Engine Bay [Merged 7-7] cleanup clean up unclutter tidy neat

[Seano04]

wow, pauls that looks amazing. Do you have a web site where you found all that from?

 

[paul s]

Yes I do, those are pics of my car,hehehe
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/468846

 

[Karma]

Im jellous...
Ive got everything under my hood gloss black with a few chrome accents. Ill get a picture in a few days.

 

[sadsm]

Damn Paul S that does look nice. The only thing that you might want to try that I saw at DSMotorsports is the SS exhaust mani heat shield. But either way good job. It looks nice.

 

[tyger1]

Nice!!

 

[Karma]

Damn Paul S that does look nice. The only thing that you might want to try that I saw at DSMotorsports is the SS exhaust mani heat shield. But either way good job. It looks nice.

JM Fabrications also makes a manifold heatsheild. You can call them and ask for a wastegate cut out. Looks stock, and is chrome . just bought one myself, good price and good service.

http://www.jmfabrications.com/dsm.html

(the heat sheild is near the bottom)

Also travislaw- this manifold cover from jm fabrications would clean things up alot if you mated it with a powercoated valve cover. Also something else you can do is remove all the old wire loom, and replaced it with new shinny black loom. Cleans things up quite a bit

 

[gridlyne]

Remove your Heatshield and repaint your timing belt cover. When I painted mine black, it made the whole engine look great. Try to also paint your battery tie down and while your at it, take off yoru windshield wiper arms (That usually crack and show silver) and paint those too.

Also try getting a strut bar.

 

[Dragon TalonTsi]

I took it one day at a time when I did my Engine bay. Yeah, you could do the lines, loom the wires, and bust rust and repaint all of your things, but also dont forget proper preventive checks and services on your car, maintenance wise I mean. It is a work in progress, but Rome wasn't built in a day you know, so take it slow, do it right, and be careful of what you use on cleaning your car. Here is some tips too for your bay; if it is rubber and metal touching wrap it, so you dont get any holes or burns there, that would be bad. If it is loose and/or rusted, tighten it and clean it, paint it if you want to. Elbow grease, sweat, blood and tears go a long way in this. Take care of your car, that is the best thing you can do for it....

P.S. My pic wont load, so that is why I am editing it. Just check out my engine bay, you'll see...

 

[tyger1]

I second that comment, what use is a nice looking engine that does not work?

 

[blcktalipse]

Wow you're right, That engine bay looks disgusting.. Although, ALMOST every car in the gallery looks like a spider web filled with wires. While my 2g is down, I have done ALOT of cleaning up to get rid of and re-route all of the wires so it looks like there is jsut a motor and tranny. Things you can start to do if you have alot of time:

--Battery in trunk.

-Relocate Fuse box (As in, Unbolt it and move it down by the tranny on the side of the 'frame rail'.

-Take your plastic guard off behind the pass. wheel and turn your intake upside down, (Your airfilter will be behind the dirt/mud guard that's connected to the bumper.

-Get a 1g coolant overflow bottle and relocate it next to where your filter will be when you turn the intake upside down, The top and lid/hose, Will come out where your upper intercooler pipe goes through that hole.

- Clean up and hide any wiring harness' that you can, Relocate them and move them around to a place that no one would be able to see them.

-Shorten all your vac hoses and other misc lines that make the car look like a mess.

-Remove your cruise control.

-Polish your heatshield, Remove your sparkplug cover and make one out of sheetmetal, Which then you can polish. Re-paint your valve cover.

Those are only a few things to get you started on your project.


(Also, The picture I attached is the same intake you have, Turned upside down with a little straight bracket to hold the mafs up.)
I will attach a picture of my enginebay so far (The fuse box is not there now, I needed to bolt it to the stock location to get it out of my way for a few minutes. Also, The few wires that are hanging where the tranny would go are now re-located and hid. Ultimatly, When youa re finished you should have a motor/tranny/turbo, And spark plug wires... That's really all that should get attention when you open your hood. Not a spider-web of wires like the enginebay you posted.

i would deff. like to see pics of most of this stuff being done or already done cause i cant stand my engine bay

 

[tyger1]

here is a pic of my engine bay. still waiting on more parts

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[DSMunknown]

A good engine degreaser is purple power. strong stuff let it sit for like 20 minutes and spray it off at your local self wash.

uh, the company says "it should not be used on metals." maybe this is one of those 'don't worry about it' instances. i'm not familiar with the product so maybe it does work.


here's the link i'm looking at:
http://www.purplepower.com/ultra.htm

 

[kronix0420]

Alright, i have a 1992 Tsi, and i was thinkin of removin the AC and Cruise Controll, any thoughts, i never use my cruise controll, and as far as AC, i live in north Idaho, i mean its only hot enough to use it like 2 month out of the year. i know it will kinda cut into the resale value, but i dont plan on sellin any time soon.

any input would be help full, any ideas on what else i can get rid of under the hood to clean it up a bit, and shed some lbs.

 

[BaddAssGst]

Alright, i have a 1992 Tsi, and i was thinkin of removin the AC and Cruise Controll, any thoughts, i never use my cruise controll, and as far as AC, i live in north Idaho, i mean its only hot enough to use it like 2 month out of the year. i know it will kinda cut into the resale value, but i dont plan on sellin any time soon.

any input would be help full, any ideas on what else i can get rid of under the hood to clean it up a bit, and shed some lbs.

