Help! Washed Engine and now car wont start!

[agent007kimball]

I washed my engine on my 91 stang earlier today and then I drove it around the block to dry it off. The car initaially started fine, but then felt extremly sluggish. As I turned a corner, the car stalled and now I cant get it to fire up again. The engine turns over but wont fire. I tried for about 20 min with no success. Its now sitting down the road. What happened? Did water get in the engine? What do I do?

 

[bock]

Probably water or humidity in your distributor cap,take it off and dry it,wit a towell or a air dryer.

If you did try to start it for 20min.You should change your oil,cause you probably have fuel in it now.

 

[88stangmangt]

make sure you didnt knock your ground loose on your batt. also you might have got the dist/wire's wet but by the way it sounds sometyhing is wrong with your ignition.

 

[gustang88]

Yup, sounds like the distributor cap got wet inside

 

[agent007kimball]

Thanks! I dryed offf the inside of the cap and it started. It still is running kind of sluggish though. Any ideas of how to fix that?

 

[agent007kimball]

Never mind! Its running great now...I guess all the water had to dry off....Thanks for the help!

 

[88stangmangt]

good job bro.

 

[PonyBoy90]

Next time DON'T power wash the engine!

A proper engine cleaning needs little more than degreaser and free-flowing water from a nozzle-less garden hose. You're also supposed to cover all the electrical parts with plastic bags just to make sure no water goes where it shouldn't.

 

[88stangmangt]

ponyboy90-im sure he knows this now and where in the post does it say he "power washed" it?

 

[PonyBoy90]

Power-washing, spraying with nozzle, whatever...............I guarantee you he didn't cover anything and used one of those 2 methods.

I free-flow wash mine "top down to bottom" and cover all electrical parts and have never had trouble starting the car after.