Is it alright to just spray down the whole engine with a hose?

 

I do, just to not get the PCM wet.

Who's truck is in your sig?

 

What is a PCM and where is it?

 

PCM is on the passenger firewall, has 3 or 4 big square plugs into it.

Still wondering about that sig pic

 

thats not my truck, ill put mine up next week. Mine is all white 05 hemi slt, no chrome.

 

On my old truck (03 1500 QC Hemi) I emptied an entire can of Gunk engine degreaser on the engine and engine compartment then washed down the whole thing at a local self-service car wash with one of those high-pressure power washer hoses. Came out like a new engine. Right after it did run a little rough for a few minutes then cleared up and ran fine after that.

 

first off, let the truck warm up . not to operating temp but warm to the touch. then spray the engine with simple green or degreaser. let it sit for about an hour. than hose the engine off. once it is dry spray it with a can of tire shine and let that dry. engine will look new again.

 

Don't use a pressure washer...there's no need and it could force water to go places it wasn't meant to be. Just use a hose.

I remove the intake and put plastic grocery bags on the throttle body, pcm, fuse box and alternator...I also don't spray any sensors like the MAP directly. I spray the cold heads and block with a 50/50 mix of simple green/water and rinse after 5 minutes or so. Simple green is corrosive to aluminum so I wouldn't let it sit a really long time. Then I bring it up to running temp to boil off any puddling water.....then towel dry the rest.

If the truck is your daily driver I wouldn't use any kind of a shine product...dirt sticks to that crap like glue. If it's just for show then have at it..

 

I use a procuct called called "S100" total cycle cleaner. I orginally used this cleaner for my motorcycles, worked great. spray it on wash it off. Anyway, I tried it on my cold truck engine one day and it actually worked great on that also. I used a power washer (not on full power) to spray off the cleaner. I use a power washer because it sprays less water than if you used a hose so you will actually get less water in the engine comparment. most of the electronics are weather sealed but I was careful not to get sensitive areas wet. I used some aluminum foil to cover areas that I absolutely did not want to get wet. Problem with S100 is that it is expensive. $12.00 to $15.00 for about a quart.

http://www.s100.com/s100_tcc.htm

 

I haven't done mine yet, but have detailed plenty of RVs and autos in my day.

+1 - warm engine, simple green (or other biodegradeable degreaser), and hose off in a half an hour to an hour. Done.