How Do I Clean the Engine?

the car had been in the body shop for about 4 months being repaired and the engine bay was full of dust and grime so I sprayed it with Chomp and washed it off. About a month later it starts to miss. I would have pulled the codes with my OBD11 scanner but this was an early 2k4 and this was one that the CAN and the OBD11 weren't communicating with each other so when it set the code Miss on #1 sparkplug I couldn't pull the code As it was at the dealer they did the read with the THHT and that's what came up. So the tech pulled #1 coil and found water in the tube. The only place it could have come from was my washing the motor. This was also the problem with the Hood Seal TSB as any hi pressure water jet under the back of the hood put water on the top of the valve cover and it seeps down into the plug tubes. I've pulled the coils twice now to blow out the tubes after I wash the ICE and there is always water in them. The seal between the coil and the valve cover isn't really very good at keeping water out. I've also pulled the plugs and put Never Seize on the threads as at 60,000 mile or km's you'll rip the threads out of the head as galvanic corrosion will weld them in. The relay box's and fuse box never have water in them after I wash under the hood so I don't blow them out. I always keep the seal in mind when I'm looking at seals of any kind in case I come across something I can replace them with that'll keep water out. I just don't think the ICE ever gets hot enough to evaporate the water in there. As hot as I've ever seen the ICE is 97C or about 200F water doesn't boil for another 10-12 degrees so I guess it just sits in there until the spark plug shorted out as the water was above the coil to plug seal. Pull a coil and have a look and you'll see what I mean. I've put silicone grease on the donut seal but it still gets in, so I just pull the coils and blow things dry. The first incident was in about June of 2k4. As for getting water in there rain comes thru the rad and the fan's blow it around and seems to cause no problems but a garden hose does. This has been my experience on the Classic and the G2. After the fix for the CAN-OBD11 problem I can pull the codes off the OBD11 with my scanner. And there will be "no" next time, if you know what I mean.

 

thanks for the info... so you keep referring to coils?.. I haven't seen coils in years since everthing is electronic ignition now.. do you mean the wires coming of the electronic ignition?.. surely they are not using low voltage coils?

And I guess I'll have to see what your talking about when I get mine... Its like once I year I do such a thing and I have no problem using compressed air as long as I know what to blow out.

thanks..

 

Toyota has for years used an individual ignition coil on each spark plug. No distibutor or rotor or cap or plug wires. Just a small ignition coil with an extended ceramic extension that goes down the plug tube about 3 inches and has a rubber/silicone seal on the end where it goes over the spark plug. There is a small 10mm headed bolt that holds the coil on to the valve cover. One coil per cylinder. Same system used on the Toyota V8's in the Tundra/4 Runner/ Sequoia. They haven't made it to the industrial side of Toyota yet in NA, can't say the same for EU or Japan/SE Asia as I haven't seen what they are using for engines in that market.