Best way to clean engine bay

I was putting in my CAI with little success, and noticed that my engine bay is hella dirty. Whats the best way to clean all that shit up without damaging anything? I searched and read that powerwashing was probably the best way, but I'm still concerned about the whole water-on-electrical shit thing. Any suggestions to make this as simple and easy as possible? Or just take the pussy way out and take it to a dealer? Do you think using just dish soap would do the job as a degreaser? Haha I'm so cheap.

with a pressure washer.. and make sure you take out all the spark plugs and disconnect all the eletrical fittings....




jusk kidding..NEVER POWER WASH~!


some degreaser and good ole fasion elbow grease will work
:icon16:

I put some degreaser on my valve cover, and I guess some dripped onto the exhaust mani, and now it's starting to rust. What takes rust off besides gettin a new one hehe.

I put some degreaser on my valve cover, and I guess some dripped onto the exhaust mani, and now it's starting to rust. What takes rust off besides gettin a new one hehe.

lol your car's engine is still too young to be cleaned. I thought you bought your car with less than 40k miles right? Dont engines get really dirty by 70-80k miles? lol dam i love your car!

cleaness is not measured in miles..^^^. i dont think its measured at all for that fact.....

using a car pressure washer isn't bad at all as long as you don't have it on full pressure pointing directly at something. spray some gunk engine degreaser on the thick shit and then use some gunk green clean on the lighter dusty stuff. made the engine bay in my 95 pontiac bonneville look brane new.

Ok so some people are saying that it's ok to pressure wash, some are saying never do it. If I do end up doing it, how do you not aim at anything? It seems kind of hard not to aim at just one thing, unless you are just spraying randomly, but then you might spray something you don't want to. What are some thing to make sure and not spray?

I just hose my engine down then take a towel and wipe what i can up. Usually looks new afterwards.

MAN, yes you can pressure wash it. Don't get your coil wet and you'll be fine. After you wash it turn the car on close the hood and let it sit for a few mins, this will speed up the drying. Then get a towel and dry it off. This is not a hard thing. You can even use a wet vac like I do when i'm done to get the water out of the v-cover and the hard to reach places. Goos luck.

Once again VFAQ saves the day:

http://www.dsm.org/archives/1997/09/19970919.txt/26.html

our detail department uses a gas burning $3000 industrial pressure washer with a burner that heats the water to 110-120 deg. we use it on every engien to get it ready for sale. i've used it multipal times after work on my engien compartment. its fine to do. the only problem you might run into is having to blow out your sparkplug wires with compressed air if some leakes into the holes. thats no big deal.

Thx guys, il prolly do it this weekend.