Cleaning Engine Compartment

I am looking to clean the engine compartment of my 2004 Silverado. I am not looking for a full detail but want to clean all the oil, grease, and layers of dust and dirt. The last time I did something like this my truck had a distributor. I used to cover the distributor and any electrical components with plastic and duct tape. The truck I have now is a 5.3L Vortec my first with FI and coil packs.

My question is are all of these newer type of electrical components and connections water and weather sealed? or do I need to cover all the coil packs and electrical connections before I use a spray hose under the hood?

I love the P21 cleaner products that I used to clean my motorcycle v-twin but then it was a spray on and hose off application. I would like someone opinions before I do this with my truck. I am going to use my truck as a test monkey before I do any detailing on the vette.

probably not for the faint of heart but,

on my vette i spray down the cold engine with simple green, let it sit awhile; turn the engine over then with a fire hose type nozzle just cracked open and hose the engine off. if the engine stumbles at all i move the water away from that area.

The only part of the car i don't hose down is the alternator and my open K&N filters.

have done this method on all of my cars in the past.

chris308 said:

probably not for the faint of heart but,

on my vette i spray down the cold engine with simple green, let it sit awhile; turn the engine over then with a fire hose type nozzle just cracked open and hose the engine off. if the engine stumbles at all i move the water away from that area.

The only part of the car i don't hose down is the alternator and my open K&N filters.

have done this method on all of my cars in the past.

Click to expand...

:iagree:

I do the same at least once a month. After the rinse I let the engine idle with the hood closed to dry while I wash the rest of the Vette.

I just spray mine down with my steam jenny! Nothing but Hot,HOT water on a Cold engine!~!!:thumbsup:
No Simple Green,Purple Power or any other harsh cleaner,That crap will dry out the weather packs in your wiring plugs and cause later connection problems!:thumbsup:

Don do it! I did it on my Yukon 02, the same motor as yours. There's a knock sensor underneath the intake ( 2 of them) that will collect water and kill it. You can spray from anywhere else but the intake part. Andre from Instytune had to replace mine.
Do you go to DQ on Wednesday night for the show? I lived in Land O Lakes on 54, Cypress Estate.
I see you ride a motorcycle, I ride a Valkyrie and a Honda CBR 1000.

gmjunkie said:

I just spray mine down with my steam jenny! Nothing but Hot,HOT water on a Cold engine!~!!:thumbsup:
No Simple Green,Purple Power or any other harsh cleaner,That crap will dry out the weather packs in your wiring plugs and cause later connection problems!:thumbsup:

Click to expand...

Thanks, I have never heard that before, but I would like to know more. Where can you get a steam jenny and how much are they?

Riceman said:

Don do it! I did it on my Yukon 02, the same motor as yours. There's a knock sensor underneath the intake ( 2 of them) that will collect water and kill it. You can spray from anywhere else but the intake part. Andre from Instytune had to replace mine.
Do you go to DQ on Wednesday night for the show? I lived in Land O Lakes on 54, Cypress Estate.
I see you ride a motorcycle, I ride a Valkyrie and a Honda CBR 1000.

Click to expand...

Yes I go to DQ in WC. If you see a Blue C5 with stripes it is me. But I sold my '96 heritage classic before I bought the vette. I just know P21 is a good cleaner from when I had my bike.

I use my 3200 PSI pressure washer and Simple Green. I've done that for years and never had any issues. I use a 'wide spray' nozzle.

Tampa Corvette Camaro tuner Tampa Tuning

chris308 said:

probably not for the faint of heart but,

on my vette i spray down the cold engine with simple green, let it sit awhile; turn the engine over then with a fire hose type nozzle just cracked open and hose the engine off. if the engine stumbles at all i move the water away from that area.

The only part of the car i don't hose down is the alternator and my open K&N filters.

have done this method on all of my cars in the past.

Click to expand...

This is crazy thinking.......................and the way I used to wash my engine.

Then over the summer one time, I warmed it up, and shut off the engine. I sprayed it down with engine with a degreaser, let it sit for 45 minutes, then washed it off. Then I went to start it, it threw codes and went into power reduced mode. i barely got it into the garage from the driveway. I seperated all the connections in the engine bay, sprayed them with WD40 and let it sit for a couple days before I attached the connections. It started right up idled for about 5 minutes and went back to reduced power.

I again seperated all the connections I could ( even though I know it was the throttle position sensor) blew them out with my compresser and let them sit for a couple days. When I hooked everything back up, it was good to go.

Ill go back to washing the engine bay with the motor running so when I spray an area and when it started to die, Ill stop spraying that area.