On a road trip from south texas back to Dallas the rubber on my air filter broke, and it was hanging off and exposed my car to unfiltered air.

What can I use to clean it out? I was thinking of spraying carbonator cleaner in there while my car was running since it evaporates pretty well.

 

there is really not too much you can do to clean it out. That cleaner might help little but not too much. Hopefully not too much dirt got in there. I would check your spark plugs and make sure there is no dirt on them.

 

I suppose measure your compression. If lots of dirt got thru your engine, it probably isn't still in there. It got blown out with the exhaust. So you want to see if it did any damage on the way thru...

 

How do I check my compression?

 

Compression tester is a pressure gauge that fits into a spark plug hole. They come with instructions.

But if the engine runs nicely, don't worry about it. Maybe just change your oil incase some dirt got into it.

One ghetto check is take off your oil filler cap with the engine running. If your compression is bad, lots of oily air will blow out of the hole. Some of that is almost normal, so if you've never done that you might not know how much is normal.

 

Thanks for the tips, I'll check everything tomorrow!