I'm in the process of putting my L98 engine back together after a rebuild. In the process, I'm trying to get everything as close to stock-looking as possible.

Specifically, I'm trying to make the intake parts look better--right now, the intake manifold looks very "dull" and is like a dark gray. Also, the TPI parts could look better. I'm pretty sure that these are all aluminum parts.

Any ideas as to how I can make them look better (i.e. cleaners you can reccomend)? I know I could probably get the parts walnut-shell blasted or something like, but I'm not sure if that's really neccessary, and anyway I don't know where I could get that done (and I'm pretty tapped-out as far as money goes right now).

Thanks for any advice.

 

Mothers Aluminum Polish!


I bought some ($2.90) and you rub the part you wanna polish until the white polish turns black. Then rub it off and it will shine very very good. Ive noticed the longer and harder I rubbed, the better outcome.

All my stuff under the hood is super shinny now, you will like it

 

Woah, man--just checked out your car from a link in your sig. That's got to be one of the cleanest engine bays I've seen in a third-gen!

That's just like what I want mine to look like--clean, not too flashy, and looking new. Any other tips on how to keep the rest of my engine bay clean?

 

That is really nice. I just spent the day going over all the aleuminum and stuff with some paint thinner. It looks like a bottle of oil exploded a few years ago, and now the engine is a gooy mess. I went at it with a toothbrush today. I guess tomorrow is the Mother's polish then. The thought of doing that had crossed my mind, but since I am not rebuilding the engine yet, I don't know if it will be that easy, but I guess I can give it a shot. I have nothing to loose.
Thanks for the tip thoug, I'll see how it turns out. Maybe try to post a pic or something, the engine is getting pretty clean compared to what it used to be at least.

 

You could polish them... someone on the board has a plenum thats so polished, you can see a pretty clear reflection in it.