Thanks Darrin, appreciate the compliments.
The good news is that Yes, I did use that basic normal Gunk Engine Bright and then tried to hose it off. I tried both foamy and the old kind, and another brand. i didn't notice much of a difference between them but the foamy sure *seems* like a good idea.
Here's the down-side......I had soooo much caked on oil on this thing that I had to use a 1" putty knife in some areas. Then, I just went ahead and grabbed a brush and some kerosene and made the block super clean. I keep kerosene around all the time to clean old grease/oily parts. If I would have realized that I'd be using the kerosene, I could have bypassed the Gunk Engine Bright.