1. use oven cleaner in the spray can from your local dollar tree or dollar store, cleans the fack out of any greasy/grimy engine/bay
2.when power washing, spray entire engine from front to back, left to right. wait 20 min and then clean. will come out slick and clean. so clean you can run your finger down the fender and you will not catch any dirt on your finger
3.meguiars insane tire shine is a great addition to your engine bay/stock oem non painted plastic parts.
4. for a deep glossy front/rear bumper, or side trim pieces/ mirrors, spray the tire shine on. it will stay on the plastic well untill your next scheduled car wash.(obviously it will work great on your tires too lol)
5. when using tire shine in the engine bay, spray it on parts that are normally cool, non moving parts. parts such as the header timing belt/other belts, will fling the stuff everywhere. it is ok to spray it on your valve cover reguardless of the condition of it(i.e. stock paint or detailed)
6. if you have an aluminum or aftermarket solid fuel rail with a machine finish, then use mothers aluminum polish, will look almost as if you have an aftermarket one. if you already do, then yours will shine even brighter.
7.clr, gas(93 oct.), mr clean products also do wonders as well for the actual cleaning of the block, head, trans case.
8.plastix head light cleaner will clean glass head lamps just as well as sand paper when done by hand
9. another addition to cleaning your engine bay, eagle one tire cleaner and aircraft stripper can be used as a 2 part cleaning process on your engine: eagle one for about 15 min, then stripper for about 10 min then pressure wash(DO NOT USE STRIPPER UNLESS YOU ARE AWARE THE AREA WILL BE BROUGHT TO BARE METAL) till a desired shine is achieved
10.if i come up with any more of my ideas ill post more