Whats the fastest way?...

Can I just hose it off while not spraying vital compnents?

 

cover the distributor/dist cap with a plastic bag and steam clean the engine. try not to spray directly at the electrical connectors and you'll be fine.

 

I usually spray the engine bay with that engine cleaner stuff if I'm at the car wash then rinse off lightly. When I wash at home Simple Green works well then like I said before spray the engine/engine bay lightly to rinse. Make sure to wipe everything down so you don't get nasty water spots everywhere.

 

Everytime I do mine, its at the self service car wash. I never cover anything, but always make sure my plug wires are sealed on the valvecover and dizzy.

Spray it with simple green, and brush in spots where its heavy, or just a can of gunk.

Then spray off with the pressure rinse, but stand back so it doesn't spray things that hard.

I've done this at least 20 times with zero problems.