Okay, I keep seeing beautiful engines and components here! How are you guys cleaning parts - alternators, OMP's, accessories, that sort of thing? Blasting? Soaking? Should I find a parts washer? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

On a slightly warm engine, put a plastic bag over the dizzy and spray the whole engine bay down with engine degreaser (the cheap generic brands work best because you can use more degreaser for the same price. I get the autozone stuff or the cheapest stuff at walmart).

Use a brush to loosen up the really greasy areas. Let the whole thing sit for ten minutes then add a bit more degreaser and do some more brushing.

Hose everything down with a low pressure garden hose. (No pressure washers!)

Repeat the degreasing cycle as needed.

Finally, after the last hosing, give the whole engine bay a good wash with hot soapy water (I use dish detergent), followed by a final rinse.

To speed drying, use a compressor to blow out the water puddles, if you have one available. Towels work OK too.

When dry, give everything a light coating of lubricant, I like the stuff in a spray can, it's easy to get all the hard to reach spots. If you don't do this, you will start to get surface rust where you've removed all the protective oil.

If the car doesn't start, remove the dizzy cap and blow out the inside of the dizzy and around the igniters, wires and coils.

For alternators and other aluminum parts, a wire brush wheel mounted on a bench grinder works wonders.

 

10-4 on using grocery bags to prevent moisture on cap and rotor

 

What about things like rust? I have an old OMP (the one I removed) and I'd like to try and clean it up, but there seems to be a bit of corrosion, rust, or some very impressive dirt on it. How would I got about cleaning that sucker?

 

You have a couple of options with rust. One would be to cover it with a project such as POR15. It converts rust to metal. It's generally used when you can not remove the rust by other means.
Another option, which is the one I use, is to remove the part and media blast it. If I can safly put the part in my oven, I powder coat it. If it's a part that can not take the heat, I media blast then paint it. There are very few parts that I don't powder coat.

The OMP is made out of aluminum. It should shine up good by first scrubbing it with a brush and soap and water. Then use a buffing wheel to shine it up.

Here's a pic of my first rebuild.

 

Ray pretty well nailed it.
Elbow grease plus chemicals and as Ray said, a toothbrush (or 5) will do wonders getting into the tight spots! Frankly, to do a really _detailed_ job you need to pull some parts or there are places that will never get cleaned up. Pulling big stuff like alternator, air cleaner and doing some slight disconnecting of _mounting_ hardware on the Rats Nest so you can lift it a bit, all makes the job easier. I pulled pretty much everything off the inside outer compartment walls (so: battery, coils, electronic boxes, water reservoirs, even the headlight motors) to really get at the munge. THEN followed up with thorough polish and WAX of inner panels with all this stuff out of the way. Means ocassional light wash and detail pretty well keeps the Bay clean and bling-y

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

Take your engine completly apart. Then clean it.

While you're cleaning you can put new bearings and seals in the engine. :P