I just went through all my COP's today and inserted dielectric grease in each boot to seal off water. I am trying to see if it would be ok to now spray cleaner on the engine and then hose it off.
Thanks

 

Personally, I'm not a fan of water in the engine compartment. There are far too many things that can go wrong with a stream of water hitting a sensative electronic component.

That said, I'd highly recommend simply wiping it down with a quality degreaser like Simple Green (dilute 2:1). Pay very special attention to the product that you're using as many degreasers will *NOT* play nice with aluminum (your block is alum.) and may etch the metals! Allow some dwell time (and only do this on a cool engine block!)

Using a towel that you can trash, wipe everything down. Repeat. Once complete, finish with a coating of your least favorite dressing to give it a bit of pop. (hint: Use a fine mist sprayer to get a nice even coat on the compartment).

-RP-

 

thanks rock the electronics are what worry me I will use your advice sounds safer than hosing it off. Thanks again

 

Don't know if you've searched it out yet but there have been quite a few posts with people talking about the trouble they've had after hosing down the motor, popping codes, COP problems, misfires.....not fun. I've seen specific mention of F150's being notorious for that on other detailing boards as well. There's always a few that are like, "Yeah I hit it with my 4000 PSI pressure washer and no problems!". But the potential PITA if something goes sideways outweighs the benefits in my book. It takes a little more time to do it by hand but I think it's worth it in this case.

 

Plain ole' WD40 and a couple rags, lol...

 

Emig5m - it looks good!

One thought... WD is nearly straight toluene. Be careful with it in the engine compartment from a few different standpoints....

1. Melting plastic
2. Fire hazard.

It does look good though.

 

ah the next question....lets see the underside of the hood.....another overlooked surface.

edit, that was sarcasm btw....

 

I would definitely fail that test right now... I need to give the compartment some TLC ... bad.

-RP-

 

confession: I cleaned my engine about a week ago, it looked...well ok. I missed a lot of spots. Then I saw the underside of the hood. ekks. The paint felt crappy as expected. So what did I do? Sprayed some hyperdress on a rag and went to town. Looks pretty darn good and it only took a few seconds. Do you think hyperdress would taste good on a snow cone?