I went mudding this saturday and of course got my truck really dirty and now its time to clean it and I'm wondering what are the does and don't when it comes to cleaning the engine and doing a good job at it? I've never really cleaned an engine before so I'm not too sure what I should and shouldn't do. The last car I owned I just grabbed the hose and sprayed my engine down and that was it. Now I figure thats probably not the best thing to do so I'm asking any of you with experience in this matter to please share your knowledge.

 

Ok, never do that. If the engine was hot you could have cracked the block/heads/anything. Take WD-40 and spray it on your distributor so water beads off it and will start right up, then go to a car wash with a pressure washer and spray the degreaser over your engine bay, then rinse.

You're done.

 

this is what i do.. if its dirty.. i saok the hell out of it with warm water (never pressure wash.. could get water into places it doesnt need to be) and a butt ton load of simple green.. then wash it off.. give it plenty of time to dry... i then take a large bottle of tire wet (armor all) and soak everything insight.. this A: makes it look nice B: protects and C:gives the dirta medium to kling to for your next cleaning, where-in the simple green will break down the armor all (with the dirt) and wash it away


works great.. everytime...

 

If you know where water shouldn't go you can pressure wash your engine, tape things off with 2 or 3 layered plastic bags, use more tape, and other things you have to cover spots where water shouldn't go.

You method actually seems like it would do a hell of a good job but I mean pressure washing works every time for me.

 

i go to advanced get citrus bright engine degresser GEL let your truck cool down thenspray it all over engine then let sit for about 15 mins to set in and break stuff down then i used a pressure washer to rinse off. makes a huge huge difference. i let it dry then started right up. good to go

 

the reasons why i said dont use a pressure washer to do it is it takes alot of time to seal everything off.. and if you get muddy everyweekend like i do.. to hell with that!.. and second.. i pressure washed mine a few times w/o sealin anything off and after i left the car wash.. the truck ran like garbage for a good mile before everything warmed up and dried out..

no doubt a pressure washer would work far better then normal public water pressure would....when used correctly

unless it was just my case-scenario,,, maybe someone else can chime in if they had any problems with p-washin their motors.. if they dont then maybe i have a problem i need to hunt for

 

Shott, my buddy has a 99 1500 5.9 and he pressure washed his and water got into his distributor and he couldn't leave the wash till it dried out so I mean there are definitely problems with it. It is all personal preference IMO.