Operation Clean Engine bay

1-2clutch-u

Member
Feb 18, 2006
379
0
16
chi town and ohio
I want to clean up my engine bay and make it look nice, I would like to relocate some things and hide some things. Anyone have any ideas, im not looking to cut and redo brake lines or abs unless its ez. I have removed the bunjy cords and that crappy hose covering stuff.
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hottscennessey

DONT BE A BITCH!
Jun 3, 2005
3,137
0
36
37
Richmond, VA
Here are just a few things

-paint the rusted alternator brace
-loom any loose wires
-tuck the cruise control/fuel pump wires/realys into the fender
 
Oct 2, 2006
31
0
0
Denver
It looks like everything is relatively clean, as far as lack of oil/grease goes. My GTE has tems and no ABS. Strange, but I like it that way. The ABS doesn't look bad, but if you were thinking of going without ABS, you ca buy a line bender and double flare tool for cheap to bend your own hard lines or find a car that has no ABS to get the lines from, to do the conversion.

Other than wrapping loose wires, I think you could continue changing the highlight colors to the vivid blue that your plug wires and intake tube hoses is. I would also go through the EGR system and clean up the tubing that goes paralel to your new intercooler pipes. Maybe take the ears off of the tubes by grinding the spot welds, then filing the rest of the spot weld flush with the pipe and maybe paint them a matching blue or black? They kind of look like they are just laying out of place since the 3000 tube isn't there.

Most of the cleanup stuff you see done follows an engine rebuild, but you could maybe pull your alternator and pull the bracket to repaint it black, as well as the strut bar and the pads inside of the strut areas that are bare steel.

Another thing that I like seeing under hoods is when people go through and replace all of the old hoses with new black ones and replace all spring clips with worm gear stainless clamps and hide the worm gear as best as you can on all of them. Some people like going with colored silicone vacuum hoses. That doesn't look bad, but if the color doesn't match the rest of the silicone parts, it looks cheesy. The black lines make them just go away, too. Showing off vacuum lines seems kind of silly to me.

What is the loose line fitting with no hose on it towards the back of the engine on the Right (passengers) side?

Also, if you're going to go with polished intercooler pipes, I would suggest getting an electric dremel or the like and a polishing bit and rouge set to do your AFM and cam covers. I'd also polish the rest of the intake. Removing all of the articles before cleaning, sanding and polishing, of course. Maybe paint the highlight stripes on the cam covers the same as the wires and silicone hoses. It would be nice to see the alternator housing sanded and polished too, but that's a lot of work.

I would also suggest an HKS air filter. They aren't as pretty, and they cost more because they are good, but the no-name ones are spooky when they spit things into the turbo.

Other than that, you might think about ditching the coil cover once you get new coils and clean the mounting bracket up (maybe painting it gloss black) as well.

Don't get rid of that fan shroud. If the bungee cord was holding it in, get another shroud. You'll want it in the summer.
 
Last edited:
Oct 2, 2006
31
0
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Denver
On another note with the shroud, I would pull the upper mounting brackets (don't loose the bushings) and paint those black as well.

Make sure you thoroughly clean anything that is rusted before applying a couple of light to medium coats of paint. Let each coat flash for three minutes in normal weather and about ten minutes between coats in cold weather.

AutoZone sells this bio rust remover by the body stuff that the military uses that eats rust gone in short order that is super cheap. It makes cleaning rough cast parts a dream. I use it to soak rusty manifolds and other parts in with heavy rust when I am restoring a car and they come out looking new. The best part is that it doesn't hurt you like acid electrolysis dips can. It's not caustic.

Also, anything going on the engine should be done in high temp paint.
 

Rennat

5psi...? haha
Dec 6, 2005
2,844
0
0
Tracy, CA
www.myspace.com
relocate battery to trunk.
if you dont want a/c pull all that shit, cut the connectors, put alternator down where the a/c goes.

which will then give you room to work on that lower fender area by the intake manifold where you can put a bunch of stuff.

if you have the time, relocate the fuse box... but thats a lot of work.
Get new vaccum lines and run them around and under things so there hidden, along with getting new hoses for everything to make your engine bay look "newer"

and painting everything the same color will change the look drasitcally...
and i like brake cleaner to clean off parts before i spray them with my awesome BBQ paint which is good for 1200 degrees... i do my turbo/exhaust stuff in 2000 stuff.
 

