Washing the engine?

Anyone washed their engines yet? I washed mine for the first time with a foam cannon. Just wrapped tin foil around the air intake and soaked the engine with suds and rinsed it off, fired right up after I was done. Deff was little nervous. Figured I’d let you guys know it will be fine if you were on the fence about doing it.

 

Wow! I am way to scared to do that. Pics of before and after by chance? No pressure washer I assume?

 

No pictures sorry. No pressure washer. Just my foam cannon hooked up to my garden hose.

 

How did it get dirty?

It should be fine in theory, right? Last time I washed out an entire it got a CEL the next time driving. After unclipping some wire connectors and drying out with a cotton swab and reconnecting it went away though.

 

I've been driving for almost 40 years, and not once have I ever lifted the hood and hit the engine bay with water.

Is this a toktik thing?

 

No it’s a people who clean more than the paint thing
Clean engine bay and underside of salt

 

There should be no fear in washing a modern engine. Something from the 50's, 60's, maybe into the 80's, especially carbureted ones, yeah, be careful with those (wash them still, but just be careful). But anything from roughly the 90's-00's and newer should be no problem in terms of washing. I regularly wash the engines of all our vehicles. I never cover anything. And while I don't use super high pressure I do use a pressure washer now. Modern engines and electronics are very well protected from water.

Also, as another example... you see those off-road guys in Tacoma's, Jeeps, Land Crusiers...etc doing water crossings where the engine is essentially submerged? Those guys are just fine so you shouldn't worry in the slightest about hosing yours off.

 

I've been washing my engines fairly regularly since the 1980's. Maybe twice a year on every vehicle I've owned. I've never had any issue.

I just get it wet and use a soapy brush on it, kind of like I would wheels....then hose off the suds. Start it up and drive off.

At some point, this may cause an issue, but for the last 40 years it hasn't.

 

We have a new Toyota, a new Nissan and an old Acura in our home fleet.

I regularly clean the engine bays in those vehicles, about twice a year. Never any issues.
If you perform your own work on your vehicles, it's nice to keep them clean inside and out. Makes servicing easier, and less crap to fall into your engine should you need to pull a valve cover or intake manifold.

Nothing wrong with leaving it dirty either. If you don't work on it yourself, really doesn't matter.

Modern vehicles should have zero problems with under hood cleaning. Only when they get significantly older, the seals on electrical connectors get old, allow water in, and then you'll have an issue. Anything less than 20 years old should be in good enough condition to tolerate water spray.

 

I do it from time to time. I currently have an oil leak that I'm trying to find. I used my pressure washer to soak the engine with soap and a degreaser. Let it sit for a while and blast it off. You need to find where the fuse box it and avoid hitting it with high pressure as well as the air intake. Once cleaned it made it easy to find the leak. Truck is in the shop new being repaired. I'll clean it again when it gets back.

I did pull the air filter before starting the truck afterwards just to be sure no water got into the air intake. It was perfectly dry.

FWIW, my dad started driving in 1936 and he regularly cleaned his engines up until he stopped driving around 2010.

 

Once I soaked my Alternator a bit too much....result?! Had to replace the Alternator!

 

I even use Simple Green to kill ants that find their way into my kitchen!

 

Pressure wash is fine, just don't be differently-abled about it and keep the nozzle minimum of 20" from anything. Cleaning agents not needed unless you got a leak or made a mess somewhere. I wash my engine bay probably once every 6 times I wash the truck. Plain water. If you can, let it cool a bit first. Have done this for more than two decades with zero problems or issues.

 

This video is from the 3rd Gen Maintenance Map.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvtYAArov3A

 

Yep. Been driving for 39 years and always have a clean engine. Back in the day you had to cover the distributor cap and airbox inlet but aside from that been cleaning the engine in all of my 20+ cars I have owned. When I sell or trade in a car people always pay way more for the care they have been kept in.

 

Never needed the simple green. If I want to spruce it up nice, I hit it with silicone spray afterwards.

 

Regular formula simple green is terrible for aluminum. Wouldn’t use that! But I also don’t waste my time washing engines, unless we’re talking motorcycles

 

I wash the engine bay of all of my vehicles once a year....caked on grime/dirt traps engine heat and just looks messy. Start with a cool engine, put some baggies or saran wrap over electrical connectors, spray with a degreaser, let it sit for a bit, use a plastic stiff bristled brush to scrub off the heavy crap then rinse with a gentle stream of water from a garden hose (I would NOT use a pressure water as you can force water into electrical connectors and corrode them from the inside out). You can then dress the plastic bits with 303....

 

No tiky no laundry.

I've been keeping my engine bays spiffy since the late 60s via various methods, including self service car wash wands, garden hose, Tire foam cleaner, simple green, and elbow grease.

Everything from old Chevy 6's to our current RAV and Tacoma, including Z cars, Miata, Mustang, Hondas, GTOs, etc.

I worked for a guy who specialized in Pontiacs one summer, and sometimes he'd send me to the car wash to clean the nasty bay of a customer's car before he'd even work on it.