When it comes to cars, perhaps there is no greater component than the engine, and because of constant use, it can get very dirty. Despite its importance and frequent use, the engine often remains unclean and unpolished—but this can change with a few easy steps. As a future auto detailing professional, keep these engine cleaning tips in mind to ensure happy customers and repeat business.
Read on to discover how to detail a car engine like a pro.
Auto Detailing Pros Know How to Prep an Engine for Cleaning
First things first; don’t begin cleaning a hot engine! After your auto detailing course, you may be really excited to get to work, but for the sake of your engine, wait until it’s cool. The chances of damaging an engine increase substantially when using cold water on a hot engine. Leave the car sitting overnight prior to beginning in order to make sure that it is cool.
There are also components of the engine that are important to cover prior to cleaning. Make sure to cover the car’s alternator, any filters that are exposed, as well as the engine’s air intake. The last thing you want is cleaning product or water in your engine’s air intake. If that occurs, your engine may ‘hydro lock,’ meaning that water may enter your engine’s internal combustion chamber and bend rods and valves, so make sure to cover your intake especially well. A good way to do this is to cover the exposed filter with a plastic bag and tape around it to seal it off.
Degreaser is an Auto Detailing Professional’s Friend when Cleaning Engines
Once the engine is prepped, it’s time to begin the cleaning, so spray some water on the engine and get ready to apply soap. After you have applied water to the engine, it’s time to add degreaser to the mix and get working on the dirt, grease, and dust that have probably caked on your client’s car. Auto detailing pros know that degreaser will remove wax, so anywhere that you would like to keep wax intact should remain free of degreaser. Proceed to spray engine degreaser on the various surfaces that need cleaning, especially the fluid containers and hoses, because these areas usually are the ones that get very dirty. Also, spray the firewall at the back of the engine bay, which gets especially dirty as well.
Often, the degreaser will do most of the job for you. Just rinse it off with water from a hose and watch the majority of the dirt and grease vanish. Now that you have taken off most of the big dirt, it’s time to detail the spots of the engine that require a little more care as well as specific tools to clean particular parts of the engine.
Auto Detailing Pros Have the Tools to get Engines Sparkling
In order to get your client’s engine sparkling it’s important to use special tools to really get the engine looking like it did when it left the dealership. There are wash mitts designed specifically for engine detailing and there are also brushes that are designed to get into hard-to-reach crevices. In your auto detailing training you may discover that engine brushes are chemical resistant, meaning that the degreaser won’t break them down. But if the brush is used on another part of the car with degreaser remaining, it can cause trouble so make sure to keep tools carefully labelled and separate.
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