I bought a Heavy Duty degreasrr from home depot years ago, it has kind of a purple color. Cleaned up my engine bay good the one time I used it, didn't hurt anything.

Spray the metal parts down with your degreaser, let it sit for a while to eat at the oil/dirt then rinse it off with water. You shouldn't have to spray the hose to hard and avoid electric parts and connectors. After you finish cleaning and do the final rinse, start it up and let it get to operating temp to burn off the moisture that may be trapped in places you don't want it to be.

 

awesome thank you!

 

DO NOT use the purple degreaser. It will chew up aluminum. Use simple green like smokinlmm suggested

 

Some kinds are harsh to aluminum yes, especially if you let it sit to long or dry on there. Read the bottle

 

I either use Gunk brand engine degreaser or Meguiar's super degreaser. I also put a plastic grocery bag over my K&N filter and the alternator. To build off of silentbravo, after washing I like to go for a decent drive at freeway speeds to burn off/blow off any excess water.

 

been working on the frame the past week. got it all cleaned up and painted. cut out the 2 rotten cross members, just got to wait for the new ones to arrive then i will install them. also installed the 2' drop hangers.
i managed to cut out some rotten pieces of frame and weld in new steel. should be able to put everything back together next weekend and get the bed back on. then i will take the rear end out and clean and paint it, and install the new posi and 4.10 gears.

 

That looks way better brother.

 

well another weekend down and more work got done on the truck. finished up the rear frame of the truck and got everything put back together. bought these fuel tank support tubes of ebay and honestly better then i thought they would be. everything went back together pretty quick and fairly easy. also finished up the small patch under the front passenger tire, not my best work tbh but the strength is back in the frame just doesnt look the prettiest. also to a picture of the truck and the new stance. the front is still a bit high for my liking might get 2' drop spindles but that will be at a later date.

 

just a quick little update with truck goals. the hard tonneau is gunna be tossed once i get to the body work portion of things but for now the bed of my truck is my parts holder lol shave the tail gate and colour match the front end. but next on the list will be the truck norris cam and electric fans install just waiting on a shipment from summit and then i can install that stuff. also got a email tune from Michigan motorsports that i can upload into the truck after the install.(i have hptuners just not super confident with it yet.). then i will tackle the rear end, got a posi unit and 4.10 gears, just keep delaying putting that in, not gunna lie that install intermediates me a bit. clean up the rear end paint it and throw it back in. then some other miscellaneous to do before i start the body work.
my main goal with this truck is to just a fun cruiser and go to local car meets and just enjoy the truck, i thought about wanting to build a 10 second monster but its just not realistic for me and would never use its full potential unless i went to the track which isnt really that close to me. being enjoying putting the updates on here and the little comments and support from my backyard build is pretty sweet to hear! this forum has a ton of info and seems to have a **** ton of good ppl on it. ill keep the wrenching happening and keep the updates coming, thanks guys and gals!

 

well finally got to installing the fun stuff. put the truck norris NSR cam in and the installed the electric fans. I love working on this truck, everything for the most part is super easy to do when you have the right tools and parts. took me about 4 hours to install the cam and fans. fabricated 4 little brackets to hold the fan in and we are good to go. I installed the tune that I got from Michigan motorsports, its a good enough tune to get me going but there is definitely some fine tuning that needs to be had. I had to re-work the idle a bit and even now its still idling in gear around 1000-1100, not sure if thats normal or not after a cam install(my first cammed motor). i did get a new IAC should be here this week and ill put that in to see if that helps. all things aside this thing sounds amazing! and it definitely has some more power up top. the truck is still a dog off the line with the little 4.8, but install the posi and 4.10 gears in the next coming weeks and that should help. also going to get a higher stall converter as well(2500ish stall) then my little street machine will be all good to go!! then i can get onto the body work this winter.