HOW TO CLEAN YOUR ENGINE (part 1)

Good morning community, today I have a post something different from what has been coming up.
On this occasion I leave you a mini tutorial for an effective cleaning of the engine of your car.
It consists of four simple steps:

*Dry cleaning
*Engine degreasing
*External cleaning
*Details

As a big fan of cars I am, I read and investigate a lot about the maintenance of them,
He was able to buy one of the cars with which he dreamed since he was a child, a Mercedes Benz 240d w123 year 1983.
Little by little I have been restoring it and putting it on point.

It is a vehicle that is used daily, a diesel engine 4 cylinders with dirt of about a couple of years ago.
The first part of cleaning involves removing soil, leaves, dust, and small stones.
First of all we make sure to disconnect the battery of the car so as not to have any electrical inconvenience during the cleaning.

After having the battery disconnected we see where to start with the thick cleaning.
For this we are going to help us with a dry brush, it can be an old brush, while it is clean.
What I recommend is to split the engine in half and start from the outside in.

We clean the sides of the compartment and all parts of the engine itself, where the brush allows us to reach.
A vacuum cleaner can also be used to help remove soil from more difficult places.

After cleaning all the dirt and all the surface dust, we start with the part of the degreasing, trying
Do the same technique of separating the engine in two.
We try to cover the part that we do not want it to receive moisture, like the spark plugs, the alternator, and any important electrical part.

We help us with a wire sponge, a generic anti-grease, and a dry cloth, starting from the outside to the inside.
A wire brush is also very useful for reaching the most difficult places.

The grease accumulated in areas like the exhaust manifold, and the block itself make engine cooling inefficient.
We proceed to remove the air filter, to have greater access to the block and parts more tightly.

After loosening the grease with the wire sponge and the anti-grease product, we can finish the cleaning by dampening the damp cloth with a little kerosene.

This is all for now, in the second part I will finish explaining the remaining two steps to finish the cleaning. : Or that would be the completion of external cleaning and details.

Here are two photos of the before and after momentarily. We can already see a great improvement. The air filter cover was sanded and painted because it was already rather deteriorated to simply clean it.

Before

After

I hope it it was useful, and in a few days comes the second part.
regards