Cleaning engine question

[Jeff. State]

I'm looking to clean up my engine in the area of the manifold hose/spider area(lots of oily dirt buildup) is there anything I should be careful of not to get wet, etc.?

In other words how do you all clean your engines?

[strokinpower]

Dont hit any electrical connectors straight on close range or fuse panels and such.

[bruce51d]

how do i clean my engine? its a truck, not a show car. granted i do have 22's on mine and care about how it looks i have never done anything under the hood. just keep the pressure low, use hot water if you can, you can spray pretty much anything under the hood

[jesilvas]

I'd pull it all apart to clean that stuff by hand. You'll get it better, get the oil out of the IC and CAC system, and be able to do the CCV mod for good measure.
For washing, I've only rinsed mine out cause it had tons of oil in there. I just had the front tilted up as much as I could on a hill, let it cool completely, ran lots of water in there so it would all flow out the back weep hole, and let it dry completely before restarting.

[ttyR2]

I usually use Purple Power or Castrol Super Clean, hose everything down well with the engine just a bit warm (not hot enough to make the cleaner dry), let it soak for 10 minutes or so, scrub the really nasty parts with a plastic brush, and then hose it off well. Pretty much all of the connectors under the hood are weatherpack pieces with o-ring seals. You're really not going to hurt anything.

[Jeff. State]

Thanks guys!