I spent part of last night and all of this long morning detailing my engine bay and under the hood for the first time (bought the XF a month or so ago.)

Looked like it had been done fairly well, probably by the seller many months ago. So the worst spots were down low around the engine, on the inner fenders, etc.

Under the hood was a different story -- needed cleaning up badly, as the pic that follows only partially shows. Not only was it fairly dirty with dead bugs, etc., but the paint was quite greasy. And the insulation pad was very dirty.

Before:





I used the techniques and materials that I just used on my daily-driver that I just sold (with a great looking engine bay ).

With the engine cold, I sprayed everything (except the alternator, covered with a plastic bag) with full strength Purple Power -- this probably isn't recommended for most since it is strong, and can damage paint. After about 10 minutes, I started scrubbing with a soft scrub brush and a bucket of Ivory Liquid dishsoap suds. I lightly scrubbed the hood insulation pad since it seemed a little delicate.

Then I hosed it all off using hot water. How? Via this Woodford Model 22 faucet I installed years ago! Also excellent for washing cars in cold weather, and for supplying hot water to a pressure washer:




Then I dried all using a leaf-blower and towels. The hood insulation stayed very wet, so I ran a box fan on it for many hours -- and it still is not fully dry on the bottom (with the hood open). Fan still going ...

The hood latch and lock both got shots of white grease to replace that removed by the degreaser.

Then this morning I did the cleaning of the painted surfaces under the hood and around the engine using ... GASP ... Turtle Wax Polishing Compound (paste). I needed the more aggressive nature of this to get the oily stains out. But the paint is very thin under here, so care is needed.

After blowing out the dried polishing compound (after wiping) with compressed air, next was applying the dressing. Vinylex works quite well, but was a bit challenging to find locally. Advance Auto had it, fortunately.

On the car I sold I used a technique from a YouTube pro detailer: spray all over, and then use compressed air to spread it around. Then a rag. But I've already washed the exterior of the XF and have it stored indoors to clay bar it, so I applied the dressing for the XF by hand with a rag. Took a long time, and gained viele klein Schaden, mit ein bisschen Blut.

But here's after:





The large black plastic cowl covering was very dry, and will need a second coat of dressing tomorrow.