cleaning the engine

[rodo]

Just the good old high pressure water gun at the local car wash or something else?

Modern engines, with a few exceptions like 1st gen Neons, do a pretty good job of keeping the oil on the inside. Without that being a problem, we've been able to keep our engines looking pretty new for 8+ years just by regularly keeping the plant matter and other road debris vacuumed out of the crevices, spot cleaning with a mild detergent, keeping on top of any battery corrosion, and promptly dealing with any fluid spills or leaks. So, I'd say my key tools for this are a shop vac with a good assortment of attachments and some damp rags. This is the vacuum set I use to reach the cracks and small spaces: 8 Piece Micro Vacuum Attachment Kit

Most of our local DIY car washes have eliminated their engine wands and/or cleaners and I don't like the lack of pressure control with the regular cleaning wands - they tend to blow paint and decals off our older engines. I have an air powered engine cleaning tool, but is just okay for spot cleaning. It's easier on the paint and decals, but would take a looong time to clean a completely gunked up engine bay.

Our Suburban engine was professionally detailed after 15 years and 200K+ miles. The steam cleaning did a beautiful job, but I would skip the spray they applied after cleaning to give everything that shinny "new" look. We had a minor A/C problem fixed a few months later and the shop still couldn't run a leak test because whatever they used with was still messing with the sensor on their detector. The other caution on sprays in the engine bay is the risk of silicone (Armor All, 3-in-1, etc) contamination of the O2 sensors. Probably not such an issue with the ducting on the Aveo, but something to be aware of - especially before you start cleaning the inside of your filter box.