I've never been afriad to get an enigine wet to keep it clean...until now. A friend who owns an F150 swears that he was told never to wash the engine especially the Triton 4.6L's. Is there any truth to this? I'm hoping it's business as usual as my engine is nowhere near as clean as I like to keep it.

Steve
'98 F150 XLT

 

you wont have a problem. if it runs when it's dirty, it'll run when it's clean.

 

Just be careful about getting water into the plug holes...other than that, dont worry about it too much.

Obviously you dont want to use a high pressure wash.

 

a clean engine is a happy engine!...zap!

 

There is a recent thread in the General Care & Detailing forum on this issue, more often than not people seem to have minor problems, they usually go away over night or after sitting, however your coil packs can crack. Most likely though your pickup will just run like crap till it dries out completely, or you won't have any problems. You decide, it is your truck.

 

DON'T DO IT!!!!!

I bought my truck used and the dealer had washed the engine to detail the truck. I chased wet plugs and bad coils packs for nearly a year before I got it straightened out. I will NEVER put any water on my engine (on purpose). Have you paid attention to how many WIRES there are under the hood?????

If the engineers at ford had designed that engine to be wet they would have cut costs by not putting a HOOD on the truck! Wipe what you can -- leave the rest!

Sidewinder

 

If they were that worried about water getting in there then the engine would be closed off on the bottom as well (ever looked under the hood after driving in the rain? Its not dry in there...)

Its perfectly fine to wash your engine bay, you just need to be very careful about it.

 

Ran into this problem last weekend for the second time.

I use to cover the twin coil packs, fuse box and sparkplug wells, with plastic before using a water hose under the hood. But of the last 3 or 4 times I have blasted the engine with water, I have not and I paid the price twice.

First time it happened, the truck had a rough idle and slight miss under load. I did not have an air compressor, so I used a hair dryer on the coils and sparkplug boots and then stuck a rag in the spark plug wells. Solved the problem.

Last weekend, I was in a rush and had the water hose on "laser spray" mode as I washed off some engine degreaser. Later, the truck began to idle very rough and missed under load and shuttered. Letting it set and idle until engine was hot, did not work. I used my new air compressor air sprayer attachment in the sparkplug wells. When I got to the spark plug well (hole) closest to the firewall on the Driver's side, a lot of water came out of the hole. I also air hosed the plug boot and put a rag in the hole to dry up any remaining water. Truck runs smoooooooth as ever.

So yeah, cover those sparkplug holes, coils and fuse box, if your going to wash under the hood!!!!!!!

 

Ive pressure washed my engine a couple of times after takin her through mud, Ive never had a problem out of it yet. Just my $.02

 

I don't know about you guys..... but I pressure wash every nook and cranny on my motor and under my hood. Think of when you hit puddles or in the rain... it's designed to be able to get wet. NOT GONNA HURT ANYTHING!!! I drive my truck about 250miles every day and I wash my motor everyday, like i do in anything i own..... if it gets wrecked washing it, chances are it was broken before you washed it.....

 

Okay wash experts, back up your statements. If you feel so confident that water is "not gonna hurt anything" then try the following if you dare............

With your engine shut off.
Take a water hose and fill the sparkplug wells (holes) up with water.
Let the truck set for at least 5 minutes.
Now try to start it.
Does it idle correctly or rough?

Do this 20 times and report back your results.

 

Everyone in this thread has said to be careful about getting water in the spark plug holes and to either cover them or avoid the area...

 

Hi.

I have to agree with Iron Horse and Sidewinder...

And this is why... check out this thread from the tranny forum:

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...hreadid=194884

You are simply playing roulette with a pressure wash... why take chances and risk introducing unnecessary problems?

Yeah, you can cover up the big stuff, but that still leaves a LOT of connectors / sensors exposed, and water @ 2000 psi is insidious stuff.

Go ahead and wash your **** everyday, and your engine too, but do it right ;-)).

Cheers

 

So, if pressure washing is a bad idea, what about engine degreaser and a garden hose to spray it off while keeping the coil packs covered, and avoiding the sparkplug holes? That's a hell of a lot less pressure than a pressure washer.

 

Washed about 20 times total in 140,000 miles
2 times had rough idle/missing/shuttering
A lot of water in sparkplug wells was problem both times
Only happened when I did not cover the sparkplug wells
Happened with oem style wires and Accel aftermarket wires
My truck is very well maintained - it has to be, since its supercharged.
....and yeah, I blast it a lot! haha!

My only point is, regardless if you use a pressure washer or garden hose, don't spray to long or hard at the sparkplug well areas if uncovered. If you wash your engine bay and have idle/missing/shuttering problems afterwards, check the sparkplug wells for water. You can avoid any of this problems by simply doing ......what I usually do, but didn't do recently..... cover the freak'in sparkplug wells.

The sparkplug wire boots have a rim on them that should prevent most of any water from traveling down around the sparkplug. I think it works with normal water exposer. If a small amount gets past the rim, I think there is no problem. But, if an abnormal amount of water get down there, you can have grounding/arcing/shorting out problems that can be resolved by simply removing the water.

This is all assuming that you have plugwires and coils in good condition and you have enough plugwire boot grease applied.

Good luck to all you "brave" pressure washers!