Cleaned engine bay and now it looks terrible

[dkmcgowan]

So I cleaned the engine bay with purple power...  All the grease is gone and the engine bay is actually very clean now, but it had major issues with the aluminum and now that it dried there is white residue everywhere, all over everything...

 

I plan to try and scrub it this weekend, I'm sure I can clean up all the hoses, plastic parts, and engine area, but I assume the aluminum is stained for good?

[big66440]

It might be, did you dilute it? I've worked with that stuff before and it is very caustic. If it happens to be permanent can you paint those parts with engine enamel? all the rubber stuff should eventually come back to normal though. I would recommend Simple Green next time it works just as good and it won't eat up parts.

[dkmcgowan]

I will use simple green for sure next time...  Should I get some simple green and a scrub brush and go back over everything?

 

I also remember in the past cleaning some old carbs and the aluminum sometimes coming out stained and oxidized a little and I would just oil them up and they would come back to life, anyone every put a thin coat of oil on the valve cover, intake and other various parts?  Does that sound crazy?

[Minuit]

I'd say the oil would burn off as soon as the engine warms up and probably not do much. I'm not familiar with its cleaning properties but it might be worth a shot. If Purple Power is the thing I'm thinking about then it's known to have effects like that on aluminum (and searching "purple power aluminum" on Google backs me up on that). Googling just "purple power" produces results not entirely related to cleaning chemicals

 

Meguiar's makes a couple of engine degreasers that work well, but that's the kind of thing you have to buy online.

[onlyinajeep726]

Scratch Purple Power, use Super Clean.  To me, it's like the Franks Redhot sauce of degreaser/cleaners: I put that $#!% on everything.

 

[onlyinajeep726]

As far as Simple Green goes... Straight from their website.

 

Aluminum - Is it safe to use Simple Green on aluminum?
Simple Green products have been successfully and safely used on aircraft, automotive, industrial and consumer aluminum items for over 20 years. However, caution and common sense must be used: Aluminum is a soft metal that easily corrodes with unprotected exposure to water. The aqueous-base and alkalinity of Simple Green or Crystal Simple Green can accelerate the corrosion process. Therefore, contact times of All-Purpose Simple Green and Crystal Simple Green with unprotected or unpainted aluminum surfaces should be kept as brief as the job will allow - never for more than 10 minutes. Large cleaning jobs should be conducted in smaller-area stages to achieve lower contact time. Rinsing after cleaning should always be extremely thorough - paying special attention to flush out cracks and crevices to remove all Simple Green/Crystal Simple Green residues. Unfinished, uncoated or unpainted aluminum cleaned with Simple Green products should receive some sort of protectant after cleaning to prevent oxidation.