After looking at all the pics of other thirdgens, im jealous at how empty these engine bays are, mines so cramped i can't even touch my passenger side valve cover without dislodging like 10 hoses/wires. I posted this here cause i want to do so much dress up on my engine but with all the hoses it looks terrible to me. ill post a pic up. anyways, am i just not seeing the thirdgens with all the hoses and such or am i just unlucky with getting the kind that has them all?

 

Your not unlucky- probably just disorganized! Seriously though, it is just a matter of getting rid of stuff that is not needed; shortening hoses that are too long; rerouting stuff out of sight; removing unnecessary brackets and using wire looms where possible.
I just put some 8mm Taylor plug wires on for example, but they are all too long, even with the wire looms, so I am going to be shortening them up. That will go a long way to improving things. That is just one example. Open your hood and spend some time just LOOKING and you will come up with the answers. Good luck!

 

Its pretty easy to clean the bay up...

 

says thr man with the cleanest sexiest engine and engine bay on this site!!

 

well i am gonna be buying some looms for wires. but there are a lot of things like A/C hoses that are huge gross looking, I've though of taking them out cause it's a barely working system but at the same time, the 2x60 A/C doesn't work as well when its hot as hell out haha

 

Ive cleaned mine up just by removing the smog pump and some other **** wish someone would break it down with arrow's on a picture and all as to how they did it....i want a clean looking bay too!!!!!!!!!!

 

i think the biggest problem i have is that i don't know a lot about cars, for example it took me 4+ hours to try and replace spark plugs and SP wires. so removing things worries me a bit haha, and i don't want a shop to do it for me cause i'll never learn

 

post a picture with some arrows or cirlces around stuff. People here can tell you what it is.

 

Take out the engine, itll clean up good.....hahahha. Post a pic of your engine so we can see what you wanna do & give you some ideas.

 

this lol, i did it, painted my engine chevy red orange, removed EGR and the canister and it cleans up nice

 

well here is the pic. sorry it took so long, been in the middle of repainting my wheels and then ran into some major leaks (still got some)...
Just ordered my new chrome valve covers to help with appearance.
from what you guys see, what could possibly be moved around or removed?

 

Forgot to add the pic in the message

 

Compared to my engine bay (I need to take an updated pic) I have TPI so it's not a direct comparison, but I don't have AC (i have a non-ac heater box which really cleans up the passenger side), no egr (a few wires here and there), no smog (big change in appearance on front driver's side), have my spark plug wires routed with wire looms (I have recent pics where the wires aren't all over the place), cut off AIR tubes on headers and welded them shut (easier access to spark plugs as well), removed windshield wiper fluid (not recommended if you drive in the rain) (note: someone on here had a hybrid bottle that housed the coolant AND window washer fluid in one container that has two compartments! he mounted it low and out of sight which made the fender part of the engine bay appear cleaner and less cluttered. your coolant bottle could use a cleaning or replacing), relocating the charcoal cannister lower and out of sight in the engine bay, TB coolant block off mod (for tpi only tho i think), relocating battery to rear (i have this done and looks much better except for the corrosion and slight rust that remains on the empty battery tray). And overall cleaning of hoses, parts, and the actual frame/inner fenders and firewall.

P.S. I like the heater hoses and rad to thermostat housing hose you have! I wanted to get those for mine too! Looks very nice! Where did you get those by the way? Your engine bay doesn't seem rusted at all so it looks like it has potential!

 

Does the AC & heater work? If not you can remove those.

 

Well the A/C Im deciding whether or not I should repair it and have that nice cold air when it gets to the triple digits or remove it and suffer.

I don't know about removing EGR and smog pump just for emissions reasons. I live in Colorado which for now, has no regulations, but I'm enlisting in the AF in a few months and don't wanna run into trouble when I'm moving around.( I thought those two had to do with emissions, please correct me if I'm wrong)

Once I install some headers on my baby I'll look into the AIR tubes.

I'm hesitant to relocate the bottles just for ease of access when needed. Just replace my heater core and before I was having to refill coolant every day, so if i run into that problem again i don't wanna try and route a hose through the bay just to reach the tank haha.

