So I was driving a few nights ago when a goose walked out on the road. I swerved to miss it, and spun on my ITR onto the median, which was quite muddy from the rainfall earlier. No big damage, just some paint chips and lots of mud/dirt all over my car. Anyhoo, I checked under my hood yesterday and its full of mud and dirt and grass and stuff. What is the Honda-Tech.com recommended procedure for cleaning out my engine? Can I just spray it with a hose? My friend says I need to keep the engine running while spraying it. Any help is appreciated.

 

Cover you electrical stuff (distributor, valve cover etc), and DO NOT RUN the engine.

 

i dont think you'd want your car running while spraying the bay. Make sure you cover everything electrical under there. (distributor etc...) and let it dry for a couple of hours before firing her up.

 

lol I dunno. I think that'd be pretty damned entertaining to watch someone wash a running motor.. steam and water spray from hell! lol.

do what they said above. Or take it somewhere to get it detailed.

 

get it detailed

 

Hahaha. I bet it has been done too.

 

if j00 do it at home, then it also helps to use 'soft' water. prevents spotting.

 

Ditto. Also cover your air filter if you're using a cone style filter.

I spray down the entire engine bay with Simple Green and then use the high pressure sprayer at the car wash to spray out the bay. You can eat off of the valve cover when it's done.

Definitely don't run the car and if you have a header let it cool down before spraying the engine.

 

Sorry to hear that.
Should have just "winged" it.

 

This one is goosing it, that one is getting egged... do I detect a common theme here?

 

Don't use Simple Green. It strips the Cadmium plating off the bolts that have it... (Shiny Gold ones) But if you just avoid spraying directly at the joining point between distributor cap and body, you should be fine (and avoid hitting the air filter if you've got a conical one.