Hello all im in need of some help, I just washed my s13's engine on Satrday used 2 cans of gunk to clean it at one of thouse self wash places. I covered the fuse box and the distributor , So i sprayed it let it set in then im washed it off .My car started fine and then i went to the store engine sat for a while and it started fine again. I get home and i start to rub down most of the engine bay with a rag with a lil bit of WD40. The car sat for about 3 hours before i crank it up , now the car bearly turns over (about 3 tries to get it started) engine light comes on and the rpms dont get past 2500 (it sputers real bad and engine rocks like crazy) and white smoke comes out.
We checked the dist cap and it was bone dry i have no other ideas as where to look or any other sensors i might need to check. Any input would be much appricated

 

why did you pressure wash it?

 

it wasent done with pressure the stream out of the gun was almost a mist , It had a green cleaning agent coming out of the gun as well. I dont think its water that messed up the engine i think its when i wiped down the engine with the WD40

 

you have water in the plug holes(spak plug)

 

yea i forgot to mention that we checked the plugs too and they where ok not a drop on them

 

Check your relay boxes.

 

Did you figure out what was wrong?

 

Was the motor hot when you washed it?

 

First thing: the fuse box is very well covered, so there's no problem with that, so you don't really need to cover it. now what you should have covered is the Alternator. Thats the most important part since it rotates fast and its uncovered, unlike the distributor cap. when you wash it, you don't want dirt going in there. to check if its working, turn on the car (if posible) then disconect the battery, the car should keep runing. If not there ya go. Now if its not that, then by the fact that the car won't go more than 2.5K I'm thinking that the MAF is wet. they ALWAYS fail when they get wet. My friend had a cold air intake, and when it rained in the highway, he had the problem and couldn't go fast. If you have to take it out, wash it with the purest (highest precentage) alchohol. Alchohol is safe for electronics, when they R not conected. Donot, I repeat Donot use carburator cleaner. If you do, good bye MAF. After this if you can't figure out whats wrong try scnaing your car for codes, search on that there's tons of stuff here. hope that helps.

 

Thank you all for your help , Its was water in the plugs i guess they where a lil loose and water got in there. I changed the plugs and wires and that did the trick. So that brings me to my next question (i stink , i know) . One of the threads from the plugs was re-threaded and when i put the plub in it wouldent sit in properly, When i pulled it out i saw lil bits of metal. I know i have to re tap it now but when of the guys at work told me to use a helicoil or something like that to re do the thread and he told me that i dont need to worry about the shavings because its after the intake and they will just go out the exhaust. Do i go ahead and listen to him or do i start the take apart the engine to take it to the machine shop?

 

yeah teh metal will go out your exhaust ..... after it runs up and down your cylinder walls ....
retap the hole with grease on the tap to catch some metal chips.

then install your helicoil, and then before turning the engine over, using an air gun blow air in the cylinder through the spark plug hole. this will force the air and all loose particles to come out the spark plug hole since it is the only place for air to escape. (obviously dont plug the hole when you blow air and make sure the valves are closed.) this will remove as much metal as you can.

no need to disassemble the head.

 

Thank You Very much Roastem looks like a have an action packed weekend ahead of me

 

Oh yeah... using thread repair kits suck hard... they take too long IMO... but hey, ya gotta have your spark plugs.