Engine clean up, yellow to silver(new)...

Archives Review

Sean;

In answering your questions, I thought it best to use the archives from the last four years from Roadfly and ClubE31.

Here are the links you need (click on blue text below):

26-Oct-2001 - How do you get Cosmoline off?
06-June-2003 - Roadfly Post - Cosmoline Removal
22-June-2003 - Xradman Caution
04-Jan-2004 - Cosmoline Revisited

It's amazing how much wisdom is contained in the archives!

whenever i clean an engine i just use a mild degreaser left on for 10 minutes (i dont cover any wires or anything im just aware of them) then i rinse it off with a light stream of water. usually that gets the dirt of but then i use a mag and alloy polish to make it shine.You could try using an electric buffer to really make it shine, but for the black bits you should use perhaps mother's back to black or something similar. What are the black bits made of? you should run the engine for say 10 minutes or until dry, but ive never cleaned an 8 engine so it may be different.

I use black magic engine shine, i also use it on exhaust pipes (chrome) and it doesnt seem to harm them. If you rinse throuhly enough you dont need to worry about the engine exploding!!

The best way to get it to look like that is to take off the manifolds and valve covers. Then bead blast and paint them.