Cleaning the top of your engine....

[Steve McF]

I tried to clean the top of my engine today, and seem to have some areas that I cannot clean very well. Any recommendations about what to use on these metal areas to bring them up? I tried brake and carb cleaner, but it's not sorting it.

Do I need to get the fine wet and dry out?

[sgould]

That's not dirt, it's corrosion.  So wet & dry will be needed.  But it will happen again.

[TomPaine]

The notion of engine cleaning always scares me. Open bonnet; light squirt of WD40; close bonnet (or to be more precise, until I have fixed replacement bonnet struts, get hit by bonnet on back of head ...)

[Steve McF]

Mmmmm, so I suspect the corrosion is normal on an engine of this age? So even if I clean it up with a bit of wet'n'dry fine grade, can the metal be treated with something to protect it from further corrosion?

[carrera]

Treat it, then seal it with a clear laqueer. It might bubble, it may not, only one way to find out

[David]

Wire wool also works well. To protect the engine marks from returning I used Turtlewax Sealant Wax which contains hydrophobic sealants.
It will not totally prevent it from returning, but will slow it down considerably.
The sealant is also good for alloy wheels.

[Steve McF]

And both the lacquer and/or the wax are OK to use on the engine, given the temperatures?

[sgould]

Should be OK.  It's only the exhaust that gets really hot. There's a lot of plastic around the engine and that doesn't melt.  And the clear lacquer on a black car gets far too hot to touch on a sunny day, and that stays on!

But you may find some lacquers are better than others. 

[David]

Turtlewax Sealant Wax is a tough product. I have used it for some time and it continues to perform admirably.
There are a number of product tests on Youtube about this product, if it helps.