This is actually a question for my Acura CL. I drove it through three east coast winters and some parts in the engine bay has this salty caking or some type of deterioration. What's the most effective way to get rid of this?

 

can anybody help?

 

you can wash the engine bay... just use old rags (or old microfiber towels)- and i have an old wash mitt that i use for that purpose.
start the car and back it out of the garage and let the engine run about 30 seconds or so (this gives it about the amount of warmth that you will need for the engine cleaning part).
start out with your regular car shampoo and the old wash mitt. you might need to use an engine degreaser too- be sure to use a non-acid based one. and dont use it near flowers (it will attract bees). you might need a good brush to remove the caking once its wet.
then rinse and dry... you can also wax or zaino that area just like the exterior.
be sure to use low water pressure when rinsing the engine (and i assume that you have a newer car without a distributor or carburator).
i also run the engine for a couple of minutes after washing.

 

for the engine bay i use something called Meg APC (all purpose cleaner)

just spray the bay and use a soft brush. then i'll rinse it off with a low pressure hose - then to really make it shine - i'll coat the bay with CD2 engine detail spray