How Best To Clean Engine Compartment? Topic is solved

[belskee]

Iron standing in de oxygenated water won't rust, I work in a surface finishing plant and we use this in one of our treatment processes, it's a known fact that you need oxygen and an electrolyte ie water to inhibit rust, remove either and no rust will occur.

You don't have to take my word on it just Google what causes metal to rust and read what it says, you need oxygen and moisture

[belskee]

You don't need to wash the solvent off, use the solvent to take old cruddy oil and dirt off, repeated brushing and spraying will do this fine, let the solvent or degreaser evaporate, doesn't take long, then work\brush clean oil back on to protect the metal

[bmdubya1198]

Any water based degreaser (Purple Power, LA's Totally Awesome, Simple Green, etc.) will leave a soapy film on everything if not rinsed off. I can't stand grease on everything, that's why I hose it down.
Solvents will leave less residue, but I still don't like leaving anything on there.

[cn90]

1+,

I always rinse with gentle stream of water.

I use Purple Power but that stuff, if left on long enough, can cause issue with Aluminum.
Not a big deal cleaning the engine but if you ever have anything Aluminum that is expensive, don't use Purple Power.

[Sommerfeldt]

Iron standing in de oxygenated water won't rust, I work in a surface finishing plant and we use this in one of our treatment processes, it's a known fact that you need oxygen and an electrolyte ie water to inhibit rust, remove either and no rust will occur.

You don't have to take my word on it just Google what causes metal to rust and read what it says, you need oxygen and moisture

You need oxygen, but you also need moisture. So like I said, iron won't rust in dry air. Iron will rust in water. Iron will rust in humid air - i.e. air with water in it. It's the water, not the air that will make iron rust. Most water found on our planet contains "unused" oxygen (as opposed to "deoxygenated" water), as does air. But, where the air has oxygen but not water, the iron will not rust. Where water contains oxygen but no air, iron will also rust. See how that works?

- S

[sleddriver]

No worries with rust here in CenTex. The next time the engine gets hot, all water will evaporate as well.

Up North though.......

[rspi]

I try to clean mine once per year. Usually ends up doing it about once every 2 years.

[belskee]

You're basically proving my point, you need oxygen and moisture, admittedly my first statement of air + water should have been o2 + water or could have been air or water, you said it yourself in one statement air also contains moisture so air will rust metal.

Dry air is a different story and only one place on the planet is too dry to support life, funny enough knowone lives there or washes their cars in that location.

De oxygenated water is also different, it's why you fill batteries with it as well as mixing it with antifreeze for coolant systems, if you use normal water the metals inside will corrode

[belskee]

Tell you what do a test, get 2 rust free pieces of mild steel, clean one with soapy water then rinse and leave it outside, where ever you live it doesn't mater.

Clean the second piece with carb cleaner or similar, allow to air till dry then dip it in oil, leave it in the same location, in a few days look at the results, my point was washing metal with water is not good.

yes oil and grease isn't the nicest to look at but it is protecting the metal from the air, or water regardless, oil is protecting the metal, why wash it off with water?

[bmdubya1198]

Tell you what do a test, get 2 rust free pieces of mild steel, clean one with soapy water then rinse and leave it outside, where ever you live it doesn't mater.

Clean the second piece with carb cleaner or similar, allow to air till dry then dip it in oil, leave it in the same location, in a few days look at the results, my point was washing metal with water is not good.

yes oil and grease isn't the nicest to look at but it is protecting the metal from the air, or water regardless, oil is protecting the metal, why wash it off with water?

Well, if you coat the piece in oil that was cleaned with water, that will be protected as well. That's why lots of people spray WD40 on their engine bays, it's a water displacer. It leaves a film and protects it. I'm probably going to try that the next time I clean my engine bay to protect everything. Plus it leaves should leave a nice shine.