Cleaning Engine

[mcomet]

So I finally opened my engine compartment up today...wasn't too bad heh... Thanks to owners manual and youTube vid...

Anyhow I had some some searching and was wondering HOW and WHAT people were using to clean their engines... From my search here I have read that some people use a hose on very low pressure, no splashing and wet down the entire engine...also use a spray bottle with dawn soap/water mix and then rinse...

I am wondering...

1. Is it really safe to hose down the entire engine? I read somewhere about not getting water on the distributre cap but I'm not sure even where that is on the engine...

2. I would like to do some sort of rubber treatment or such on the engine hoses and plastic top... what do people recommend for that? I didn't want to go and just use something like ArmorAll on the engine parts....

thoughts?

thanks!
comet