On a cold engine, get a can of no touch tire shine and spray everything under your hood. Close the hood & let it sit for about an hour. No water needed. Depending on how dirty your engine is you might want to do it twice to get it looking right!!
For shining up the engine just use some armor all tire shine. QUOTE]
It will look good, but it leaves a greasy finish which collects dirt as you drive making it horrible next time. I use a light protectant that keep it clean looking rather than shinny. I have a pic of my engine bay at a car show last year if you want to see what I mean about clean but not greasy.
If you do intend to hose down the motor, AVOID the coil packs at ALL COST. If you've detailed cars this way for 50 years, fine - just understand that every Ford modular engine has very sensitive coil packs. A little water down into the spark plug wells will spell death for the COP coils and cause misfire conditions.