Rusty engine

[dadrathers]

Hey

The rocker cover on my MkII is a bit dull but I could sort that the next time I take it off. Big problem is that the engine block and head are rusty. Not seriously, just looks 'orrible. With so much clutter attached to the engine is there any way of making it look better??

[...joe]

take it down your local jet wahs and with the engine running blast hell out of it! the heat from the engine should stop any water hanging around as it'll evaporate off. then go home, take off as much as you feel comfortable with, get some wire brushes and scrub away to get rid of as much skank as you can. then paint with hammerite. it may not be perfect but when its all built back up it'll look fine.

[kells]

painted my rusty coloured block with black satin hammerite, looks the biz... i have mk 3 gti btw..

[dadrathers]

Thanks - sounds like Hammerite is the stuff and no short cuts.

[kells]

i went from a really REALLY black dirty engine bay which looked like it had not been cleaned ever
to this, all by my own hands, still working on bits too
also had rusty block as you do and most people do as its just a casting
and all the paint was cracked off on the rocker cover etc and all the aluminium bits had gone white, didnt look great so put a few hours into it and so far iv got to this

(no bits were replaced, all just cleaned up etc)

[dadrathers]

That's brill - even so far?? How did you sort the aluminium? Mine is all pitted and white looking as you say.

[kells]

alot of hard work, basically took it all to bits haha, used sand paper, wet and try, a sh!t load of top quality metal polish then to make it shine

i guess u could do it will it all attached to the enigine still

it makes alot of dust etc so once its all sanded you have to hit the whole engine hard with lots of Gunk engine degreaser first( rinse only with watering can for the gearbox, dont rinse anywhere else just use rags) and then wd40 especially on places like the gearbox etc which wont be polished up, if not these areas will go white after the degreaser, i keep all my unpolished bits like this WD40'd

once this has been done its time to polish the bare metal bits up with good quality metal polish, has to be good quality..

rocker cover was the hardest as all the standard paint had come off and the bare metal under had gone stained somehow, took ages to sand it so it was the same as the rest

i even made my own bracket for the K7N induction kit out of 304 stainless and then polished that up too, looks cool compaired to the standard black thing u get in the kit

iv started on the isv and theirs a few other bits i wanna do some more detailing on, but i have to bear in mind this is my daily driver, i did all this to my other car too so iv got a stupid thing going on about having a clean engine haha

[Guy]

kells... nice work...

anyone know how to take it to the next step? and go from an engine bay like kells' to this...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kevin.yeoman/WebGalleries/G-Werks_Open_Day_2007/G-Werks_Open_Day_14-10-2007%20100.html

some of the photos in that set are just stunning...

[kells]

thanx dude

and yeah loving those pics, id like to get the full samco hose kit etc also, really does make it look alot fresher.

if mine was a show car on minimal use id prob take the engine out and clean each part seperate by hand, also certain metals loose their colour after years of use so theirs not much u can do apart from cleaning them if u understand what im saying??, mine is a 1993 90k car and was very scruffy under the hood, certain bits to make it like the show car pics uv uploaded would have to have new parts fitted if u get my drift..

i just wanted to make my daily driver presentable, im well happy with it, even more so as its all my own work 

also the best thing about having a clean engine is the ability to see any leaks before they get bad and see exactly where they are coming from.

today i cleaned the underside of the car, jet washed the sump etc just so i can keep a check on leaks etc..

[Guy]

kells... mine is a daily driver too (84k M) but i have yet to set to work on the engine bay.. detailed everywhere else..

what are your thoughts on getting the engine bay steam cleaned and then polishing replacing shiny bits and adding the samco kit?