Its finally getting nice out and Its time for a full spring clean. When I had my 91 VG all I did was remove the battery and cover the fuse box, sprayed Meguiar's Engine Cleaner, and sprayed it off.

Other than those things, what should be covered/removed on a VE? Not trying to spray it off and something like the coil packs go bad because of moisture etc.

 

Greeny just covered the filter (iirc) with a a bag, and hosed his VE down, cleaned it, and hit it with a leaf blower.
I would advise doing it with the engine cold, so stuff doesn't crack due to sudden contraction from cold water.
it'll be fine, or expose a preexisting problem.

 

if you want to powerwash, wait until the engine cools down and use a warm water wash and cover the filter and any exposed wiring elements

personally i wouldnt, i know some spray without covering anything but at the same time Jassics sprayed his 2nd gen engine bay and got a bad misifiring problem after and others have had similar problems

all i did was get a degreaser and use a toothbrush to scrub everything and wipe where i cleaned with a wet cloth afterwards, takes a few hours but its better imo

 

Cool Engine. Walmart bags over battery/fuses/air filter. Put a spooge of dielectric grease in all of the electrical connectors that will get wet. Use a leaf blower or compressor to dry. Dry everything else (if any) with a towel and let the car sit a couple of hours.

I think patience is what pays off here. Don't just blast it out at the spray-it-yourself car wash while the car is hot then drive off. Do it when you know you won't be going anywhere and put a little bit of time into it and you won't have any problems. Done many cars without issue.