Washed the engine bay and...oopsie! No carnage though.

[kodiakdenali]

It was getting a little dusty so as I usually do I washed outside and under the hood, wasn't even thinking! I've never had a vehicle which has its air inlet in such a vulnerable place like that! Fortunately I resumed thinking right away. took off the shroud and the air filter (that was harder than it should be!) shop vac'ed out the little pool of water and thoroughly dried the entire inlet duct then let it sit all open while I washed the SRT to let evaporation take care of the rest. trying to decide if I could devise a cap to put over the inlet for future cleaning or if I should simply never wash under the hood again except with detail spray and such. anyone else have any tips for safely keeping your truck's underhood in showroom condition? That was rather scary...good thing for the temporary lack of common sense to be very temporary.

 

At lest GM did put a nearly impossible to see warning on the radiator shroud telling you not to spray water into that inlet, the kind of thing you'd only notice after you just accidentally did so!

[Anacortes Army Guy]

I stuff a shop rag down the air filter inlet opening, then avoid, to the maximum extent possible, spraying in the vicinity of the inlet, but any overspray is stopped/absorbed by the rag.

[winks79]

As long as you do not just continually spray directly into the opening it is not going to hurt anything. It has a drain hole in the lowest part before it comes back up into the air box. I wash under my hood every time I wash my truck and never cover up the air intake inlet. What little bit gets in it drains out.

[TNTSierra]

On 6/18/2021 at 11:31 PM, kodiakdenali said:

It was getting a little dusty so as I usually do I washed outside and under the hood, wasn't even thinking! I've never had a vehicle which has its air inlet in such a vulnerable place like that! Fortunately I resumed thinking right away. took off the shroud and the air filter (that was harder than it should be!) shop vac'ed out the little pool of water and thoroughly dried the entire inlet duct then let it sit all open while I washed the SRT to let evaporation take care of the rest. trying to decide if I could devise a cap to put over the inlet for future cleaning or if I should simply never wash under the hood again except with detail spray and such. anyone else have any tips for safely keeping your truck's underhood in showroom condition? That was rather scary...good thing for the temporary lack of common sense to be very temporary.

 

At lest GM did put a nearly impossible to see warning on the radiator shroud telling you not to spray water into that inlet, the kind of thing you'd only notice after you just accidentally did so!

Use a tornado gun with degreaser in it. Works like a charm. Spray it in areas. Switch over to just blow air, then wipe up with a rag!  

[Belo]

Highly recommend wolfgang total engine cleaner. Does a great job without the need for water. If I wasn't lazy I'd show some before and after.

https://www.autogeek.net/wolfgang-total-engine-cleaner.html

 

Also some Sonus trim and motor kote is a great product to add shine without the need to wipe. Of course with both products it's always good to cover the electrical (esp alt) and the intakes.

https://www.autogeek.net/sonus-trim-motor-kote.html

 

[Belo]

couldn't find the before, but here's an after of my pontiac g8 after using the above 2 products in 2018 after 9 years and 60k. no water used, just rags.