Old vehicles like the Project Bronco II can be a greasy mess. It seems that the biggest portion of it is always on the drivers side of the engine compartment. You can thank greasy engines and engine compartments to people spilling engine oil while adding it, and leaky power steering pumps.
I planned on putting a clean and detailed engine in the Bronco II, but I wasn’t about to put it in a greasy and dirty engine compartment. That meant a good degreasing was in order.
After the old motor was out, I loaded the Bronco II up on the trailer and took it to a local do-it-yourself car wash.
Those cans of degreaser you get from the parts stores never work well for me, so I went to the local dollar store and got some cheap heavy duty oven cleaner. Degreasing the Bronco II would consist of spraying it down real good with oven cleaner and hitting it with the pressure washer.
WARNING: Make sure when you do this you use a face mask to protect yourself from the oven cleaner fumes. You should also avoid getting the cleaner on electrical connections.
You can see from the (2) photos below how messy the drivers side frame rail was.
Here it is the morning after I cleaned it at the car wash with oven cleaner:
See all that gray area? That’s the factory primer. The oven cleaner and pressure washer actually washed away the factory paint.
Check out all the grease and the lower radiator hose. The previous owner stated that the motor started knocking. Want to take a shot at the reason why?