Yes, Deterrents, not Detergents, and the winner is Zeibart!

Some months ago I had belatedly realized that the GT I bought on eBay had been Zeibarted in its Youth (seeing some of the 'plugs' in the door jam) but I never paused to reflect on what that might mean, until Yesterday. I was replacing my Oil Pressure Sensor that had unhappily sprung a leak under the electrical plug, spraying oil all over the engine and firewall during the two days I had ignored a'faint smell of burning oil.' This also seemed like a good time to tackle the nasty job of generally cleaning off the 27-year accumulation of grease and dirt on the engine, trans, cradle, and what-not. The folks at O'Reilly's had recommended a 'Green' foaming cleaner with much enthusiasm and in using it I quickly noticed that it only superficially removed some of the muck, which then dried leaving a very sticky mess. Then the light went on: 'undercoating! Ziebart!!' Why the Zeibart technician felt the need to coat the Oil Pan, A/C compressor, much of the engine block, etc., etc., became an open question to me. Had my car been coated on a Friday afternoon? A Monday morning perhaps? Tossing Environmental Friendliness aside I returned to the store and purchased a goodly amount of brake cleaner, original-flavor Gunk, and Mineral Spirits (from Home Depot.) With these I was then able to completely dissolve the Ziebart and make real progress toward cleaning up the engine. Let Ziebart victims take note.

And now for a quick question during a break from cleaning: do I have to remove the oil filter to get the starter out? It's a real mess with oil and undercoating

And a follow-up: is anyone using a 45 degree angle adaptor for the oil filter so it is straight up and down? If so, where can I get one? Or is there some trick to removing the angled oil filter so it doesn't leak all over the engine block and cradle?

Thanks.

John

Ziebart in southern California? ......why?

quote Originally posted by Gall757: Ziebart in southern California? ......why?

Protect it from the extreme flooding we have been getting

Never did get a carfax on this GT. My guess is it started life somewhere with snow and ice ...

Wd-40 takes undercoating off much easier...

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BLUE BY YOU!
NYFOC

quote Originally posted by Notorio: And a follow-up: is anyone using a 45 degree angle adaptor for the oil filter so it is straight up and down? If so, where can I get one?

That would be handy A 90 degree for the duke would be nice too.

a related link:
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/A...090219-2-083836.html

Some choices, punch a hole in the filter to drain it before removing, or use tin foil to form a little scoop shape to direct the oil as it drains.

[This message has been edited by 2.5 (edited 04-20-2015).]

Ive seen a few cars with oil pans there were rusted thru. Found out by trying to figure out what was leaking. At least back when they used to do it, they sprayed it in holes, then installed plugs...and then sprayed everything on the bottom that was steel. If yours came from the north, thats probably why you dont have rusted out strut towers and cradle. Ive had old cars that even had all the metal fender wells on both sides undercoated (inside the wheel opening and in the engine bay). It was one reason my 66 Dodge had absolutely no rust to fix on it.

[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 04-20-2015).]

quote Originally posted by rogergarrison: Ive seen a few cars with oil pans there were rusted thru. Found out by trying to figure out what was leaking. At least back when they used to do it, they sprayed it in holes, then installed plugs...and then sprayed everything on the bottom that was steel. If yours came from the north, thats probably why you dont have rusted out strut towers and cradle. Ive had old cars that even had all the metal fender wells on both sides undercoated (inside the wheel opening and in the engine bay). It was one reason my 66 Dodge had absolutely no rust to fix on it.

Years ago we pulled a 51 Mercury out of the woods in Wisconsin, it had been there probably 25 years and had beenalmost half submerged in water a few times, the odometer showed 65k miles. There was old tar like undercoating on its inner wheel wells and frame, I chipped some of it off to expose shiney like new factory paint. i'm not sure if they used exactly the same stuff back then, but that stuff works.

quote Originally posted by Notorio: ... 'undercoating! Ziebart!!' Why the Zeibart technician felt the need to coat the Oil Pan, A/C compressor, much of the engine block, etc., etc., became an open question to me. Had my car been coated on a Friday afternoon? A Monday morning perhaps?

These so-called 'technicians' can be complete morons and some obviously know nothing about cars.
But what can you expect from someone that probably had 1-day training for a minimum wage job (it seems).

My GT had been Zeibarted.
Yay! They coated the all plastic wheel-well liners really well, but not the metal frame rails and sheet metal up behind them.

Luckily, up our way, rust it not a major issue...

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Rusted out oil pans, amazing! Here is a Ford oil filter adapter as an example, not quite what I meant since it changes the angle 90 degrees. Didn't find any for 60 degree V6 but the few other types I found were expensive ($90).