How do you wash your Engine bay?

Alright, now you all have me wanting to spray the dust off with a hose at least (maybe pressure washer without the pressure). What I haven't seen talked about is engine temperature and on/off.

I assume you don't want to spray a hot engine because you could crack something with the cold water. Also assume you'd want the engine and electrical off. Do you drive it down the road after to heat up the bay and dry everything off like a dishwasher? Do you crank it right up after and go for a drive or let it air dry for a bit?

 

only wash cold
Blow off with leaf blower or compressed air blower after or everything water spots

 

I'd be curious what TCCN does with particularly dirty engine bays when he has to do repairs under there...

 

Thanks, guess I have an excuse to add a battery powered leaf blower to my milwaukee collection!

 

The little M18 is fantastic. Most would assume it’s too small to do anything but I grab it before I grab the big boy. The small one has as much or more mph versus the big M18. The big boy has more velocity and will blow leaves farther away but the little guy does absolutely spectacular for small jobs and close stuff. I use it to blow the vehicle off after a wash. All those nooks and crannies where water drips. Blow them down heavy with the blower and wipe dry and they’ll stop running and dripping water for a half hour leaving water streaks. Same under the hood.

 

I used to go to DIY car washes to clean the mud off mine. I actually had the owner of one walk up as I was pulling in and ask if I was "fucking kidding?"

I told him I wouldn't leave a mess, and he told me to go ahead then. I still laugh whenever I think about that.

 

What did they think you would bring a clean truck to the car wash?

 

Where possible I pick car washes close to the trails, where there are already people washing their trucks/jeeps/powersport toys, and the car wash owner is fully aware of where his business comes from lol. Hell, the wash bays have credit card readers, and I'm racking up ~$40 in charges each wash, so I'm paying a lot for the "privilege".

 

From the conversation with this guy, people tend to blast the mud off their vehicle and leave the wash bay a big mess. A lot of these types of places have signs specifying "no muddy vehicles" or something to that effect.

I like the ones with card readers. I remember having to get quarters for one near my old apartment, and their machine was out of order half the time.

The one closest to me now has a card swipe, but it's limited to 5 minutes I'm also you have to keep swiping it. I really like the ones have used in Florida where you just swiped the card and do whatever you want to do and then hit the stop button when you are done, and it lets you know what you're being charged.

 

Sadly, all the DIY carwashes around my part of the world still use quarters...