What is the grossest thing you've found in your engine bay?

I inherited a near 300K mile F250 at work. Yesterday I lifted the hood for the first time to check the vital fluids. In between the transmission cooler and the radiator was completely packed, from top to bottom and side to side, with dead bugs and a couple birds. I tried a water hose and that didn't touch it, the pressure washer got a few loose ones off the side. I had to get a long saw blade to cut and poke my way through it. The boss came out to see what I was doing and the pile of dead things grossed him out.

I'm thinking about adding some mesh behind the grill to help keep the bigger stuff out. I'm not sure how it wasn't running on the hot side. I mean the A/C condenser is about 50% blocked with mangled and damaged fins and then these bugs were blocking probably around 40% of the rest of the radiator.

So what have you found?

When I was a kid my dad started the car only to discover where a stray cat was sleeping. That was really gross.

Off topic: I was at Menards a couple of days ago and found an A/C Cleaner aerosol can. I'm going to use it on Miata's radiator.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: When I was a kid my dad started the car only to discover where a stray cat was sleeping. That was really gross.

Replace dad with sister, and cat by squirrel, and I have the same story.

I was once cruising through a town during some sort of outdoor festival. Bunch of kids looking at the ms3. Thought they loved it, kept waving. Got home, sparrow wedged head first right in the flying m.

I've seen a lot of engine compartments with rat poo in various spots, but there was one time I managed to open the hood and found a live rat. Later what appeared to be the same rat (at least, it matched the size and color) turned up dead and very smelly behind the back seat.

What is the grossest thing you've found in your engine bay?
A rotary! shudders

Found a decomposing opossum in the dashboard of a Spitfire once. Not in the engine bay, but would this count?

Do tractors count?

Found some dead baby voles on the floor board of my Nissan.

scardeal wrote: What is the grossest thing you've found in your engine bay? A rotary! *shudders*

Hahaha!

N Sperlo wrote: Found some dead baby voles on the floor board of my Nissan.

Had to Google "Vole". That's a new one on me.

A possum for me under the hood of an MG Midget. He was alive and pissed off.

A 200k+ mile F2T with all original gaskets. Or what was left of gaskets.

Words and this picture cannot truly explain the horror.

scardeal wrote: What is the grossest thing you've found in your engine bay? A rotary! *shudders*

/thread

Dead bird in a Datsun radiator.

When I first moved to DC my apartment was a short walk from a Metro station, so my E30 sat for weeks at a time unmoved. After leaving it for more than a month parked next to a dumpster, it reeked the next time I climbed in. Opening the hood I found a literal rats nest--bits of fast food packaging, chicken bones and other food scraps, trash of all kinds, little pools of urine, and turds by the thousands in every nook and cranny. I pressure washed the engine bay twice and used all manner of detergents, but it still took ages to get rid of the smell.

I found a live mouse making a nest on the exhaust manifold of my wife's 560sl. He was surprised to see me when I popped the hood.

I later found it the same mouse in a trap I set next to the car. Peanut butter gets them every time.

Half the fluids from a Subaru 2.5L. The other half must be on the ground somewhere.

I found a snakeskin when I was under the engine.

Then I found more snakeskins.

It was difficult to be under the car and not be a little freaked out.

Rob R.

Rat piss. Do you know how hard that smell is to get out?

Customer concern was "fluid leak".

"Fluid" was decaying bird juice.

Fortunately, the bird stayed in one bird-like piece when I extracted it with a pair of prybars wielded like chopsticks. If the ex-bird fell apart, I probably would have hurled all over the place.

I cleansed the prybars with brake cleaner. Then heated them bright orange. It's the only way to be sure.

Guy I used to work with found a cat's head.

I remember once when I was 13 or so the whole family piled into the minivan and went into town in the winter for some things, something smelled really nasty when we got out of the car, blamed it on the city, drive home, still smells, open hood, dead kitten on the exhaust manifold, cooked on one side, frozen on the other.

Not mine, but I have found dead snakes (one wrapped around driveshaft), dead mice, and one live mouse while working on customer's cars. Pretty sure I E36 M3 my pants and screamed like a little girl when he jumped out at me.