Dirty Fuel or water from cleaning the engine bay?

Ba$tard

Lo all,

I'm a bit peeved at the mo...this is why..

1998 Civic B16A2

11:00 Saturday Cleaned car and engine bay.
Dont normally clean the engine, but I mistakely got water down into the tops of the plugs. Started the car immaediately to let the heat burn off the water and wet for a spin. All was good. I think I got away with it. Used the car 3 times on Saturday, all without incident.

Sunday, drove the car twice on shortish journeys, no problem perfect.

07:00 Monday morning driving to work, stopping in the Shell garage in Ballincollig, co. Cork to fill up. I only try to use Shell for being a good petrol. I noticed 2 pumps were 'out of order' and used the third one. Filled her up to the brim.

16:30 Monday afternoon Left work, car started perfectly. Went out to main road, pulled away in second, chugging, engine was mis-firing.. :eek: Went up to 3,500rpm to see if it would clear it, it did....
Stopped at T-junction, started off in 1st sane again, second same again, and anything under 3,500 rpm...
I decided to stay at about 5,000rpm for 2 miles to warm up the engine and burn off any crap around the head...free revving the engine also as I went along..
After 15 minutes, problem dissappeared, drove home.

06:30 Tuesday morning started car drove to work, no problem.

16:00 Tuesday afternoon started car, spluttering happened all the way home, even felt power loss while in VTEC at about 6,500. Stopped in supervalu. started car 20 minutes later, same issue......I am writing this now...


What do people think? Bad Fuel ? Something eventually kicked in from the water leaking down into the plugs ?
I am going to check plugs tomorrow.

If its bad fuel, how can I purge the fuel I have ?

TIA, James.

Seth Brundle

more than likely it is water in the distributor - the engine has been run enough to evaporate any water lingering close to the block. Take the cap off and dry it out.

Ba$tard

Thanks for the reply...

I found the source...

Was going uphill and engine continually fired on 3 cylinders...then 2 !!! then 3 again, turned around, went up to a mates garage, pulled off the spark plugs leads.
Spark plugs 1 + 3 were stitting in about an inch of water and the leads were soaking.....

Pulled out leads, took out plugs, turned the engine over 12 times (as per water ingestion procedure for a jap engine) and put in new spark plugs. Sorted. All ok now...

Thanks...

IrishRover

Did you clean the engine bay with a pressure jet? I wouldn't do that unless the engine was already hot after having driven it for a while. I would also leave the engine running while cleaning it. You've still got to be careful about where exactly you direct the spray.

Glad to hear you've got it sorted now anyway.

Seth Brundle

Originally posted by IrishRover
Did you clean the engine bay with a pressure jet? I wouldn't do that unless the engine was already hot after having driven it for a while. I would also leave the engine running while cleaning it. You've still got to be careful about where exactly you direct the spray.

Glad to hear you've got it sorted now anyway.

Are you suggesting spraying cold water on a hot engine?

IrishRover

Yes actually. When the engine bay is warm and the jet of water is accurately directed over a small area at a time it will evaporate right off in a few seconds.

I take it you don't think you should do this. Can you explain why?

Seth Brundle

You mentioned hot initially, not warm!
The volume of water given out by many pressure jets is rather a lot and could (IMO) cause damage to hot engine components.
However, washing the engine whilst slightly warm should be ok (assuming all electrical components are adequatley insulated from the spray.

Seth Brundle

just in addition to my point above
www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22cold+water+on+a+hot+engine%22+

IrishRover

Well when I said hot I meant with the engine at normal operating temperature, so I did mean as hot as it should normally get alright and engine bay warm from the engine. If I'm wrong about this then fair enough.

I haven't had any bad effects though that doesn't mean that someone else won't I suppose. My thinking on it was that you want the water to dry right off straight away rather than hang about on top of the engine where it might drop down into the spark plugs or wherever else it's not wanted.

One of the links returned from your search terms was http://engine.articles.mbz.org/both/degreasing/ from a Mercedes Benz owners site which said:

You can damage the engine spraying cold water on a hot engine in some cases! It's not bunk. The old OM61x iron-head engines seem pretty impervious to damage and I've not heard of one acting up after a cold wash on a hot engine. HOWEVER, the OM60x engines with aluminum heads are a different story! Even after letting it cool so the dash gauge was down to 50-60C, I got frightening cracking and popping noises when using the high-pressure rinse at a coin-op car wash. Sure enough, I ended up with a few drops of oil in the coolant, which really really pissed me off (NEW head and gasket less than 10kmi earlier). The oil amount was tiny, so I torqued the head bolts in sequence another 1/8 turn each, and so far that has seemed to cure it. Had a similar problem with the old head & gasket as well. Don't screw around with aluminum head engines. My trick is to drive the car to the car wash, put the heater on MAX, then kill the engine but leave the key on. The electric auxiliary coolant pump will force coolant through the heater core and the fan on MAX will cool the engine significantly inside 15-20 minutes. Leave it like that while you're jacking up one corner of the car (for better access to the underside), and spraying Engine Brite on everything. Then rinse it.
Side note: The 3-prong temp switch on OM603 engines, that triggers the electric radiator fan in front of the condenser, DOES NOT like to get wet. If you spray it with water, IT WILL switch on and may not ever switch off. This has happened to two of my switches personally, plus at least 2-3 other people I know of - in all cases a new switch cured the problem. Simply placing the plastic cap from the Engine Brite can over the switch, to prevent *direct* spray on it, prevents the problem. But don't think everything electrical in the engine compartment is impervious to water spray - that just ain't true!

Seth Brundle

Originally posted by IrishRover
Well when I said hot I meant with the engine at normal operating temperature, so I did mean as hot as it should normally get alright and engine bay warm from the engine. If I'm wrong about this then fair enough.

Normal operating temp is hot - too hot for pouring cold water over it!!!

ondafly

If you ever want to clean your engine bay again ? theres one way thats quick and easy, and not many know of it.

STP Tyre Foam Cleaner

Let engine heat up to operating temperature. Park out on the road (not in your driveway) Give the can a good shake and spray all over the engine, careful not to get any on the car's paint.

Come back in 10 minutes - engine bay will be spotless. Dry up any excess bits that didn't evaporate.

Sundy

why would you clean the engine bay anyway? other than if you haev a show car. Its a risky and totaly unneccesary task as you happened to find out the hard way!

mike65

Originally posted by Sundy
why would you clean the engine bay anyway? other than if you haev a show car. Its a risky and totaly unneccesary task as you happened to find out the hard way!

Beat me too it! Only the very anal clean the engine bay. When buying, if I see a clean engine I walk away....

Mike.

IrishRover

Apart from being anal, if you keep your engine bay clean you can quickly spot any oil leaks. If your engine bay is always filthy you won't know how long any oily residue you spot has been there.

With a clean engine bay it is also easier to spot any damage to vacuum hoses etc. You can also better see when fluid levels need topping up if you keep the containers clean.

conor-mr2

For the exact reasons mentioned by IrishRover I clean the engine bay. Around the valve cover there had been a large build up of oil which had baked itself onto the car. A decent scrub around the area removed the offending crap and it is much easier to determine if there are any leaks of any sort.

I dont see how that can be anal. However each to their own.

As Ondafly mentioned that stuff is good at cleaning engine bays.

ZENER

I know you managed to fix the problem by taking the plugs out but there is an easier and less drastic way to solve the problem. From an old windowlene or similar spray bottle take the trigger and tube out and place it in the plug bay and spray the water out ! Worked for me when I did exactly the same thing !!

Tinky

Ba$tard

Thats an EXCELLENT idea Tinky....


I must remember that the next time I do it