Best way to clean black engine?
 

Before swapping out my lower rockers and replacing the gaskets on my latest round of mods, some oil had slowly seeped out over the last year or so behind the rear rocker.

What's the best way to clean the oil off the motor? Soap/Water/Toothbrush? As you know, the engine has a textured coating on it so just simply wiping it with a microfiber rag or similar leaves lint particles on the surface.

Just to be honest, I rarely wash the entire bike. It is garage kept and never sees rain or bad weather. I usually just wash the wheels and front end and wipe the bike down after every ride with Meguiers Quick Detailer and now that I have no front/rear fenders, I have even less Black Denim to maintain. The engine could use a good scrub down.

Yes, soap & water, or a degreaser of some sort. Or go ride in the rain, it'll clean itself.

I just use Gunk/Engine Brite engine cleaner/degreaser and a pressure washer. Follow up with compressed air and some silicone spray or Pig Spit. If it's really caked on in some of the crevises, a small tubular brush helps.

I've been using wd40 on my street bob motor for years. I soak the motor and all black wrinkle down with wd40 then clean the rest of the bike with lemon pledge while the wrinkle black soaks up the wd. Wipe up the excess wd40-done. Pictures of my bike speak for themselves. 57,000 miles. Maybe the wd just thins out the grease and road debris and spreads it out evenly?? But my bike usually looks pretty clean. I don't know how the wd is going to work on my super glide blond drive train-havent had time to clean it yet.

I also have used WD 40 to clean the engine if it is really dirty and then pressure wash with a good automotive soap like meguires and then when it is dry I apply S100 Engine Brightener.

used this recently

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/gener...ine-shine.html

down side was riding that first few miles and the stares from onlookers... "sir, you bike is on fire" 😄

I like the Gunk cleaners but the Shine is (iirc) Soybean oil and smells like shit. never used on a bike engine, but I imagine it would smoke.pretty bad and eventually turn brown. Maybe not, but I prefer a silicone based shiner as it can take the heat. Most silicones are good up above 500F. Some as high as 650f.

lol, smelled like oranges. Pig spit is new to me, you are the second person to mention it though

Hmm... The foam cleaner, I think, smelled like oranges. I normally use the gel. I've only used the Shone once and wasn't happy with it. I remember the smell permeating the car. Maybe that was after the perfume burned off.

S100 is popular too.

I just get the super cheap silicone spray. I can get it local, it's cheap, and it works.

It's not really caked on or anything like that, just the engine itself has never really been washed.

Does the WD40 not smoke afterwards when engine heats up?