Pressure wash the bay?
 

How many of you pressure wash your engine bay? I do it to my 83 suburban, it has a custom ram air intake, so no water gets in it. I use the tire/wheel cleaner at the DIY carwash, then go back with high pressure soap after soaking the rest of the truck. Then finish with a good high pressure rinse. My engine is whistley clean. Granted everything under there is painted black, so no chrome to polish...yet. What do you guys do?

wrap the alternator and air filter in wallymart bags and go nuts

x2

X3! But I usually spray it down with degreaser before!

im scared to do this. there are so many electrical conectors and stuff. im scared my truck wont start afterwards.

Leave it running than.......

Let it sit awhile and dry out before starting it back up. Or like said above leave it running and pay attention to where you're washing and if it dies, just remember to not wash that part next time.

just have to watch. not sure on other engines but on anything with the DB2 injection pumps, if they are warm and you spray it down with cold water, the pump can "warp" throwing off all the tolerances inside, not alowwing to start or run correctly.

If it's running you can't have the bag on the alt. and the intake. LOL

I just watched out for my aftermarket intake on my 06. As far as my 2010 goes, I just use soap and water.

Yeah its best to leave the engine running. I don't cover anything up when I clean engines. But I haven't ran into anything with an open aftermarket air filter yet either.

Leaving the motor running is not what you do,all the electronic components charged,pulleys and belts turning very hot manifolds equal a recipe for trouble.Spray a cool motor with a lite cleaner like simple green let sit 10 minutes and power wash keeping the tip about 12 to 16" away,let drip dry 5 minutes start and run 5 mins then go for a ride.I have never heard of a diesel getting wet and not starting(theres no ignition) unless the air intake has been submerged.

You still might have achance of getting water in a vital connector or something and the computer won't get the signals it needs to fire. Which is still a pretty simple fix of pulling the connectors apart and spraying them with wd-40 and putting them back together.

Most any electrical connection that is going to cause the engine to no-start if water contaminated is going to cause the engine to stall if water contaminated. The OEM electrical connectors are as waterproof as any connector on the market; Framatomes, Deutsches, AMPs, WeatherPacks or MetriPacks depending on the signal and year.

Steam cleaning engine bays is a way of life in the OTR world. I've even washed down my engine compartment a few times...

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Everything starts working again after it dries out. If I can get away with it you guys sure can. :ha:

I have been cleanining the shit out of my engine bay for about 4 weeks now. Just whenever I get 3-4 dollars worth of quarters I go and throw some tire/engine cleaner on it. Let it sit for a bit then wash her all off with high pressure soap. Then I go for the High pressure wash.

My engine was a mess of dirt, mud, and Oil but shes slowly getting shiny!

I've been doing it trying to track down where my oil leaks are coming from.

I have done it both with engine running and engine off. I have an open airfilter in a custom housing and I try to avoid directly hitting it but other than that its worked quite well never had a problem!