Engine cleaning

Hello, i am new to these forums! My dad has had this camaro for about 17 years. And he recently gave it to me as my first car What a great car to start off with when im only 16! We just started restoring it and i just had a quick question. What are some good ways to clean your engine and all the other stuff under the hood?

If the ingine is out and you are doing a rebuild I use oven cleaner.  Get yourself some fresh high temp paint as this stuff takes off EVERYTHING.  Otherwise go down to your local autopartsd store and get some stuff there, engine cleaner is near the paint section.

Ok thanks.

I was out of town for a few days, so I caught this thread a little late.

I tend to use Simple Green (or similar concentrated soap like Purple Cleaner) for cleaning engine parts and the like. It works best when the item to be cleaned is warm, not hot!... warm. Then I'll spray the Simple Green (straight, don't dilute it like they say.) Let it sit for an hour or so and then use a pressure washer to blast off all the gunk. You can use a hose too. Get ready to dry off everything once it's clean with a towel and a air hose or it'll start to rust.

Sometimes it takes a few applications to get it all. Remember to scrap off all the heavy crap first with a screw driver before you start washing.

If you're rebuilding the engine then the shop will do all that for you. (either hot chemical tank or thermal cleaning)

I use Gunk engine cleaner if something is REAL dirty but my stuff never gets like that. you have to be careful if you use something too strong (like oven cleaner) because you will remove all the existing paint. as Nitro said, simple green on a warm engine, but I don't like to let it sit too long

ditto to 1969 ss  gunk