Washing engine bay

Here's a ya had to be there. Company builds new huge state of art ground equipment maintenance & repair. 25 bays. 12 north, 13 south. 1 bay fire extinguisher equipped to work on fuel trucks. And two wash bays, with hot soapy wand and a clean rinse softener, no spots wand. We move start using it.
Somebody forgot to install or plan for compressed air in bays. Uh how do run tools? Big dogs point fingers at each other. Chaos begins.
Wash bay second day. All vehicles that come in for regular periodical service get a quick look over for obvious, then into wash bay before service. Me " hey Robert , shouldn't there be a drain in the floor and slope down?" ( Rob did industrial construction) " You gotta be kidding me, flat floor no drains, it's running outside, if it hits the storm drain , were screwed"
Stop the wash, throw out pig blankets and tubes.
More, finger pointing , and shouting, foot stomping , we the unclean mechanic worker bees are enjoying the show. Oh look , fancy car, the really big cheese has stopped by.
Ever see how the queen bee is surrounded by servants, that's what it looks like.
More finger pointing, shouting, uh oh, it got quiet all the sudden. They left.
Next day, big crew out , grinds, cuts, plumbs, drains, fixed wash bay. Murphys law 2.5 doing it the second time is perfection.
The first month was a bit of " why were they thinking " and " whoever designed this should made to work here ".
They had the exhaust fans running constantly, there weren't real loud , but the frequency and how many that running . You shout at the tech Twenty feet away and he couldn't hear you.
" Oh it's fine , you'll be ok ". After first week and the foreman and then the super and a safety guy, couldn't get anyone's attention, thought the techs were just ignoring them, they installed switches on all the fans to use only when needed.
LOL.

Dawn with the extra grease cutting and a scrub brush works amazing. Cover up your electrical parts with saran wrap also works. Dont go crazy blasting around the intake or electrical components etc. When done you can blow things off with a compressor. I would also stay away from the +12 busbar and cover on the left firewall if yours has that.

The detailers I worked with never shied away from pressure washing an engine bay. Don't point the pressure wand at the obviously electrical stuff, and don't point it at the engine inlet or ignition. I'll add that you don't want water pooled on top of the engine and you don't want to wash a hot engine.

My old man used to do this religiously at the car wash and I can't recall a time he hurt anything. He took pride in it.

Timely discussion here. I'm aiming to cleanup the doghouse truck soon and make some decisions on whether to rehab or part it out

Pressure washers push water up into connector seals,engine seals,axle seals and the like. I screwed up the front wheel bearings in a '78 Sportster with a pressure washer trying to get the years of gunk off the thing. Never again!!! Yeah,it's fast and easy but not better in my opinion. I put hose connectors on an old well pump to act as a booster pump. It would make about 70lbs pressure through a nozzle that was a little bigger than 1/8". Worked great and not too much pressure. My moms pump fried and she wound up with it and I never got my hands on another one.

Steam, detailing spray, soft brushes, microfibers, and a hose if needed.

I’d say get a or make a degreaser spray all over your engine bay let sit for recommend time then hose off. But you shouldn’t need to cover anything up just don’t over do it if using a pressure washer. An every so often pop the hood while at a wash and soap it up after it’s cooled down and that too will help with keeping it clean. But the thing is just not to be spraying it as if it was the exterior body panels! Unless you are already having water issues but even a good degreasing/soaping then just letting the misty spray wash off everything is also doable as that’s what I do with mine at a coin wash. That’s not pulling the trigger for the water to come out but just the small pressure that is letting you know that the water is on after you put your coins in.

Cadillac Bob said:

But you shouldn’t need to cover anything

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I find pulling the air box gives you much better access and allows you to really clean and detail air box while removed. So, at that point, you definitely have to cover throttle body.

Yea, I don't cover anything up, I don't avoid spraying anything directly, I don't disconnect the battery, and I only use a pressure washer. And I have a big, 3600 PSI one. Never an issue.

Caveats: I use the widest spray nozzle (if they are universal, the white, 40 degrees one). I do not hold the pressure washer close to the engine so I don't cause damage to rubber parts or get pressurized water where it doesn't belong) I keep my engines clean, so I don't use solvents often (be careful with simple green and the like on aluminum engines). This assumes you don't have cracks or weak points where water can get in and cause issues.

My Civic Type R has an issue where water gets into the 3rd and 4th spark plug tubes, past the coil over plug. It happens even when it rains and the car is sitting for a long time, I don't drive it much, and rainwater gets in past the hood scoop and pools at those spark plug tubes. Just a design flaw. Can't tell anything is wrong until you get on it with significant turbo boost and it misfires like crazy.

Long story short, if your engine is healthy and running well, you likely have nothing to worry about it in regards to washing it.