I've found an interesting way to clean my engine. I haven't read anything about it on H-T, but if it's an old idea, forgive me.
I went to a hardware store and bought a 2 gallon pesticide sprayer, the kind with a pump on the top to pressurize. It was $20. I boiled a large pot of water, poured it into the sprayer, add a little soap, pump it up, and viola', cheap-*** steam cleaner. I have found this works a lot better than a garden hose or the coin operated wash, because the water is much, much hotter and the spray stream is much smaller and more precise. It is very easy to spray only the areas I want to spray.
I have a white Civic hatch. Anyone with a white engine compartment knows they're a bitch to keep clean looking. This method of cleaning is awesome at getting the grease and grime out of all the little nooks and weld seams.
Spraying a little engine degreaser on beforehand will make it work all the better, of course, but I have found it works pretty good by itself.
I know boiling water probably isn't too good for all the plastic and rubber parts, so I avoid spraying them too much, and after the engine dries, I spritz it with some Maguire's Rubber/ Vinyl Protectant. **** looks new.

 

mmm very interesting. I wonder if anyone has done this and had negative effects on the plastics??

 

I will have to give that a try... Nice thought and experiment.

 

Sounds good but was this a plastic or metal tanked sprayer?

I get boiling water on my nuts,I'm suing yo ***!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 88DXCRX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sounds good but was this a plastic or metal tanked sprayer?

I get boiling water on my nuts,I'm suing yo ***! </TD></TR></TABLE>


It is plastic. It's pretty thick and sturdy. Keep in mind these things were meant to contain harsh chemicals for killing bugs. A little hot water isn't going to hurt it. Besides, how hot you get the water is up to you. I like it boiling.

 

Most, if not all, of the components were made so withstand 200+ degree temps, so I don't see why it would hurt. Oil temps get in that range, and the boiling 240F water will definately cool enough during transport and when it mists to not melt anything. BTW, most plastics only start to weaken after 200F.


My suggestion would be to add some sort of valve/fitting on the tank that you can hook an air compressor up to. Tim the toolman style - just make sure you don't put too much pressure in there. I might do this since I have an adjustable outlet on my comp, and a spare water pressure guage.

 

cool.

 

I cant wait till tomarrow when I pour out all my moms garden sprayer

 

Nice idea!! Will try that soon!

 

great idea.