leave your engine static overnight, as long as its cool to the touch.

spray with a light mist of water to get everything wet, avoiding the obvious trouble spots as much as possible... cover those electrical areas is recommended!

turn your engine on and leave idle for about a minute.

turn off the car

spray your engine down w/ some sort of cleaning agent... simple green is commonly recommended but I tend to use something less strong as I have a dumb self made myth that those strong solvents would fade the black if left on too long.

leave it on for about 2 minutes then mist w/ water again till engine is free of the cleaner.

w/ toothbrush, paintbrush... .whatever you use, get down to those trouble spots to get it clean

spray a tire/vinyl protectant shiner whatever you want to use.... I've used Armor all w/ great results, use the agent to completly spray down the engine bay. I use practically half a bottle to do this....

close the hood, and let the car sit out there under the sun for a day. The heat under the hood from the sun is gonna help alot!

next day pop your hood up and marvel at the BLING!


PS, if you have chrome/painted parts in your engine bay, try to clean and polish them off after spraying down w/ the armor all.