If I get the chance again I will paint them with engine enamel.
Any other options?
My aged alloy engine (now 17 years old) is rather scanky and I fancy giving it a little refurb. Personally not a fan of painted engines... Nothing
too silly (not mirror finish) just get rid of some of the crud.
Steam cleaning is quite good from what I've heard but how much crud will it actually remove? And down sides???
TIA
paint it silver to match original or just some clear varnish.
Have it bead blasted?
I bought a hand held steam cleaner from B&Q and went over the alloy engine & box with that - it looked really clean and shiny .... for a
while. Now it looks like a scanky donor engine again If I get the chance again I will paint them with engine enamel.
Leave it until winter, then take it out and polish it. Should be finished for spring! 
Can you get it steam cleaned and then anodised in a colour of your choice?
Alochrome
clean it, then wire wheel on an angle grinder followed by silver engine paint. Nothing too fancy, but it will stay presentable for years to come.
If magnesium is very clean it can be sprayed with WD40 to keep it looking good. I presume aluminium could be the same.
Hmmmmm. Sounds like whatever I do the engines going to go back to how it is pretty quickly... might not bother 
That's certainly an alternative
quote:
Originally posted by BenB
Any other options?
My aged alloy engine (now 17 years old) is rather scanky and I fancy giving it a little refurb. Personally not a fan of painted engines... Nothing too silly (not mirror finish) just get rid of some of the crud.
Steam cleaning is quite good from what I've heard but how much crud will it actually remove? And down sides???
TIA