Vacuum lines, solenoids on the firewall, A/C lines, compressor, condenser. I don't recommend removing power steering though. You can also relocate the battery to the rear which looks nice.

A couple thing you can do is remount the alternator where your A/C compressor. That cleans it up quite a bit.

 

[yokotabrat]

I've removed AC and cruise control on my car. Both are not that difficult and I imagine there is a lot of information on how to do it in these forums.

Another idea is to swap to a smaller lightweight battery. There is a good writeup here from one of our previous CO DSM members.

 

[kronix0420]

well my battery is already relocated, well actually, batteries ( two optima honda yellow tops) they are super small and light, i'm sponsored by a local stereo shop, and i have a custom stereo in the hatch. but thanx for the link.

 

[ThunderValley]

A/C is an easy one..just remove and enjoy the weight savings. I had a hell of a time getting the pump out, it was like giving birth but it can be done. Find a non cruies cable, $20 on ebay and get rid of that ugly cruise cables. When I got rid of my cruise it made the pedal less sticky too.

 

[Seano04]

a write up would be sweet for something like this. i hate going places and having people ask me to pop my hood..ewwwww

 

[GSX26]

Well, the oil seals on my 50 trim went so I ordered my new turbo. While waiting for the turbo and other items, I decided to start to clean up my engine bay. I painted a lot of the stuff black (IC piping, valve cover, exhaust manfiold, etc). I also polished the turbo a little bit. Let me know what you guys think so far. (battery tie down and brake resevoir bracket are off in the picture because they are getting de-rusted and painted and Strut Bar is getting cleaned and polished, hopefully I'll finish that all up soon...)

<a href='http://www.putfile.com'><img border='0' src='http://f5.putfile.com/5/12316180641.jpg' alt='Hosted by Putfile.com'></a>

<a href='http://www.putfile.com'><img border='0' src='http://f5.putfile.com/5/12316121955.jpg' alt='Hosted by Putfile.com'></a>
Spark Plug cover is being taken care of...Mach V DSM is on the way...

<a href='http://www.putfile.com'><img border='0' src='http://f5.putfile.com/5/12316115256.jpg' alt='Hosted by Putfile.com'></a>

<a href='http://www.putfile.com'><img border='0' src='http://f5.putfile.com/5/12316135699.jpg' alt='Hosted by Putfile.com'></a>

And just because I'm excited about getting these....
<a href='http://www.putfile.com'><img border='0' src='http://f5.putfile.com/5/12316113190.jpg' alt='Hosted by Putfile.com'></a>
<a href='http://www.putfile.com'><img border='0' src='http://f5.putfile.com/5/12316142816.jpg' alt='Hosted by Putfile.com'></a>


Let me know what you guys think so far and what I can do to make it look even better (I'm working on shortening hoses and rerouting some stuff) Thanks

Looks better in real life, too....I suck at taking pictures

 

[Injected]

It looks like you are doing a decent job in trying to tie everything together, but you are fighting a loosing battle. I think of one word when I look at a 2G engine bay on a street driven car: "ClusterF*ck". It is so rare that you find an actual clean looking bay, but it looks like you are on your way. And is there a better way to reroute the BOV?

 

[GSX26]

Yeah, I know, the bov recirc tube is ugly. I'm going to try to get a new piece and make a new tube. What else can I do to take out the "cluster"?

 

[4BangR-x]

The only real way to make it look clean and unclustered is to start taking daily driver things out like cruise control, and air conditioning. Also move your battery to the trunk. That will free up some room and look less like an engine sitting on a nest of hoses and wires. Other than that just keep degreasing and derusting, polishing and wiping things clean. Also get some rubber lubricant and wipe the hoses down with it, they will be much darker. You could even use the tire gel stuff.

 

[GSX26]

The only real way to make it look clean and unclustered is to start taking daily driver things out like cruise control, and air conditioning. Also move your battery to the trunk. That will free up some room and look less like an engine sitting on a nest of hoses and wires. Other than that just keep degreasing and derusting, polishing and wiping things clean. Also get some rubber lubricant and wipe the hoses down with it, they will be much darker. You could even use the tire gel stuff.

Yeah, I'd like to keep the DD "features" but thanks for the idea about the rubber lubricant/ tire gel. I'll definitely look into getting some of that.

 

[Dream On]

Yeah I used to use tire foam on my old car. It made everything that was black really really shiny. Just keep it away from paint, and the alternator/battery/intake. You don't even have to wipe it off or anything. Just spray it everywhere and after about 5 minutes its gone, and everything looks pretty shiny. I would try and clean the engine bay pretty good first though.

 

[98eclipseRS]

Do NOT use tire shine on engine parts. Tire glosser is an emulsifier(sp?) basically it makes everything look nice and new by taking the naturaloils of the rubber and bringing them to the surface. The oils then evaporate leaving you with dry brittle crank prone hoses. The only way to keep them looking very new is to buy new ones and keep them slathered up with a nice healthy dose of armor all and try not to drive the car everyday, which is pretty much impossible for 90% of people.