough pre-rinse to remove the foam and the first layer of dirt that it had now softened. While the rinsing needs to be thorough, you should also keep the jet of water moving to ensure that you don't inadvertently drive water into any sensitive areas. In between pre-rinsing and degreasing, you may want to let the engine dry off a little so that you're not spraying the product onto a soaking wet engine bay and potentially diluting its cleaning power. I used AutoSmart G101, a staple all-purpose cleaning product diluted 1 to 10 with water, but any all-purpose cleaner or engine bay degreasing product would work perfectly. The key is to apply it liberally, you don't want to be shy with your degreaser as every surface needs to have an adequate coating of the chemical. Once applied, I started to work the cleaner in from top to bottom with a range of soft-bristled detailing brushes. Here's a closer view of the plush Easy Detail brush working the degreaser into the more awkward areas of the engine bay. A standard soft-bristled detailing brush was used to lift dirt from the rocker cover as well as any other easily accessible flat facing surfaces. Once some time had been spent thoroughly working the cleaner in, I gave the underside of the bonnet and the entire engine bay one final rinse off, again being thorough but keeping the stream of water continuously moving. The best way to dress an engine is when it's still wet, so after rinsing I liberally sprayed all surfaces with AutoSmart Finish, a water-based cleaner dressing, but a product like 303 Aerospace Protectant or Meguiars Hyperdressing would also be perfect for this. I then worked the dressing into awkward areas with a clean dry detailing brush before thoroughly wiping down any flat surfaces with a dry microfiber towel. Now it's worth spending some time here to ensure that the dressing is thoroughly worked into all areas and adequately buffed off to give that uniform shine and finish. Finally I accentuated a few choice features with a more glossy durable dressing product using a microfiber applicator pad. Any dressing product designed to be used on the exterior of the vehicle would be perfect for this. Once all areas were dressed I removed the various pieces of plastic applied earlier. You could at this point if you wish then use a damp microfiber towel to clean and dress those previously covered areas so that they don't look unfinished in comparison to the rest of the engine bay. And that was that. Aside from a final quick buff to collect any remaining drips and residue that's all that's required to bring even the most mucky of engines back to a clean and tidy looking standard. As always comments and constructive criticism are welcome and I'll hopefully be back with another car cleaning video for you very soon.