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Pressure Washing the Engine Bay?? Good or Bad??

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Domj-03

In Second Gear
I want to know whether I can pressure wash my SIII engine bay??
I've been told I can, just soak her in degreaser first then blast away... But are there any bits I should avoid/cover up to avoid damage??
 
thats ok. remember you can drive through deep mud and water in a landy. i will normally just jet wash the hell out of it then see if it starts (petrol) if not dry the dizzy inside and try again, the go for a drive to dry it out a bit.
 
A little trick to keeping the dizzy dry I used on my petrol engined cars (not V8s) is to obtain a rubber glove, the ones used for washing up, cut a very small hole in the tips of the fingers slide the HT leads through the holes, reconnect the leads then put the wrist section over the dizzy secure with a rubber band if a bit loose this should keep the dizzy dry, I used to leave the glove in place on my rally Minis, no reason why you could not do the same on a LR, one word of warning though! do not steal the ones the wife keeps for washing up, life is made very difficult if she finds out. Colin
 
I find just a good pressure washing alone every year or 2 is enough in the engine bay. I don't use a degreaser, (have in the past but don't think it needs to be got that clean) just the water alone to wash the worst of the grit - build up away, leaves a nice protective oil layer to prevent any corrosion, but gets rid of the yucky stuff that makes her unpleasant to work on. Always do it on a warm day and leave the bonnet off till shes dry then take her for a good 5+ mile hard run to dry any remaining damp out.

I always try and pay extra attention to really cleaning the whole ignition system though. Normally i will also take the cap - leads off and clean them separately. Keeping them clean helps reduce a lot of damp related starting issues in my experience, that surface layer of grunge really conducts well when its damp and also seams to hold the damp there. Pressure washing with out the leads on around the spark plugs really gets out all sorts of grunge you don't want falling into the cylinders next time you change the plugs too.
 
My ex father in law who was a very clever man and a jaguar trained mechanic who also turned down a job in f1 many years ago swore by covering the engine in gunk and taking it for a long drive! Never tried it, always stuck to jetwash!

andrew
 
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