87mgte

87 Turbo Targa
Sep 9, 2007
536
0
0
33
Sequim
MisterTurbineTwister;962853 said:
I would also suggest an HKS air filter. They aren't as pretty, and they cost more because they are good, but the no-name ones are spooky when they spit things into the turbo.

Do you know how many stories there are about HKS filters getting sucked into the turbo?

IMO get the Apex'i Power Intake. Best filtration and looks "pretty" too.
 

Rennat

5psi...? haha
Dec 6, 2005
2,844
0
0
Tracy, CA
www.myspace.com
+1 my brother had an HKS filter... there was DIRT at the bottom of the filter... wtf is that about? hks sucks balls when it comes to filters...

apexi or AEM Dryflo ftw

and my autozone filter is holding up fine by the way...
 

Ckanderson

Supramania Contributor
Apr 1, 1983
2,644
0
0
41
The beach
Rennat;963830 said:
+1 my brother had an HKS filter... there was DIRT at the bottom of the filter... wtf is that about? hks sucks balls when it comes to filters...

apexi or AEM Dryflo ftw

and my autozone filter is holding up fine by the way...

yea HKS is known to have one of the worst filters on the market. Any filter that leaves visible DIRT past the filter doesnt work for me. Never mind the fact its VERY ugly.

AEM dry-flo seems to be the best option out there right now.
 
Oct 11, 2005
3,816
13
38
Thousand Oaks, CA
MisterTurbineTwister;962901 said:
AutoZone sells this bio rust remover by the body stuff that the military uses that eats rust gone in short order that is super cheap. It makes cleaning rough cast parts a dream. I use it to soak rusty manifolds and other parts in with heavy rust when I am restoring a car and they come out looking new. The best part is that it doesn't hurt you like acid electrolysis dips can. It's not caustic.

What is the name of this stuff? Is it evapo-rust?

http://www.evapo-rust.com/
 

suprabad

Coitus Non Circum
Jul 12, 2005
1,796
0
0
Down Like A Clown Charley Brown
Ckanderson;963872 said:
yea HKS is known to have one of the worst filters on the market. Any filter that leaves visible DIRT past the filter doesnt work for me. Never mind the fact its VERY ugly.

Other than that (and the fact that it doesn't flow too well either), it's great.:sarcasm:
 

themadhatter

Member
Jul 5, 2006
760
1
18
Vegas
It looks clean to me, all i would do is take the ears off the breather tubes fix the rusty braket and paint the charge pipes black and as far as air filters go you can't beat a k&n
 
Oct 2, 2006
31
0
0
Denver
Are you guys serious about the HKS filter?

I wasn't aware that AEM was doing filters now. You'll have to bear with me, it's been quite some time since I've researched aftermarket parts for these cars. I was suggested to use the HKS filter years ago, but I'll take your words for it. I guess I'll have to do some more research.

Evapo-Rust. That's the stuff. CLR works okay, but the only problem with CLR is that it doesn't neutralize the iron as well as the bio cleaner and it can't be reused nearly as many times. It is a little cheaper, though. I've used both quite a bit and prefer the Evapo-Rust. it works quicker and more efficiently from my experiences with it as well.
 

Tun_x

Built to do the NASTY!!
Apr 1, 2005
878
0
0
Utah
there is an ultimate engine bay thread in the build section. I believe its sticky you should have a look. There are some pretty clean ones floating around
 

polobai

New Member
Apr 1, 2005
662
0
0
40
Orlampa
Here is mine-its a little extreme but should give you some ideas. All the wiring was extended and hidden under the intake manifold, the ignitor and other things that were on the fender were relocated to inside the fenderwell, the fuse box was moved to the inner fenderwell, battery to the back seat area, abs removed and replaced with non abs lines, all holes shaved that were not used, etc.
 

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