Thundercracker

Hey every one....I have repaired all the oil leaks (for now) that I could find on the 96 XJ sport. New rear main seal, new oil filter housing O rings, new valve cover gasket and new ccv breather elbows.
With the breather elbows and valve cover gaskets it looks like oil was able to get on the under hood insulator pad.....its not alot but enough of a misting that it stuck and collected dirt and such over its 220K miles.
Does anyone have any ideas how to clean that? Its seems like a foam like material so I am thinking power wash will be bad. Trying to avoid buying a new one....it really doesnt need it...all the ones in the jy have been taken and I dont want to remove it for good just for fears of the engine head messing up the paint. Any ideas/thoughts/links would be appriciated....search didnt turn up much.

RTorrez1

None of my XJ's ever had any insulation under the hood and never had any problem with the paint.

dwright98xj

I just have a couple of pieces of duramat stuck. no problems.

Thundercracker

Interesting....I have heard that this keeps the engine heat from cracking/fading the paint esp during summer. I am sure RTZ1 it gets hotter in TX that here in VA. Hmm....making me think I should just tear it out.

dwright98xj

Duramat is a heat and sound insulator.

Black89

Yank it out, throw it away. Paint fade isn't caused by engine heat. It's caused by cheap paint, poor prep work, and improper application processes. A good example back in the day was FORD pick ups. They thought that baking the sealer before the color was a good idea to speed up the process. They thought wrong and thousands of trucks had the color peel right off. Sealer and color need to cure together as does the clear coat so that they all bond to each other.

RTorrez1

Yeah, I'm in South Tx. and during the summer we see the weather temp reach 110-115deg. Also like Black89 said paint fade is for the most part caused by cheap paint and prep. and of course old age.

EZEARL

I've got to respectfully disagree. The hood paint on my '96 that I got from the original owner was perfect until I took out the pad two yrs ago. Since then I've gotten a spot in the same place on both the left and right side of the hood. Not that I care.

Coastie05

I don't have the pad and my paint is just fine.

EZEARL

I did have a slight overheating problem(bad fan clutch) for a bit. Maybe that caused it. I know those spots got hotter than I wanted to keep my hand on for very long.

Thundercracker

So I was talking to a guy at work who had a 87 Grand Nasty with the same type of under hood cover...some type of foam. He was telling me that since his replacment was so expensive and you do see Grand Nasty's in the jy much if ever he took his off, used a steam cleaner and lightly...actually 1/4 of lightly misted it with hot water...not up close but about a few feet away. Working in small sections he misted, simple greened, misted again then ran over it with a vacum with a brush attachment. Basically did this process over and over never letting the foam get to wet. When he was done he let it dry in the sun then gave a light coat mist of black BBQ grill paint.
So last night I pulled the insulator pad off...pretty good shape...few areas the foam was loose so I trimmed with a razor. I only got 1/4 of it done so far (just the cleaning part) and it looks way better. Not brand new of course but much better. Plus I cleaned the other side of the hood that was covered by the pad...that shone up like new. Feel like I got 100lbs of dirt/mud out from there plus what looks to be leftovers of a bat...sorry there buddy.
I will post pics when done but looking good so far.

phobia

I've run without one for years, never had any issues.