Should I wash my engine / engine bay?

[BadTrainDriver]

A power washer with the correct 40 degree spray nozzle, held back two to three feet from the surface you're spraying, is a very gently spray of water. Just FYI.

 

[RM7]

IMO the risks of using any pressurized fluid getting into circuits far outweighs any cosmetic benefit. As others have said, a light coating of dirt and sludge doesn't harm anything. At some point, after many more years and miles than you have, crud accumulation on the block can affect heat dissipation. We're talking scrape-off-with-a-putty-knife level stuff to have enough of an effect to warrant a must cleaning.

People get twitchy with things they own, and many car owners can be obsessive to the level they're willing to risk harm to components and paint chasing an elusive level of upkeep perfection. Reality says the vehicle is a machine, with many fluids and avenues for dirt to accumulate and get ingested. It's designed to get dirty and gets dirty by the very nature of its intended purpose/use. The only things I care about are rubber parts drying out and any metals that come into contact with salt/ice melt chemicals. Deteriorating rubber parts with time and corrosion from exposure over time are the main culprits for external facing car part failures. Everything else regarding cleaning is purely cosmetics, and lets not sugar coat it - it's the beauty of the Stinger's insides that matters (or should matter) most to us.

Yep, having dealt with connections and stuff in the engine bay…hell no to a pressurized steam cleaner.