Should I have any concerns about washing engines down, whole engine bilge area?

YeOldeStonecat

Active Member
Jun 10, 2018
332
Waterford, CT, boat in Deep River, CT
Boat Info
'97 300 DA "Me-Shell"
Engines
Twin 5.7 V-Drive
The '97 we recently purchased, engines around 600 hours on 'em, the engines 'n their bilge area are a bit dirtier than I'd like. I'm used to hosing my motorcycles 'n cars/trucks down at least once a year with good engine degreaser...but those are meant to be quite water tight all throughout since they can go in the rain. Even though a boat is in the water, inboards...I'm not sure if they'll tolerate getting as wet as a car or truck engine area will.

Would love to hose down the engines well, intake manifold 'n valve covers, and find a narrow bristle brush to get some biodegradable bilge soap and scrub the bilge floor 'n sides well.

Eyeballing it this past weekend, one area to avoid is the battery charger...that's up high on the front of the engine bilge, to the port side of the battery row.
I'd tape off the plastic air intake/flame arrestor cover...I'm sure some water might drip through that mount hole in the middle.

I wouldn't plan on getting more than 6 inches or so of water built up down there, likely less.
And find a narrow fitting for a wet vac, since the outer sides of the outer stringers let water sit there, it doesn't appear to flow down to the center where the bilge pump can pick that up.
 
Boat engine isn't anymore sensitive to water than a car engine. Just want to keep water away from the electronics - alternator, dist etc best you can. I would cover up other things in the bilge like the battery charger, trim pump etc that might not like water. Personally I have never sprayed down my boat engine (have done the cars) I just wipe things down and use a shop vac to pickup debris from the little nooks and crannies - I frequently wash out the bilge though. Just don't go crazy and pay attention to how much water is collecting in the bilge, the starters are lower than you think. And give yourself time to leave the hatches open a few hours for everything to dry out real good. A clean engine room is a happy engine room!
 
I would try to "dry" clean the area under the engines first to avoid the chance of oily discharge. Then as suggest cover up the electrical components with plastic bags and zip ties. Those ECM's cost a lot of money and I don't think they getting wet. When dry you could use something like Corrosion X on the electrical connection and exposed aluminum surfaces.
 
Roger that with plastic bags/zip lock bags for the sensitives.

Does someone have experience with various bilge cleaners to say "this brand is useless, use THIS brand..works great!"
I picked up a Star Brite orange biodegradable one.
 
One of my major OCD's is a clean engine room and laserette; I spray down the engines and bilge areas with Z-Cleaner then scrub and rinse and dispose. After done start engines and generator and bring up to temperature to dry out. I also leave engine room hatch open with a fan in there for a day to completely dry out.
 
I pressure washed my 8.1 today. Some simple green and a toilet brush is what I had laying around, and then laid the lumber to it with the washer. Looks gleaming clean. I don't wrap anything, or go out of my to ask for trouble by blasting wires or sensors.
 

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