Hot dog jack.
the WD-40 is the critical and magic part.
Wait until you start restoring metal coolant pipes and such,
and painting them in Rust Converter Paint..
there's a Safety Blue I really like for coolant pipes, water pump pulley
..etc.
and metal parts like that.
then they get *really* colorful.

those various metal pipes can rot right through sometimes, the one on
top of the engine . is rather prone to rust and pin-hole leaks. .

scott
turbovans

On 8/25/2012 12:44 PM, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
> Put a shower cap over the alternator to keep it relatively dry. Followed
> the procedure below, a-and the engine started!
>
> I confess that I was kind of expecting that the water might have fouled
> the wiring and converted the engine into a useless inert lump of metals
> and petroleum-based fluids. But it's idling away and drying right now.
>
> I had no idea that there was so much color in the engine compartment! Up
> until now, everything was uniform brown or brownish-black!
>
> All the colors of the rainbow.
>
> --
> Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
> 1984 Westfalia, auto trans,
> Bend, Ore.
>
> On 08/24/2012 03:39 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
>> if you want to do anything like that ..
>> this is my surefire method.
>> the first word of caution is 'don't overdo it !'
>>
>> you could just use compressed air to get dust off..
>> if you want a washing method....
>>
>> warmish engine preferred.
>> spray down with Simple Green ...scrub with a toothbrush here and there
>> as needed.
>> Don't spray into the alternator, but everything else, pretty much.
>> Don't try to get every tiny bit of grime off the engine ..it doesn't
>> hurt anything.
>> Let the simple green soak in a little. ...10 minutes say.
>> Ideally.........hose that off with hot water.
>> Just spray it off briefly ..no sitting there blasting ! Don't spray
>> water into the alternator.
>> just a fairly quick swish and spray. Like 10 seconds is plenty. Even
>> less.
>>
>> Immediately spray everything....... especially all wires, plug wires,
>> distributor, coil, etc. with WD-40.
>> This is the most important part of the entire process. You can use that
>> generously.
>> You can dump a gallon on the engine and it won't hurt anything. Just
>> spray generously.
>> it displaces water...very, very effectively.
>> Then start the engine right away and let it idle some ..
>> and dry out.
>> It does not have to be show-car clean ..there's no point in trying to
>> accomplish that.
>
> [snip]
>