OK, so I wanted to degrease my engine today.. well, popped the hood to look at what should be taped off and what not. That's when the reality of just how cramped my engine bay is got to me. I CAN BARELY FIT MY HAND IN THE MANY CREVICES MADE BY RANDOM WIRES AND HOSES. I have looked on every search engine, forum, everything I can think of for some help. No luck. So Im gonna ask..

How do I go about degreasing this engine? There's especially a lot of gunk around the oil filter "mount" and near the rear of the engine.

Thanks a lot everyone who helps.

I had a similar problem, my solution: i purchased the purple power engine degreaser in the spray bottle from autozone, tooke my xj to the car wash, completely soaked the motor in the purple power, let that sit on the motor about 5 minutes, then used the degreaser from high pressure hose at the car wash, soaked the engine with that, let it sit for about 5 minutes, then used the high pressure rinse from the car wash. I was very impressed with the results. Before i cleaned the engine there were parts that appeared to be one piece, and i had thought that someone painted the intake manifold black. After cleaning it looked practically brand new.



Btw i had a similar problem area around the oil filter, i thought the mount was black as well and a 1 piece unit, well it is two pieces and appears to be aluminium now. i still need to get it in the air though to do the tranny, axles, and other misc parts on the under carriage. also with that purple degreaser don't leave it sit on aluminium parts too long as it does dissolve aluminium. and your MMV with this stuff, this is just my experience.

So you just basically sprayed EVERYTHING with it? The manifolds, block, cylinder head, VC and all? AND IT ALL JUST CAME RIGHT OFF? Wow. Im impressed and looks very nice. Btw, did you cover anything electrical and did your Jeep run a lil cooler?

just to be safe use plastic bags over the distributor, relay box, TPS on the throttle body

Thats impressive! I have a can of degreaser in the garage I have been avoiding. I need to take it to a car was and knock it out though. My engine looks terrible.

I have some Aircraft Simple Green that I use on the engine. I just hose it off. I cover all electrical and sensitive items with aluminum foil.

I understand the bit about covering important components and such, my only issue is that it seems so cramped. I bought a can of Engine Bright Gel Spray and a small brush for heavy deposits.. my only question, if I cover all the listed items above with plastic, then do I just spray EVERYTHING else with cleaner and spray it off? Manifolds, valve cover, block, starter, everything?

I didn't cover up anything at all, its an 01 so no distributor, if i had a distributor i would have put a bag on it tho. but yeah, basically after soaking it in degreaser i used the high pressure rinse option and blasted all the crud off, truck started and ran without a hitch.

everytime i clean my engine i just spray everything and power wash it off. i have never covered anything. some people leave it running while they do it.

I just sprayed "engine brite" on everything and then sprayed the whole thing with water. Done and done - I didn't cover aything.

The easiest way to clean engine bays was already stated, get some purple power, spray the stuff down, and pressure wash it off. I wouldnt spray the computers and other electrical stuff like that too DIRECTLY with the pressure.

Thats the way we used to do it at a car lot I detailed for, and I never had a single issue with anything, considering they were all like 06' and up with all the electrical stuff that goes along with the newer vehicles, im sure the cherokee's will handle it just fine.

Let the engine run a few after spraying it to let it dry off, and expect a wet belt squeal, it happens.

on a side note, i have used the engine brite family of products on other vehicles, and while they had excellent cleaning results, after a thorough rinsing the engine smelled horrible for about 100 miles. Also while i had good results with the purple power(this stuff is awesome) i think i will fall in line with ET Jeep's method and use simple green, as that stuff smells allot better, however the purple power left no smell at all. i will post some higher quality pix later as i just got a new digital camera and my first pic was taken with a motorola razor.

Just saw the post before this one, and yes do not spray the ecu, the relay/fuse box, or the alternator directly with the high pressure hose, the intake, valve cover, engine block and tranny you should be able to blast away at without issue.