I honestly don't have a clue what the charcoal canister so moving it around will be fun to figure out.

I thought of moving the battery, just gotta see how I'm gonna maneuver it

As for the hoses, than you, that ended up being a pain in the *** for me just because the size of the hoses was different on each heater hose for some reason. It's only a mesh a covering though and can be difficult to work with.
I used to work at Pep Boys and found them while I was restocking. they actually had some nicer looking ones that were sold with a hose already inside and you just clamp it in, but it was around double the price. Both should be made by Spectre btw.

And from what I can see, engine bay is rust free, whole car is except for a few specks on the hood, not bad for the original paint.

 

Installing an 88-92 Camaro serpentine belt system cleans up the engine bay a bit. You might want to try that out.

 

how does it clean up the bay exactly? like less room needed for it or what?

 

Install some electric fans so you can remove the mechanical one, give the engine bay a good cleaning & degreasing. If any thing yoi can get an engine dress up kit or re paint your brackets, maybe get some new bottles.

 

I'll look into it, I am not very well educated in engines and such yet so doing it might either involve me taking it to my mechanic, which is a 1.5 hour drive, or I study up on my haynes manual and find some instructional posts on here haha

That pic is actually about 3 months since a good de-greasing, it was terrible before.

 

Nothing like doing it yourself & learning about your car. If you are mechanicaly inclined, its not hard at all.

 

Since washer and overflow where mentioned and you have a camaro...
I made my own and hid them up front

Now you see them..


Now you don't.

 

Fueld where did you get that cover from? I cant gind any...

 

The black plastic peace? if that's what your refuring to then there not hard to find at all.

 

FUELED SOUL did you have to drill holes for that black cover or were they already there? And about the washer and overflow tanks, exactly what is that? Do you have a build thread on it?

 

Everything you asked is in this thread

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...ow-washer.html

 

Serpentine conversion will go a long way since it will move your A/C
hoses to the other side. Heater hoses can be rerouted by using a heater
pipe from a late 80's f-body. Because your car is an 85 it will qualify as a
'Classic' in most states if not all so, no need for all the pollution stuff.
Headers without AIR tubes will clean things up and help it run better
as well. Plug wires are easy to shorten and route. I ran my plug wires
under the motor along with the A/C, alternator and temp wires. I also did
a electric fan conversion which got rid of the loud clutched fan and BIG
ugly fan shroud. The blower motor harness which generally runs over
the box will easily route UNDER the box.

Also keep in mind that removing stuff alone will not make it look better.
You also need to clean and paint if you really want it to look good.
Mines not the cleanest around here since i do run the heater and A/C
components but...


Here you can see how i put the heater valve out of the way and the heater
hose pipe came from an 89 bird. The fuel line is not visible because i ran it
through the frame.

 

howd you move the blower moter wireing? iv been wanting to move that as it looks like a big blob

 

INDEED i hated the way that wire blob was routed from the factory. Well my
heater box had been broken from previous owner so when i got a chance to
replace it i took the opportunity to re-route that harness. There is a gap under
the box and above the frame/fender. Care must be taken to attach the harness
to the firewall right at the frame so it does not move and touch the header.
That harness comes out of the firewall right near the box and if i remember
correctly there is a wire that needs to route with it that comes from the main
harness 'HIGH blower motor wire'. Once routed under the box it can come up
on the other side right where the relay is attached to the box. I'm not sure
the routing can be done without removing the box and not break or damage
the vacuum line that runs with it for the heater valve.

That wasn't the only thing that was routed up high on the firewall that really
looked FUGLY. If you hadn't noticed i also changed the windshield washer
water hoses routing. On my 82 the water lines were not on the wipers but
instead were stand alone lines to the wiper stops in front of the wipers. The
factory hung the lines from the ledge above the firewall with little medal clips.
I installed newer style wiper arms with the lines running through them but i
kept the wiper arm stops that my lines ran to. If you look closely you can see
my lines disappear into the firewall. I drilled a hole by the wiper motor, put a
grommet in it and ran the lines in there. I used some vacuum t's so i could
attach the lines to the wiper arms and my factory wiper stops. The line
coming from the washer bottle goes into the firewall near where the hood
release cable comes out. You can see in this pic that i also moved the light
harness off the fender and onto the frame. Although that looks much cleaner
then the factory routing ON the fender, i have since re-thunk that and am
now thinking of running it through the fender. I think if i put a hole near where
that washer line is i can hang the harness inside the fender and come out
where the horns are.

