Engine bay detailing

Just wondering how you all detail your engine bays? I have a 2012 Legacy 2.5i. It's just dusty, can I power wash it? I've always power washed my previous cars, but wasn't sure how the stock Subaru engines held up to that type of cleaning.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

You'll find threads here on that subject, the best by OCDetails. Here's a link to his site for a detailed description: article

In the article, you'll find descriptions and photos of the products he uses.

Here are my notes from that article:

1. Spray perimeter with degreaser.

2. Low pressure water to spray off the crud the degreaser took care of.

3. Wipe down the engine with a towel to remove anything that didn't rinse off.

4. Rinse again.

5. Dry the engine compartment with a towel. The important parts to dry are the plastics and hoses because those need to be dry for step 6.

6. Spray CD2 on plastics and hoses.

7. Let engine run for 20 minutes with the hood down while you do something else.

8. Pop the hood and dry buff the plastics with a towel, but leave the hoses alone. The plastics will spot and have runs, but the hoses will actually just get shiny and you don't want to wipe that off.

9. You are done.

He personally detailed my car and he does fantastic work! Read up on his guides

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The sad news is that CD2 has discontinued the engine detailer product. Sometimes you can find it at Big Lots or in some corner of an old auto parts store, but cans are selling for a premium online at this point. Typically they are going for upwards of 12 or 15 bucks a can!! Even I don't know that I love it that much. I did sort of find a kind of replacement though. Not as good or as easy, but it works. ...Kind of. Damn you CD2!!

Anyway, check for Gunk Engine Protector: Shine. It is going to be back by the other degreasers. This is a little different than CD2. For this one you want to spray it onto a towel first and then wipe down the areas you want it on. If you spray it directly on the hoses then it doesn't look as good. This one doesn't give you that dripping wet look, but it does give everything a nice shine. Like I said, not as easy as CD2 was, but it works. There are other products that do a good job too if you want to check the Autogeekonline.net forums. I haven't really experimented with too many other products since I had found something that worked.