cleaning and polishing that engine bay?

[samco-jack]

Hello buddies,Whats the best way to clean an engine bay and get one of those cover car shine's
oh yer,
 i'v a small hole in the second section of my exhuast,and the breather on the crank case is lose am i loseing power because of it?

[VeeDubGTI16v]

take your engine apart, chrome everything, buy 7 bottles of brasso, polish it for 3 days solid and then put it in your garage and tow it to a few shows a year

[bigkev750]

ouch thats gotta hurt

[lewis]

You could try steam cleaning it. That could help get some of the surface muck of then use a bit of elbow grease. Don't know how good it would come up as I always worry about 14 year old electric and water mist coming together. Maybe getting some proper engine paint that will take the heat and paint the rocker cover and anywhere else that you can reach but make sure you clean it down properly first. You should take the engine out really to paint it properly (year right). Maybe some sort of brush on aluminium cleaner on the intake manifold and other bits like that. Shrink wrap any exposed wires and change any rusty hose clips. All depends how much money you want to spend on it as to how far you go.

[VeeDubGTI16v]

i heard steam cleaning is bad for all the hoses, perishes them.

[kniterider]

depends on how you do it!!!, if you jet steam in all electrical bits your asking for trouble, dont think steam will perish hoses but cleaning em with chemicals etc will (unless u have silicon hoses ie:samco etc), i use a degreasing chemical from work called 'jizer' give it a good going over with that then gently wash off with hose pipe(avoiding electrics if poss) this stuff is biodegradable so its ok to go down the drain, dunno if you can buy this stuff but its better than gunk etc

[VeeDubGTI16v]

degreasing chemical called jizer

ok im gonna be grown up and not make a joke

[Veedubgt18v]

 i'v a small hole in the second section of my exhuast,and the breather on the crank case is lose am i loseing power because of it?

The breather will affect your idle. is it an 8 or 16v? as for the exhasut it wwill blow a bit but dont worry unless it gets well big and loud. you may notice it seems worse in the cold tho

[samco-jack]

8v

[Blue MK2]

Mr Muscle over cleaner on a hot engine should do the trick