Met this guy the other day who was really interested in my VR-4, not the first time somebody has been impressed and asked 1000 questions about it, but he suggested a good way to clean off all the dirt and crap under the hood would be to spray WD-40 all over, obviously being careful and covering the electrical wires, and then hosing it down. He said as long as I keep the engine running everything should be just fine. Any cautions I should hear or is this legit? Wanna keep my baby clean. Thanks

The guys a tool. DON'T HOSE DOWN YOUR ENGINE BAY! Get a sponge and a bucket load of rags and do it by hand. Cover up your intake and be meticulous. (sp?)

Scotty

Aright thanks alot, appreciate it.

No problem. ;) I hosed down my engine bay in an old Ford once. I covered everything up. But somehow hosed the ignition modual. :( $200 bucks later, I swore I wouldn't do that again.

Scotty

I'm in and out of car dealeships detail departments and I see them using the pressure wash to clean the engine compartment with no apparent problems. In the old days we just got a can of "GUNK" spray at the auto parts store and sprayed it all over, let it set for awhile then hose it all off. don't do it on the driveway. Be on some grass or dirt when you do it so the crud doesn't ruin your driveway.

turtle wax rubbing compound for the painted engine bay panels (frame of the car). it takes off any disgusting residue on the paint.

Gunk foam engine cleaner, or any engine degreaser will work fine also. spray it, let it soak (make sure the engine bay is cool), then scrub with a scrub brush, towel, etc.

Yes, you can hose down your engine bay. just put a plastic bag on your intake and your battery. You don't need to cover the electrical wires.

Just make sure the gulley with the spark plugs isn't saturated and everything sits for a little while before you start it up.

I've cleaned probably 20 of these cars engine bays, never had a problem starting one up after I've hosed it down. And I've set the hose on full blast for some of them.

Water gets kicked up from the ground all the time when you drive in the rain. What makes you think hose water is any more lethal? lol


Before my cleaning:
(IMG:http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d111/3Scar/91%20beige%20SL/motor%20build/P1010039.jpg)

After my cleaning:
(IMG:http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d111/3Scar/91%20beige%20SL/P1010025_resize.jpg)

Wanna clean mine? lol :P just kidding.


But seriously, that looks good.

Good thread revival. He probably has it figured out by now;)

hey, maybe he waited to clean his engine bay until someone gave him a better answer :P

Wow... that's all I can really say.

At least people are searching though.

uhh its also two different cars.

uhh...it's the same car. the cleaned picture was after I did the atx awd twin turbo conversion.

Uhh, its still clean.

I pressure washed my and screwed somthing up. I wish I read this first.

The pressure drove water down / around one of the plug boots. I wicked all the water out, but was still not running well. So I took off the plentum and checked the others. No water back there. I changed the plugs and wires since I had gone through all that anyway. ... Still had problems!

I scratched my head as I looked over the compartment, trying to think where I may have overdone it. I pulled a few connectors apart, but found them try... until, I checked the connectors on the ???, bolted to the right of the plenum.

One of those connectors had been damaged at some point, and sure enough, that left some water in. I pulled both of the connectors attached to this ???, and blew the water out. The engine ran fine after that.

What IS that... thing? It seems to move somthing inside the plenum. It's attached to the right of the plenum - two electrical connections. The engine runs fine without them connected at all, but that bring the check engine light on - that leads me to believe it is an emissions control device. ????

That's the motor to control the variable intake butterfly valves. Basically they change the path of the incoming air at certain rpms to create more torque in the lower rpms and more hp in the upper rpms.

I guess that shorted means closed, because it sounded like the engine was being starved.

It just changes the path of the air... doesn't really restrict anything. Short = closed = high rpms, long = open = low rpms. If it feels like you have a lack of power in the lower rpms it is probably because the valve is closed.