dirty pool, mister!

[BDEUCE]

I have a filthy dirty stinkng 2.9. we have had so much snow this year, and we use gravel on our roads. i was wondering if i could get some tips on washing this engine. does anyone here wash their motors? I washed one once, but it was...i don't know if i should say this here...my old volkswagen rabbit. my stepdad, a heavy-duty mechanic for 40 years said "leave it running when you do it, and don 't hit the dizzy directly. he works on mining equipment the size of a wal-mart, and things needed to be cleaned while servicing.

so i take it to mighty wash, pop the hood, spray the intake manifold, and the car instantly stalls. dead. i then spend an hour trying to start it, and eventually have to pull it behind a truck and bomb start it to get it going.

i wonder about maybe cutting a 2liter pop bottle, that's a half gallon...i think...yeah, four liters is the size of a gallon of milk, and just put it over the distributer some how. should i take anything off, should i leave it run. keep in mind my dad was washing alot of diesels.

any help is awesome.

[tekatlarge]

I would NOT leave it running. If you accidentally make the engine suck water you could have a big problem. Water on the exhaust manifold could cause stress fractures. Maybe with huge machinery you keep it running but I never have. I really don't think it would be a safe thing to do. Imagine standing in water spraying water all over the plug wires and there is a tiny break in the insulation.... ZZZZZZZZZIIIIPPPPP. Knock ya on your Katoukas! Oh and imagine forcing cold water on to the spark plug while it is firing you know how hot that ceramic of the plug gets while running?... Can you say Crack!!!!!!! A Large diesel does not have spark plugs, or for that matter even a small diesel doesn't use spark plugs.

Cover your dizzy with a small plastic garbage bag. Drape it over the top and tie it together under the dist. When washing the engine stay away from the dizzy even though it is covered.

Make sure your engine has cooled some before you squirt water all over it.

I used to use some stuff called GUNK engine cleaner. WARNING this stuff if you choose to use it smells like diesel oil and will quickly stink up the area and you so be aware.

Try to avoid highly flammable chemicals like brakleen, alcohol, or Gasoline.
If you like the smell of diesel use gunk or diesel. I usually just go to a coin op car wash and when I am hosing down the rig I open the hood protect the dizzy and squirt the crap outa things.

Be careful out there.

[Dreg]

This is what I do;

Plastic grocery/store bags help if you want to cover anything.

For any motor washing, including a Powerstroke; Cover anything I want to cover up, I then use water from the garden hose with light-moderate pressure depending on the area for an initial spray down.

Grab some Simple Green or Purple Power that's mixed with a little water, I like more degreaser solution in the bottle than water for under the hood cleaning to cut through everything.. spray everything I want to with the cleaner, let it sit for a few, hose it all off. Then after a minute, hose it all off again. If it doesnt look clean, I respray with the degreaser and hose off again.

I sometimes dedicate a sponge, or a toothbrush to get real dirty areas.

I've also used laquer thinner on Q-tips/sponge to clean off real nasty areas, you might want to really watch what you are doing when you use that stuff.

Finally, I have some plastic and motor shine product that I buy from a guy, spray a lot of that under the hood while it's drying.. this product is non-alcoholic so it doesn't turn hoses, etc. etc. a nasty faded color. Tireshine looks good, but it turns all the rubber and plastic stuff faded colors, just remember that when you are looking for under hood shiners.

I've tried that engine gunk once, I didnt like it all that much, I'm going to have ot try it again. Our Bronco II seems to always have the "dirtiest" motor and everything else under the hood just has that 21 year old look, but it's relatively clean since it doesnt get driven much.