What tips/tricks/products do you have for cleaning road grime off?

Just elbow grease,  and being careful around the electronics.

I haven't found any great tricks beyond soapy water in a spray bottle and taking my time.

To be clear i don't do it for a living,  i just like to keep things clean.

How to clean your engine - Autogeek.net

For regular maintenance I like to use Black Magic Engine Shine. Spray on, rinse off, leaves a natural brand new look that is not artificially shiny or greasy looking.

Here's my FJ Cruiser's engine with 93k miles.

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Get or rent a steamer and some degreaser...easy in the degreaser and as others said be courteous of the electronics. Look up AMMO NYC on YouTube for lots of great tips. 

the cheap way to get a pretty good job done is as follows

1. buy a spray bottle of Simple Green (walmart has it)
2. get a hose with a spray nozzle
3. cover ignition with a towel like cover your distributor cap if you have one.  Otherwise most new cars are pretty water resistant.
4. start the car and let the engine run

Spray engine bay with the hose getting down into the frame rails but dont high pressure any electronic type components mainly try to hit the hard metal parts with higher pressure.  Now as you spray shoot the simple green into the water at the point where it's leaving the hose.  get it? you are now mixing the degreaser with the high pressure water and you should see your engine bay now sud up.  Do this in all grimey areas.  when sufficient.  spray degreaser off with only water and you're done.

Don't use Simple Green it can discolored certain metals.

Huh, my 07 350Z has yet to leak a drop of anything, anywhere, in ~110k miles, I just wipe down the areas that collect road dust with a damp rag and blow it out with an airgun...

My 93 5.0 Tbird, however, had a thin coat of every type of automotive fluid over every surface of the engine bay

The car in question is an 86 corvette. It has a bunch of dirt and dried grease spread out. I dont think the harder to reach stuff has ever been removed The top of the intake and valve covers are clean, its the lower control arms and such that needs some scrubbing.

a L98 5.7 TPI, yes they can get VERY grimey.  So, follow the steps I listed above and put a towel over the HEI distributor cap.  You can hose the shit out of everything else under there just don't blast the MAF hard or the relays on the firewall and you should be fine.  get the engine hot to help loosen the crap.

I use this guys method:

Clean engine

The Meguier's Natural Shine stuff works really well and the steaming method is amazing.  I did it and my two buddies that saw the before and after couldn't believe it.

Wow, that looks great!

Spray bottle filled with soapy water, a big soft brush, a wheel woolie and a bit of elbow grease.
Rinse with hose, dry with "retired" microfiber towels.

7 Years old, 83,000 miles, daily driver.

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Honda S100 Spray Cleaner (made for motorcycles). Best shit ever invented. Spray it on, let it sit, hose it and it'll look like new.