Do you guys bother cleaning dust and dirt from........

Lol ignorant post for sure.
You will get not one penny more for a clean engine nor can you clean it well enough to not look like a coal miner when you finish.
You apparently have never worked on an engine, clean or dirty.
I changed the alternator on my daughter's Tundra a few weeks ago. 2017, immaculate clean engine... oh wait... clean where she could see and reach. Alternator on the 5.7 is on bottom and PS pump has to be removed to get to it. Also air box, overflow reservoir and windshield washer reservoir.

So unless you disassemble your fucking engine bay and clean behind and under components every time you clean you will be black up to your elbows.

Fact. Don't post shit.

 

I generally grab my air compressor do a quick blown down . Then If I'm feeling my OCD itch I bust out with a variety of detailing brushes and use the same detailer I use for in the cab . During the summer I just wipe down with rags . Definitely gives me a chance to look my motor over. Preventative maintenance little bit .

 

I've never had to use a hose or degreaser . Underneath the hood I clean that twice a year .

 

'81 Honda CX500 Custom. Avatar pic is just after reassembly post paint. The last step in a full restore ordeal/journey.

 

I'm enjoying this debate and if I'm honest I'm a little jealous of all the free time some of you have LOL!

My air-cooled '67 VW has a very oily, grimy engine (Dual-Port 1776 with dual Solex carbs for the VW nuts in the room). I had it built then installed it in that car nine years ago and in that time it's seen lots of dirt roads, been to Moab two or three times, Sedona and has Red Dirt stuck to it's engine case to show it LOL! I wear gloves when I work on it but I've never found it to be more tedious than working on anything else (clean or otherwise) that I own.

 

Like that one guy a few months back that toasted everything in his truck

 

To each there own but this entire post is comical. Put in excess of 200K on most of my trucks. Never cleaned the engine bay in any of my tacomas and even the nissan frontier I put 185K on. Never not once have I had a problem. Sheesh.

 

Engine bay? Heck I haven’t washed my truck in 9 years....

 

I don’t detail it, but I clean it periodically. I’m mostly looking to remove any organic matter (leaves, maple tree “helicopter” seeds, pine needles, etc.) that seem to find their way up around the cowling and hood hinges.

I’m just concerned about that crap trapping water and accelerating rust.

The “cleaning” is just me more or less wiping everything I can reach while I do a visual inspection.

 

Doing a full detail isn't a terrible idea all things considered. Wax or sealant can protect your paint from environmental fallout and by extension rust holes or clear coat failure. Not a bad idea once every year or two imo.

I didn't clean my engine bay once on my 2016 but I also wasn't in good enough health to take it out and enjoy the truck for what it is: an off road beast. Just never got super dirty. Now that I've bounced back, and I'm in a newer truck I'll take cleaning it a little more seriously.