Okay so I get home from school today, nice hot engine in the drive way. I decide to go to the store and get some degreaser and clean up my engine. So I spray it all over and clean it up with a brush while the engine is hot. Some steam here and there. (again, I'm an idiot)

So after some time (less than a half hour) of scrubbing and degreasing I decide it's time to rinse with my cold water hose. I try to avoid the hot engine spots but I still get some steam and hissing. After a few hours of letting it dry I decide to turn it on (I'm an idiot), starts normal and idles fine for about 10 minutes (yes I literally let it idle for around 10 minutes). I decide to go for a test drive around my block.

I have it in first gear, pulling out of my drive way using a little bit of throttle and everything is fine. I pull out of my drive way and i'm still babying it, I put it in second at like 20 MPH and I give it a little bit more throttle. I notice it's kinda bogging down greatly the more throttle I give it. I manage to get down the street and turn into a driveway to turn around. As I'm backing out to go back home my car stalls in the street and it wasn't cause I wasn't giving it enough throttle. I turn my car back on and it starts up sorta fine this time and I continue to drive it. Same thing happens again when I pulled out of my drive way. This time, worse. And it stalls a few houses away from my house and I start pushing it. I tried to start it back up and drive it back home and I managed to get it back in my drive way while it's bogging like crazy sounding like it's gonna stall any second.

So basically, long story short: I washed my engine with degreaser and water while it was still hot and I got water everywhere. My car bogs down like crazy and sounds like it's gonna stall whenever I give it more throttle. A lot of white smoke that smells like unburnt gasoline comes out of the tailpipe.

 

I fixed it. It was simply water in the distributor cap. I took it off and dried it up and took it for a test drive and it drove perfect again.

A few things I've learned today:
- Don't spray cold water on a hot engine
- Don't let water get in the distributor
- Don't be an idiot

 

good lesson learned.

 

I was going to tell you that. Now you have MAYBE 2 months before your distributor goes out. I did the same thing man. My entire dizzy was rusted and corroded not long after, because of the fact it hod gotten wet.

Just gicving you a heads up for the near future when your car starts acting funny. check your dizzy first

 

Okay, thanks for the heads up! Hah. I was planning on doing a tune up soon anyways. I just bought this car in November last year and the only thing I've done to it was change the oil.

 

My best advice would be to just replace the entire distributor when this happens. It would have costed me more to take it apart and buy part by part then to just buy a whole new one.
When mine went out I almost had a heart attack too.
Also, when I wash my motor I mask the distributor, and fuse box. unplug the battery and wash!
Shouldn't have a problem if you do those things. the altenator can get wet, but try not to soak it. LOL

 

Another tip if you want to be super careful you can get some degreaser some rags a brush and spot clean areas.

 

Wats up ! Same thing happen to me after degreasing and rinsing my del sol. It boggled for a few and then ran fine after a couple of scary hours . Learned the hard way now just waiting for dizzy to go . thanks for being soo informative guys.

 

Will def cover dizzy when i wash my motor. Thanks for the heads up guys

 

Why not just completely blow the distributor assy out with compressed air until completely dried, before the corrosion occurs.
I would think if you did this within a fairly big window of time you would be alright.
And I think thats what he did.

 

Once the distributor gets wet, its pretty much a matter of time before the rusting and what not starts. I dried mine out, but stated once it gets wet, there is pretty much nothing you can do about the corrosion.

And FYI, compressed air contains moisture. Thats why when you blow compressed air onto the same spot you start to see water marks and it will start to drip. Canned air, or a compressor.