it adds 50HP right? lol

i'm pretty sure my 98 GXE with 180k has never had the engine bay cleaned, ever. it's f##king nasty.

was gonna get a couple of gunk engine degreaser, spray away, then gentle power wash it down at a self car wash.

any tips about this? last thing i wanna do is f##k up the car as it's been trouble free for months now

 

No tips. Spray degreaser, let it soak, rinse off. Repeat as needed. Car will be fine.

 

I would first suggest using search. And then checking out the cleaning/detailing forum.

In general you need to protect the electronics and from there its straight forward. But yeah use search i know this topic has been covered dozens of times.

 

be careful and cover up the alternator very good..We fried about 5 alternators at our shop last year by washing motors

 

SIMPLE GREEN...

I wash my engine bay often and I never covered anything. Use a leaf blower to dry.

 

As long as your harness connections were not spliced into and your intake hoses are good and not brittle to let water pass through, then you are fine.

 

Go to youtube and type in Larry Kosilla. You will thank me later.

 

holy clean cars man!!!!!!!

 

Ive been wanting to do my engine also...but i have the paranoia of some water getting in somewhere its not supposed to and making my ride not fire up!!

But if i do decide to do it, at the very least i would definately wrap the alt. in a wal mart bag or something and i think i would run the car for a couple mins before(just enough to be warm to help dry the engine when done)
But as of right now....just dont have the desire to cause myself unneeded problems!!!(thats how my luck is)

 

Really? Wow, I've used that product many, many times over the last 16 years and never had a problem with any car. Good to know though.

That's a great idea.

Eh, you shouldn't have any problems.

 

I've washed the engines on all my cars....never had any issues. Good to know about the alternator though. I usually only cover the intake, but will try covering the alt the next time.

 

wow....

there was a previous thread where a lot more ppl were nervous about washing their engines so im a lil suprised.

Ima do my valve cover gaskets and i wanna wash down my engine before i do it.

And i know i fried my previous alternator way back when, but that was cuz of the "accident" and my car sat for like two days with the hood cracked open of that side of the car....im guess if you start it up and drive the heat from the engine will dry any residual water.

 

heres a video:

 

heres another:

 

Don't point to nozzle to the under-hood insulation, you'll tear it off.

No problem here go to alt. or going into the air intake.

And the other arguments to washing

An oily steel nut may look ugly but will never rust, a washed-clean nut may look clean but extended neglected period will rust. Especially, with degreaser, you will expose bare skins of certain components. Bare skins + high heat in engine compartment will age your parts faster. When you apply lubricants, well, it will pick dirt and look dirty again.

Watch out water (either hard/soften) contains unsoluable/soluable salts and deposits, and not-totally-rinsed car-wash soap are stimulants to speed up rust process.

 

Well put.

 

remove duplicate post.

 

I have put over 200k miles on both my 4th & 5th gen Maximas. I kept the engines clean & never had any issues with them due to washing the engine bay. I just cleaned the engine bay on my 7th gen a little while back too.

I did make sure to take the cars out for a drive after doing this to make sure the water didnt just sit there.

 

I do this as well and I've never had a problem. I think it helps a lot.

 

"sorry honey, gotta take the car for a drive"

"but you just spent four hours washing it!"

"I know, but I gotta make sure the thing runs properly after cleaning the engine"

 

That's about right!

 

That's a good one!

 

trust me, i clean my engine bay all the time and power washing is not a good idea. i got a bucket of warm water and dawn and a scrubber sponge and lightly sprayed a section at a time ( with dawn and water mix ), not soaking any part of the block. as you go, just scrub a little at a time, you never know whats gonna fall apart or short out. then, when you got as much grease off as possible, ( wiping with rags after scrubbing ) you can get some steel wool ( 80 grit, super fine ) and mothers metal polish and a cloth and do the timing cover, the valve covers, the uim, etc. its a little more time consuming, but well worth it in the end.