steam clean = a lot of water underneath car
 

Tomorrow I am changing oil and a bunch of other things in the engine, so before I changed the oil I wanted to do the "steam clean". Well after doing it today , there was a big puddle of water underneath my car. I didn't notice the puddle as I was doing it, but when it done I saw a lot of water on the floor. I smelled it and it was just water, not coolant, fuel, oil. When I was letting the car idle afterwards there was some smoke coming from the twins area, I'm sure this is somehow related. After grabbing a light I could see the water dripping from the subframe. I couldn't find the source, but tomorrow as I'm taking things apart I am hoping to be able to find some kind of water residue.

Just curious if anyone knows what would explain this? I'm sure it's a bad gasket somewhere, but I'm not sure where to start looking.

I'm sure its probably related to the gallons of steam you sprayed magically re-condensing into its liquid form.

go in with an air compressor n dry everything up!

Maybe there's some miscommunication here.

Did you steam clean your engine bay or inject water inside your engine to clean it internally?

I think he steam cleaned the inside of the motor.

Pretty sure he was "steam cleaning" his engine BAY.

So yes that means the steam turned into liquid, creating puddles of water.

ok maybe I wasn't clear enough. I "steam cleaned" the interior of the engine using the water jug to vacuum hose to intake manifold method.

If I was using a steam cleaner to clean the engine/engine bay I would not asking why water was puddling...I'm not that stupid.

steam turned into water and dripped off all parts of engine bay

:banghead:

Sounds to me like you may have spilled water when pouring, or the car has a leak somewhere (intake manifold, exhaust manifold, downpipe, cat converter flange) that lets water drip onto the ground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt7IY0keOD0

Imagine a Gallon jug with a hose coming out of it, attached to the intake.

It's just an exhaust leak and probably not a large one to be concerned about. It's just that water will find any tiny exit it can.

I would guess that maybe 1/2 gallon of water, I put 2 gals into the car, was on my floor. Is that something not to worry about?

At the rate the water is being consumed, it can't all be turned into steam that fast so some of it will just exit the chamber as water. It will just exit the first place it can. However, some of it may also not be getting into the chamber and may be exiting through the LIM gasket.

^ interesting thought... doofy if you still have the paper gasket this could be the culprit.

I'm not sure if the previous owner had the paper gasket replaced when it was rebuilt. I'll check the invoice in the morning.

I've been doing the steam clean thing for years. To everyone else, always steam clean BEFORE you change the oil. Rotarys have quite a bit of blow by so you will get a bit of milky residue in the oil system from the steam vapor as the vapor gets past the oil control o-rings and into the oil sump. This is also how fuel dilution of the oil happens. Steam clean 1st then change your oil. ;)

Yep, that's why I did the steam clean yesterday, and changing the oil today.

Probably an exhaust leak...

I think steam cleaning the inside of the engine is snake oil.

+1

+1 exhaust leak how is your spool rpm? leak before turbo will cause slow spool.

I just use Sea Foam. Application is the same, and if nothing else you get a nice smoke show. But seriously, I've gotten good results with it.