Last Saturday, I tried degreasing the Civic’s engine using some of that Gunk engine degreaser. I followed the instructions on the can - spray it on, let it sit a bit, scrub if needed, then wash it off, then let the car run for 15 minutes for everything to dry off. Apparently I didn’t wash it off all that well, and once my engine started getting warm, I noticed white smoke. It didn’t smell like burning oil, but smelled just like when I was letting the engine warm up after cleaning. It got continually worse, and because it was pouring out of the hood, next to the windshield, it was getting sucked into the air intake for the fan blower motor... and consequently getting blown into the car.
I’m going to take the car for a little highway run at lunch to see if I can burn off whatever is left. It certainly was a little more exciting than my usual commute!
If burning things off on a highway run doesn’t help, I’ll have to borrow a pressure washer and try hosing things off better. I really hope it doesn’t come to that.