Engine compartment cleaning

[mrkoopa]

Howdy yall,

Did some searching cant really find a concise answer in the manuals, PMCS items, or anything on the forums here. How do we feel about hosing out the engine compartment? Ok to do? Keep it away from the genhead? spray and pray? I note in at least one video @CallMeColt does bring some water into one of his units in one of his videos. Want to get some of these greasy spots taken care of, and some residue from coolant after the radiator removal and repair.

Thanks again for the wisdom.

 

[Ray70]

I used to do it all the time, every machine I ever bought for a thorough steam cleaning.
Stay a little bit away from the generator, alternator etc., but don't be overly worried.
When you're done you can blow it off with compressed air or a leaf blower.
I've even lightly washed inside the electronics enclosure on units with tons of fine sand in there, just dry it off before trying to run it, and stay away from the holes in the back of the gages.

 

[rickf]

Think about this, every time it rains and you are driving the fan is pulling in and spraying water all over the engine compartment. You do need to be careful with pressure washers, none of these components were designed to resist 2500 lbs. of water pressure. But at least military vehicles were designed to have the engine mostly under water.

 

[reset2]

I just washed a 802 couple weeks ago. Main thing do it on a dry sunny day. Run unit first a couple minutes to a slightly warm temp. Shut down unhook a battery. Do your cleaning, leave doors open. Wait a day to start up. Haven't had the control panels cleaned yet.

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

 

[Guyfang]

We always did more or less what reset2 wrote. Mostly we washed the sets on Friday, left the doors open and came to work on Monday and it was done. If we had room in the bays, we moved them inside the building. We used simple green to spray on the greasy or oily places. We used to put a little wood under one side to make all the water run towards a hole, to help drainage. This is easy. Don't over think it.

 

[CallMeColt]

I soak with Super Clean first, then spray with a hose. Do it a few times. No need to use a pressure washer as the Super Clean breaks up most anything grimy. If needed, get a brush or something. With just a hose, usually you don't need to worry about electrical, but it's a rule of thumb to never blast the alternators as others said.

After a little while, compared to others, I WILL start the machine. MAKE SURE IT IS GROUNDED. If you blasted the alternators with a lot of water, let it dry a bit more. This is a way of identifying any loose/bad wires. Happened once for me.... bad crimp for the shut off solenoid after cleaning..... thing would just crank. Noticed it not pulling in. Wiggled the wires & then it started. After going further, found a loose crimp that I otherwise wouldn't have & it would have probably failed during the 6hr load test.

If it rains hard when running, it will get a little wet in there. Have had it happen. Like with the 6 hour load test, checking in a controlled, non-use environment is best.