Engine Cleaning

[victor]

Hello all!

Not only am I new to this wonderful site, but to the porsche world as well. I recently bought my first porsche, is a 2001 cabriolet with less than 10k miles on it and I just feel like I had another child, washing it almost every day I,m sure you have all been there. My question is "can the engine be cleaned??"

I took it to the dealer for service and asked the service manager (who made me feel like an idiot) what kind of degreaser I could buy to clean it and the response I got was " you don't clean this engines".

I came back to the site and found only one article that talked about washing it with Simple Green? I think.

If so, is there anything that I would have to be carefull with as far as water etc. Since I live in florida i have always sprayed my engines with WD40 after washdowns. Would I be affecting anything with it? Thank you Loren for such a terrific job!!

[Gabo2k]

I've heard horror stories from people trying to wash their 996 engines.

Also, never use WD40 on any part of the engine. If you need to use WD40, it should only be on a very particular area to take out a bolt, etc. Also, WD40 will leave a sticky film over all the parts, causing dust to stick to them sooner - making the matter worse.

I've also heard of using simple green on parts of the engine, but have not tried it myself, so I can't recommend this.

My suggestion would be to gather a bunch of old rags, lightly dampen them in distilled water, and go over any dirty engine part (when cool). Distilled water will keep minerals from sticking to any surface, thus keeping the engine cleaner longer.