To clean the engine, I used a LOT of mineral spirits (found in the paint section of any hardware store), LOTS of paper towels, toothbrushes, dental picks (to reach those tight spaces) and wire brushes. It's easiest to scrape off the heavy dirt first and then soak the area in mineral spirits. Then you just need to get out your brush and start scrubbing. Continually spraying the area will help loosen up the dirt and rinse it away. Be sure you cover the floor so you don't make more work for yourself. I just used my daily newspaper. Each night I crumbled it up and tossed it in the trash. Here's a picture of the lower bell housing cover. You can see I also used GUNK Engine Brite to clean, but mineral spirits work better:
After cleaning:
Here's a shot of the pistons. I've cleaned 1/2 of the block and the areas surrounding the pistons.
The front of the engine is getting cleaner:
The engine is almost done being cleaned. I rolled it outside and decided to use a power washer to flush out the coolant passages. It was the first sunny relatively warm day in March, 2005, so I took advantage of the weather. There was still snow on the driveway, but the sun felt great. I managed to clean the piston heads, again using mineral spirits and a wire brush. Be sure you're careful not to let debris scratch the inside of the cylinder walls as you rotate the crank to bring the piston heads up.
The oil pan took some time to clean off all of the stains. It turned out pretty good I think. Make sure you thoroughly clean the surface where the new gasket will go.
Since I had the power washer out, I decided to push the car out of the garage and get the engine bay clean. I soaked the bay with engine degreaser and let it sit a few minutes before spraying it. This got most of the dirt off except for the stuff on the underside of everything which I had to get from beneath the car.
I decided to start putting things back on as I cleaned. After all this time, I was getting worried that I wouldn't remember how everything went back on the engine. It took a while, but I figured it out. The throttle body took a full evening to completely clean.
Another picture of the engine. Make sure you keep the bearing caps for the cylinder heads sorted. They are stamped to indicate which head they are from. You can find the head's number between the two middle exhaust ports. The heads and the bearing caps were machined together at the factory and need to stay together.
In this picture, you can see a Post-It note near the bottom. I decided to take the belt tensioner apart to make sure that the washers inside were aligned correctly. They are not flat. Instead, they are slightly cupped and when aligned correctly will push the tensioner rod out a little further. Proper alignment is necessary to allow the tensioner to do its job. That Post-It note was just my own diagram of the alignment so I could use it as a reference point. Sure enough, one of the previous owners (or their mechanic) didn't install the washers correctly.
