I want to clean my engine bay, and people have told me I can hose it off. Can I just take the hose and go to sprayin? Do I have to worry about getting any on wires and stuff?

Bill and I just did this 2 nights ago

remove engine cover
get a good degreaser
spray on engine
start car
get water, and spray on car while running
leave car running for a while after
shut off car
enjoy clean engine

But I don't have to worry about water messing anything up? That'* my main consideration. I'm still going from the transition of carburated to fuel injected, this is taking some getting used to, lol.

not if you have the car running when you are spraying the water

OK, thanks Pat.

you may want to go at it with a brush and the degreaser. i used simple green degreaser and i didn't dilute much , probably 1:2 degreaser:water, and i used a rim cleaning brush for much of it, and then used a toothbrush for the valve covers. depends on how clean you want it. just don't try to clean the inside of your alternator or coil packs with the hose and you should be fine. good luck! i highly recommend simple green, available at walmart in a gallon jug for a decent price. works pretty good on rims too

it'* going to smoke a lot after its running from the water and degreaser burning off the exhaust manifolds and hot bits of the engine... it'* normal. but you probably don't want to breathe in burning degreaser, even if it is nontoxic, it doesn't smell all that pleasant.

We all do things a little difference I refuse to put water on the engine while it is running for fear of shorting out the wires in the sensors, and belive me, on a older car the "gaskets" have somewhat worn out. Therfore what I do is:

1. Remove headliner, pressure wash it.

2. Let engine cool to the point that water can be sprayed without it steaming.

3. Cover all electrical components with duct tape, I cover the alternator, and coil packs the best I can, also ICM connection and other conenctions I can see, wrap a layer of tape around them to prevent water, alternator is the big one MAKE SURE you cover that good if you are going to be using high pressure water. Remove Air intake box, cover TB with duct tape

4. Spray engine area, everything with a mild cheap degreaser, I use the 97 cent walmart stuff, 4 cans. get everything foamed up so it looks white, i mean white as in bright white curse white.

5. Apply a coat of windex to the hood, spray in the holes, spray windex on the exposed paint areas in the engine bay, apply engine degreaser to the underside of the hood in the holes and such and make it all foamy, at this point you also need to apply more engine degreaser to the engine as some of it will turn greasy brown color.

6. let sit for 5 minutes. or remember we are in a carwash right now, so spray off the rest of the car

7. Spray engine and underside of hood, and all surfaces with presoak, then spray it hard for about 8 minutes with the high pressure soap mixture.

8. Then spray it with the rinse for at least 7 or 8 minutes to get all the engine degreaser out of everywhere, finally finish it off with the non-spot rinse. Do this for about 5 minutes, hit everywhere.

9 Get out the compressed air, remove connections to the TB, spray out, spray out connectors. Remove the plug wires from coils, spray those out with compressed air. Sray out any water that sneaked into the alternator out with compressed air as well.

10. Wipe down eveyrthing, underside of hood everything you can, roll up the paper towel and make sure you extract every bit of water from the holes or indentations in the lower intake mainfold.

Then you wait, smoke a ciggerate or something. finish washing the wrest of the car wipe it down wax it whatever.

Finally start engine, if you did it properly there should be no smoke from the engine degreaser.

Sound time consuming, yes it is, but it is worth doing once a year or so.

Final product is this:

Barney...

In persepective your engine can and does get wet when you drive in the rain and aplash through puddles. It'* designed to be water tight.

If you spray it and it runs rough, that'* a sign that you have an electrical issue (typically plug wires that need to be replaced)

Spray liberally and quickly when you first start it up..you should have all the degreaser rinsed off by the time the exhaust gets warm. No fumes.

1. Remove headliner, pressure wash it.

Does this get thick and heavy ,did you put back on ok

5. Apply a coat of windex to the hood, spray in the holes, spray windex on the exposed paint areas in the engine bay, apply en

Is this ok for the paint

Wax it whatever.

We have guys at our car washes watching, I think they even carry guns.dont people get pi$$ed when you spend that long

Final product is this:

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Who cares that has to be one of the cleanest Ive seen , that looks awsome how bad was it before hand.