I got a 2000 chevy blazer 4 dr 4.3, am thinking about steam cleaning the engine, i just don't want to mess anything up, or wear any old parts down with mositure. Any suggestions of proper way to do this as what parts to cover, or if it should be done at all. I 've done it couple times in the past with the Distri cap cover, but thats all i covered, should the belts and alternator be covered also. Any advice would be great thxs

 

i was a car detailer for 10 years and we would spray the heck out of everything, usually distributors we went easy on. only problems we ever had were fords especially the rangers, one drop of water gets on that cap it runs like crap. also jeep cherokees had some sensors on the engine that caused the trans to shift funny.

far as s10s go ive never heard or seen any problem. i have a 93 and have hosed it off a few times to get all the mud off of it, and have driven it through water as deep as the manifolds with no problems. so pretty much just dont get the distributor cap with a direct beam and dont beam any sensors and anything that looks like it will break.

good thing about cleaning the engine is it will show you any leaks you have, thats usually why i do it, or im gonna work on it and dont want tons of grease and/or mud on it

 

Thanks for advice, so belts and alternator ok to get wet? what about degreaser over the counter any good ones, or should i just stick with plain water hoses?

 

I just use purple power and a good pressure washer leave the engine cold or running though. if its warm and not running you could run into some issues

 

ok so cold running engine is the best way. Whant about what to cover and not get wet beside distri cap?

 

i use the dollar store oven cleaner,spray it on go to car wash spray again while motor is warm,vaccum the truck and then spray it down.
when the motor gets warm the cleaner works really well.

dont let your motor get hot warm only

 

I would never use over cleaner, thats harsh stuff, if that got in your alt or on your belts who knows what can happen! Best way to do it is this:

wake up early on saturday morning a sunny saturday morning that is! Go out to your completely cold car, cover alt, distributor and anyother wires/sensors you can easily. (If you really want to clean them, do it by hand afterwards) hose down your entire engine bay, use purple power and/or engine degreaser, I put mine on jack stands just high enough so I can get the bottom of the engine to! (careful of spark plug wires and stuff) Then while the cleaner is sitting scrub in heavily dirty areas. Now I suppose you could run your car for like a minute just to get it slightly warm but I never would, then rinse always use as little water as possible, the less water the better, Now if you have an air compressor, spray off the engine to get it mostly dry, lift the hood and let the sun dry it out for a couple hours and your good to go.

NEVER EVER SPRAY AN ENGINE THAT ISNT %100 COOL or your going to warp your heads or do other serious damage, there are a lot of great videos on youtube on detailing your car and engine, just be careful there are more bad videos then good ones!

 

Thxs dj00140, i have done what you have suggest, but i think i over cover so much crap in my 4.3 2000 blazer engine that most of my engine doesn't get clean, plus its hard to cover the bottom plugs also, i see so many wires and crap everyway. i always do it cold like you said, but everytime i clean it my engine feels little different for an couple hours. i use a reg hose to wash it off, maybe a dollar coin high pressure or even there low pressure gun would be better option