AHHHHHHH... smoke and bad idling after cleaning my engine. help?

[comablack783]

so i decided to attempt to clean my engine, i wrapped the maf, stuffed the airbox hole, and wrapped the distrubtor in plastic bags then taped em off. then i used foaming engine cleaner/degreser (which sucked) and then some genero orange cleaner/degresser which did an awesome job, and hit it with the hose. bay looks shiney and new, however the engine is idiling bad and its smoking, smoke is light white. ergh!... i checked the air filter and its dry, so are the plugs, the outside of the maf seems to have gotten alittle bit of water on it, but i toweled it off. i ran it for about 10 mins to see if it would idle out and start behaving normal, no such luck, the engine seems to want to jump out of the bay under acceleration, and i have white smoke coming out my exhaust. i left the hood open for about an hour in the hot fl sun and tried again and still the same thing? wtf!!? whats wrong with it!!! AHHHHH...omg...im freeking out!!!... my car!!!... sigh so it was dirty as hell but at least it ran!!... anything that got wet will eventually dry and the car is going to go back to normal right? RIGHT??....

[amarokorg]

You've got water in one of your connectors/harnesses which is shorting out the reading from that sensor. Some of the gurus here can probably help you narrow it down by the symptoms, but in the meantime, start disconnecting each wiring harness connector from its associated sensor, and blow out both sides of the connectors with compressed air. My guess is you'll find a couple full of water, and once you get them dried out, you'll be fine.

- Dave

[comablack783]

ok, unpluged all the grey conectors that i can see at a glance, i know theres probably a few hidden in various places. some of em are little bit soaked, about to break out my air brush and compressor since i dont have any cans of compressed air laying around and i cant drive to buy em. any other suggestions?

[amarokorg]

Your compressor will do fine. Just get all of that water out of all of those connectors and give it another go.

- Dave

[comablack783]

ok got all the water out, reconnected all the connectors, even unplugged all the spark plug wires and blew air into em, even though they were dry and then plugged em back in.. still idiling rough and smoking, also i noted that once i left off the throttle the car makes a poping sound... sigh i couldnt just leave it alone, nope had to go and @4#@ with it....

[amarokorg]

Popping after letting off the throttle usually means you're running rich - which would also explain the excess smoke.

I'll bet you've still got water in a connector you haven't checked yet. Check everything related to airflow/fuel delivery - MAF, etc.

- Dave

[comablack783]

sigh, seems god doesnt want me to do anything, its pooring outside, i hate FL summers, either its hot, or its wet, or its both....ARGH, ill check in as soon as it stops raining. also i checked and dried all the plugs around the air box leading all the way to the intake (its an SOHC). I did sort of go a tad over board with the hose, espically near the vavle cover and the injectors, ill try drying anything i can unplug near the fuel rail and injectors.

[S14-NEO]

try removing your air filter man...you might have gotten it really wet and it running riich and migh tbe popping due to the air sucking small particals of water hitting the hot wire of the MAF. also remove the plug to the coolant temp sensor as well..its the red plug near the throttle body on the intake manifold. if there is water in there it will cause problems..that sensore controls alot of the ECU functions like fuel delivery etc.

[comablack783]

alright thanks guys, i drove the car around and it seems to have worked it self out, idleing normally now. i guess what ever was wet finally got dry, had me scared there for awhile

[amarokorg]

Yep, those kinds of gremlins can be a bit scary. Next time you wash your engine bay, I'd go ahead and blow out all those connectors before you start it up for the first time. Depending on the connectors, if you have a strong enough air source (like a good shop compressor) you can sometimes blow them dry without disconnecting them (the water got in - so can the air).

- dave