How to wash engine without blowing it up? Please let me know

[legend1011]

I just saw the civic again tonight and the engine looks dirty; Is there a way using degreaser and car wash wash to wash the engine out without shorting anything out or damaging parts?; It does not look as "technical" as newer cars so it may lack the stuff that does get shorted; Please let me know; I don't want to fry anything

Thanks

[CivicSpoon]

Plastic wrap and tape; over as many connections as possible. Then get some Simple Green, spray her down and do some minor scrubbing, then hose it off.

[legend1011]

Well After searching this and others forums I concluded that it is safe to do and more easier than I imagined.

Basically,

You cover the distributer air-tight with a grocery bag of your choice and then hose it down. Just about everyone says the electrical is air-tight and not to worry; they even claim that they have not had a single problem.

One thing that I have heard that I never would have thought was to do this while the car is running. I would have probably done the opposite, but anyways, it is good to know.

Thanks for your info

[FrodoGT]

Yeah youve got to gether good and warm, itll definately help loosen some grime.
Cover it liberally with simple green (undilluted), and use brush to scrub her real good, then pressure wash off. then start it up again and let it steam off.

[allstar323]

even with a battery it's okay? I'm not much for electricity, or how it works..but I've always been afraid of electrocuting myself or something. Do I warm it up...and then remove the battery?

[turtlecrxsi]

Originally Posted by allstar323

even with a battery it's okay? I'm not much for electricity, or how it works..but I've always been afraid of electrocuting myself or something. Do I warm it up...and then remove the battery?

You don't have to remove the battery. Just don't touch it while your spraying water on it.

[FrodoGT]

Water wont be able to make a connection that far across your terminals, dont even sweat it.

[Tony]

You shouldn't even have to worry about taping or wrapping anything up, not even the distributor. When you wash it, I would leave it running, just incase you do have a little crach in your distributor cap, which in that case you need to get another one anyway. If you leave it running and it starts cutting out, its because there is a crack in the cap, other than that, everything else is fine. As for getting shocked from it, never had it happen while washing, done it several times while wiring since I wire with the battery connected, but just usually cases a spark and scares me, never hurts....But im just crazy like that, I like testing things as I'm doing it.

[Concept Tuning]

Get one of those little hand steamers. Those things are great for cleaning up your engine bay.

[civic_boy91]

they say not to steem clean your engine ...water may not get in but steem could... just get a pressure cleaner, cover your intake and distributer and blast that bitch... the worst thing that happend to me is not covering the distributer....it wasnt major though...just a litle of water in the cap. it made the car run like crap.

[Tony]

Originally Posted by civic_boy91

they say not to steem clean your engine ...water may not get in but steem could... just get a pressure cleaner, cover your intake and distributer and blast that bitch... the worst thing that happend to me is not covering the distributer....it wasnt major though...just a litle of water in the cap. it made the car run like crap.

Oh yea, cover your air filter if you have an aftermarket intake installed.

If your cap is sealed good and don't have any cracks in it, you won't run into that problem. Ive had that problem once, just replaced the cap and didn't have the problem again.

[livinincalifornia]

doing that killed my distributor over a period of about 5 months, it was real bad then it was fine for a few months then eventually the coil had something growing in it from standing water that got inside and was an expensive replacment for the whole distributor (honda oem dizzy's are 800 dollars, but you can get some cheaper one's)

[jeef]

few things, One never ever do it while your engine is really hot, warm is one thing hot is another... hot engine plus cold water can equal warpage

Two, if your dist. does get wet in side just pull the cap off and spray it with a crap load of WD-40.

a lil tid bit, Wd-40 came from an oil rig looking for a water displacing agent, and on the 40th attempt they figured it out...

[FrodoGT]

denatured alchohol displaces water quite well too, then it just evaporates...

[jeef]

Originally Posted by FrodoGT

denatured alchohol displaces water quite well too, then it just evaporates...

it also makes a great fuel for a stove made out of mini webber grill, tin can, cotton, and tee shirt during hurricane season!