 

that looks clean!! i didnt even notice the washer fluid lines, looks very clean!!

 

Clean enough? almost done...

 

Wait i think you missed a spot... j/k
Dude that is awesome. From the looks of it you should be able to implement
LOT'S of 'cleanup' techniques.

TIP: aluminum foil wraps easier then newspaper and requires less tape.

 

Nice tip. Thanks Honestly never thought of that, through all the years I have been doing this.

Newspaper is cheaper. But a pain with all the tape ect.

 

Would aluminum foil scratch whatever you wrap it around?

 

Just be carefull...


And in your sig it's writted in FWHP.....

 

Where I can found that ******* piece of plastic.. I need moar air on my rad... it should do the trick?

 

FWHP means at the flywheel, meaning not at the wheels, at the wheels i had like 216hp back then. I need to dyno it again to see where I am at now.

 

Am sure if you manhandled it, yes.

@FueledSoul
I forgot to mention it earlier but, AWESOME setup bro.

 

I tried the foil and it was a pain to put on,it might be easier to remove after you paint,but it really is a SOB to put on.

 

[QUOTE=Jupiter;4974208]Serpentine conversion will go a long way since it will move your A/C
hoses to the other side. Heater hoses can be rerouted by using a heater
pipe from a late 80's f-body. Because your car is an 85 it will qualify as a
'Classic' in most states if not all so, no need for all the pollution stuff.
Headers without AIR tubes will clean things up and help it run better
as well. Plug wires are easy to shorten and route. I ran my plug wires
under the motor along with the A/C, alternator and temp wires. I also did
a electric fan conversion which got rid of the loud clutched fan and BIG
ugly fan shroud. The blower motor harness which generally runs over
the box will easily route UNDER the box.
wow, haha you guys have seriously helped a lot, and i think i found my next major project for the summer. as for the classic status, just my luck that the day i went to register my car, Colorado had just set a rule saying the car must be 30 years old, either that or it was made before 1980, one of those two. Thats at least what i was told, so not sure if its a legit thing

 

I take that back, just checked the DMV and its gotta be made in 75 or earlier, or listed as a collector before september 1st 2009. My luck was perfect since i just so happened to walk in on september 1st 2009 to register my car and was not eligable

 

it mean FRONT WHEEL HP

 

It would mean that if I had a front wheel drive car, but since I don't, it's obvious meaning is Flywheel Horsepower, which is the same as BHP but I prefer to call it flywheel, it's the same thing as far as I know.. Or you could say "at the crank" as well. I've never seen a front wheel drive thirdgen, have you?

 

it means front wheel horsepower. just sayin

 

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-s...alculator.html

Here's an example of people talking about FWHP and they are speaking about flywheel HP. There is no real abbreviation for flywheel HP, but some people, such as myself, refer to it as FWHP because the abbreviation makes sense.

And, seriously, does it really matter? lol

 

Finally painted. Engine in.

 

Wow that looks awesome!!! What paint and clear did you use? I used rustoleum clear coat and downt get me wrong it shines up, but the over spray dulls out the perimeter of where you sprayed. I used spray cans though so i got what i payed for..

 

Spay can fail. That's what happens if its not color sanded and buffed. If I am using cans I like to do flats or satins unless its a small part.

I used Icing to fill pinholes, feather fill primer surfacer, 2k primer and sealer, then DuPont Full-cryl II 75U/ Transtar Super wet catalyst. No clear, and its not cut and buffed yet either.

 

 

I love that fan mod you did, are you using the stock fan harness or aftermarket?

 

Thanks, I put together my own.