Go to a 'do it yourself' place with a bottle of simple green. Maybe spray the engine before you leave. Then spray it when you get there. Let it soak for five mintues. Then hose away. If you don't have your timing hole plugged, then plug it. You don't have to cover your distributor, just be careful not to spray it. You'd be suprised how much water your engine can handle. Don't drence the airbox either. You'll get the oil off no problem. Don't feel bad either, I've done the same thing before.
P.S. If you want to get down and dirty and scrub things by hand.... I've found that wd-40 works the best (better than simple green) at removing gunk. Brake cleaner works well either, but it's kinda harsh. wd-40 is my first choice. On Sat, 23 Jun 2001 00:35:56 -0700 "Mark Gabel" <[email protected]> writes: Well, I'd ask you not to laugh but go ahead. When I was adding a half quart of oil to my 89 GTi 16v, I forgot to replace the cap. Well, I'd like to try to force myself to believe that it came loose on its own, but when I parked at the BART station in the morning and popped the hood to inspect the cause of some mysterious blue smoke the cap was sitting nicely on the manifold, mocking me. Anyway, as you have probably guessed, there is a huge oil mess in the lower side of my engine compartment. I'd like to assess the damage. * rubber hoses-- some have some oil on them. should I replace soon? * how should i go about cleaning this? is steam engine cleaning an option? Thanks, Mark
