I bought my accord last year. The guy who sold it cleaned up the engine bay really nice. I don't know how he did it but he did a good job. Well, it's getting pretty dirty after a year. I've cleaned the engines in my other cars before by just using the pressure gun at the car wash. It works fine but I've screwed things up before. I got water in the spark plug gaps in my wifes altima and shorted out the AC in my previous accord. Both goof ups I fixed with little problem by drying out the gaps and cleaning/drying up the electrical connections for the AC. But I don't want to mess anything else up, especially on my '99 where things are a little more advanced than the other cars.

I thought of using engine cleaner, the stuff you get in the aerosol can, but I'd have to use a few cans of it. I've always tried to avoid the electrical components (distributor, spark plug gaps, etc.) but there are contacts and wires all over the place in the 6th gens (and pretty much all cars past 1990) engine bay. Ideas?