Engine bay clean...

[Ashton84W]

Well I went out and had a little bit of fun with my new truck. Not to much because there is currently a complete lack of funds and it is my daily driver so yeah. Anyways, my truck need a cleaning. I mean like a deep pressure washing of the undercarriage to get all of this caked hard packed mud off. That's gonna be fun but the best part is the engine and engine bay. I don't know if it has ever been cleaned since the 350 got swapped in. What I want to know is what should I watch out for in there? What would defiantly not be a good idea to hit with highly pressurized water??? The motor is caked pretty good in oil and grease so should I invest in a degreaser spray or just go with the pressure washing? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance...

 

[1987 GMC Jimmy]

I was apprehensive, too, before I pressure washed under the hood of my car. I would move it to where it can get some sun, disconnect the battery cable, and apply a degreaser. I used Krud Kutter, which comes in a white spray bottle in the hardware section of Walmart. It worked great. I would coat everything well with that or whatever you want to use, agitate it with a brush, and then pressure wash it. Just to be safe, I'd try to stay away from the distributor and carburetor innards as much as possible. You can get close, just don't shoot it at point blank range. That filter will be toast after the fact, so I'd be prepared to replace it. Make sure you let it sun for a while just to be safe, too.

 

[CSFJ]

I've always made sure to leave them running when I cleaned under the hood. This way you can tell if you get water somewhere you shouldn't, pretty quick. The upshot to it, is if something does get wet, it may run a little rough until it dries out, but you're not trying to start it after it's soaked. Plus, the extra heat from it running will help dry it quicker if something does get a little wet. Usually I soak them with simple green, then put the pressure washer to them. Use common sense, and take it easy around the sensitive areas and you should be fine.

 

[Georgeb]

2x on washing while running. I liked to get em hot, soak it in Engine-Brite start it up and wash away. Seemed the heat helped with cleaning. Plus if you drench a par and kill it you know what you sprayed right before it died. Never killed one washing tho.

 

[Ashton84W]

2x on washing while running. I liked to get em hot, soak it in Engine-Brite start it up and wash away. Seemed the heat helped with cleaning. Plus if you drench a par and kill it you know what you sprayed right before it died. Never killed one washing tho.

Alright, I can understand the heat. It actually makes a lot of sense and I'll defiantly use a degreaser then too. Just so long as I stay away from electronics of course then I should be good. Thanks y'all.

 

[JMAT5243]

washed mine today. just put trash bag over the carb and one over the dizzy. sprayed everything down with degreaser and let sit. then used my electric pressure washer and had no problems. did it without engine running. used air compressor afterwards just to get the sitting puddles out. turned out good