How to Clean Ford Escape Engine?
Whether your everyday ride is a truck or car, you must take great care of it. Just like that, your Ford Escape engine also requires regular maintenance.
Now, we are left with one question, how to clean the Ford Escape engine?
As easy as it may sound, you need to begin by ensuring your safety is secured correctly. Disconnect the battery terminals and cover all the electrical components using a plastic film.
Remove the upper motor housing and follow up with gentle scrubs using an engine degreaser. Rinse all the rust and dirt using water from your garden hose, then let the engine dry.
That is how you get the job done in a breeze. However, if you’re sniffing around for detailed documentation, be at ease as we’ll cover it all here.
How to Clean Ford Escape Engine?
One tiresome and stomach-clenching situation is when having to clean the engine of your Ford Escape. We’ve heard it all. Cleaning the engine of your cars and pickup cars can sometimes seem like an unnecessary hassle.
Furthermore, if you make a mistake while cleansing any engine components, you are going to do more harm than good. Hence, it’s essential that you follow the steps given below!
Step 1: Prepare the Workspace to Allow a Safer and Simpler Experience
Before you start meddling with any of the engine components, you might as well move straight to the battery and disconnect the negative terminal.
Cutting off any possible flow of electricity ensures that there is no risk of getting an electrical discharge leading to accidents. This occurs especially when spraying water on the engine.
Step 2: Remove the Upper Casings and Covers
It’s now time to remove the upper motor housing of your Ford Escape. This can simply be done by unscrewing a few screws, and you’re good to go. Doing this increases your access to engine components.
Once all components are exposed, cover up all the electrical parts with a plastic film or nonpolar layer. Thus, preventing any damage done to the components when spraying water on the engine.
Step 3: Use a Good Degreaser to Clean the Engine
The engine of your Ford Escape is likely to collect a lot of dirt and grease with all the rush you’ve been putting it through since the time you bought it.
The constant negligence has led to loads of grease and debris deposits, further deteriorating the performance of the engine. Hence, grab yourself a strong degreaser spray and spray it all over the engine parts.
After that, use your garden water hose to spray water all over the engine and rinse all the sticky grease and dirt off all the components. After letting the degreaser sit for a few minutes.
Do not use high pressurized water as it may penetrate the sealing of the electrical components, hence damaging them in return, further increasing your expenses.
Step 4: Dry the Engine and Apply Protective Coating
Once all the dirt and grease are removed, you could then go ahead and dry the engine using an air compressor. If there are yet traces of dirt to be seen, apply more degreaser and rinse with water.
A piece of quick advice after all drying and cleaning is done would be to get a protective metal coating from your local automobile shop.
Applying the coating would prevent further accumulation of grease and dirt on your Ford Escape engine. Hence, keeping your engine clean in the long run.
Is It Okay to Spray Your Engine with Water?
Water and electricity don’t go along well. You all have probably come across this specific phrase abundantly throughout your lives; that could either be from sci-fi movies or your science lectures.
But nowadays, with frequent developments in the industry of vehicles, The Ford Escape engine should likely be water-resistant and comes with engine block water passage in some cases. But that doesn’t indicate you don’t have to clean the engine block water passage or the engine itself.
The company made such changes primarily due to past cases of engine failures during floods. After all, sudden storms and floods aren’t new things for most streets in the US.
However, certain engine components require special care when dealing with water. Some electrical components may be splash-proof, but there isn’t any guarantee that they would survive total exposure.
Hence, it’s advised to clear that doubt by sealing those electrical components using plastic film to avoid damaging them when rinsing the engine with hose water.
Thus, you can spray water on your engine after you’ve applied the degreaser and all. However, make sure not to use high-pressurized water on the engine as this might remove the seal.
Removal of seals would allow water to reach the electrical parts and, in turn, damage them. Furthermore, be sure not to add any water when the engine is hot as this might cause some components to crack.
Key Points
- The Ford Escape engine is now water-resistant in most cases.
- Electrical components should be sealed using plastic film to avoid damage when rinsing the engine with hose water.
- Do not use high-pressurized water on the engine as this might remove the seal.
- Do not add any water when the engine is hot as this might cause some components to crack.
Drawbacks of a Dirty Ford Escape Engine?
There are several drawbacks to using a dirty Ford Escape engine. And if those early symptoms are neglected, this might severely affect the performance of your car in the long run.
We know gathering the necessary intel to recognize the drawbacks could be really tiresome at times. Hence, we’ve already been through that hassle and provided some common drawbacks below.
Engine Stumbling Becomes Prominent
Faulty engine components cause irregularity in the normal functioning of the car. This might cause your Ford Escape to stumble along the way by coming to a stop abruptly.
You are likely to notice this sort of issue quite frequently if you haven’t been keeping the engine clean lately. You might also see your check engine light blinking, so this is just a heads up.
Power Steering Failures
Many individuals had also reported this problem. In such incidents, the vehicle loses power when steering.
It happens for a brief moment but results in the driver losing control of their ride, leading to horrific accidents, especially on busy highways.
After many investigations, it was found that this occurred primarily due to faulty engine components or dirty uncleaned engines. So more reasons to clean your car engine.
More Fuel Consumption
Dirt and grease accumulate on the engine and reduce its overall efficiency. Furthermore, an inefficient engine would consume more fuel, requiring refueling more often.
This adds up and increases the monthly fuel expenditures, and thus you should probably think of cleaning your engine when needing to refuel more often.
Engine Misfiring
If you notice popping sounds from your engine on the Ford Escape, that’s probably due to a dirty engine. Your engine might lose power entirely while on the drive.
Backfires from the intake and exhaust manifold could also be seen, which seems like a matter of grave concern. Hence, it’s worth unraveling and cleaning out all the junk from your engine.
How Often Should You Clean the Engine?
To be completely honest, the number of times you should be cleaning the engine of your vehicle totally depends on the condition of the weather in the place that you live in.
Generally, cleaning the engine of your Ford Escape twice a year does work out quite well for most cases. But that’s not the same for everyone!
However, if you live in a dry area where dirt accumulates quite often, you’re good with cleaning the engine at least once every three months.
Can I Use the Same Method to Clean My Ford Escape Engine as I Would for a Genie Screw Drive?
Yes, you can use the same screw drive cleaning tips for both the Ford Escape engine and the Genie screw drive. It’s important to use a gentle solvent and a soft brush to remove dirt and grime, and to avoid spraying water directly onto the components to prevent damage.
Conclusion
Keeping the engine of your Ford Escape clean is not only a necessity but also a responsibility, as you’ve already witnessed the drawbacks resulting from riding on a vehicle with a dirty engine.
Hopefully, you’ve understood the consequences of driving with a dirty engine. Hence, you can go on and clean the engine of your Ford following this script.
Furthermore, you could even get this done from a car cleaner shop if you have the cash to spare, which is also a great alternative because cleaning seats differs with car model. For example, you can’t use tactics designed for cleaning Ford ActiveX seats on Ford Escape seats and expect the same results.
