I want to start cleaning my engine bay, but I have no idea what i should do to make it look good. I have seen so many pretty engine bays and engines all over this site since i have been on here and I really want to add my car to that collection. Does anyone have some good tips on how i can clean up my engine, and make it not look so messy? Thanks for the help. Pictures of it currently are in the thumbnails below.

 

The engine looks pretty clean right now. Not a bad place to start.

I'd start by replacing the coolant / washer bottles with new ones. Yours are all yellow like mine. Also, head over to your local auto parts store and pick up a can or engine degreaser and a variety of brushes.

 

It all depends how far you want to go? Did you want it to look open or just like it would be if the car was new. K&N filer instead of the single snorkel stock set up. Getting 4th gen coolant and washer bottles. Just some ideas you can do.

 

I mostly want it to look new, but if there are some ways to make it look a little more open so you can see more of the engine I wouldn't mind that either.

 

Simple Green or SuperClean diluted to degrease the motor. Some stiff brushes.

I used Mother's Back To Black on the black plastic pieces.

Turtle Wax F2K on the hoses after they were cleaned. Might take a few applications for this.

For black metal parts I used semi-gloss black engine paint. Cleaned, lightly sanded and painted.

For AC lines I used metal polish.

Bleach water takes out stains in the overflow tank and windshield bottles but not the yellowing. That's from age, UV exposure and heat, I just replaced mine.

 

Heres a pic of just the air cleaner I was talking about and brand new bottles. Already looks cleaner with this

 

or you could do it like this.

 

Today i would like to ask something relating to your topic which is that Every time I gas up here in Texas I get the advertisement if I want to get the Techno engine cleaner, I am almost tempted to get it, but I'm wondering if it would be more harmful than good????

 

Here's how I see it. I've used Castrol injector cleaner on my 96 Blazer a few times and it did help with my gas mileage afterwards but it wasn't that old when I did it. I don't see it being useful on a carb engine. On really old cars you might just knock some debris loose that could do more harm than good.

 

use seafoam if you want results on any engine.

 

Anyone have any ideas on how to make the left side of the engine bay look good? Most of the engine is covered up by hoses and stuff... Not a fan of it, but I don't want to rip it out either. Right now i think it looks messy, any way to clean it up?

 

If you dont want to take it out your stuck with it. Me personally I didnt want AC in my car so I ripped it all out. The black box looking thing is for the emissions but I cant tell you to take it out or not as thats for you to decide. You can tell what most of us did LOL. To me if your not gonna keep the AC get rid of it if you want to clean it up. Just that alone makes tons of room

 

dont use that engine cleaner at the gas station unless you have a NEW fuel filter , if your filter is dirty and you put any type of cleaner in the tank it will breakdown the particles in the filter sending them to the injectors causing more problems .

 

The hoses covering the left valve cover are for AC or emissions?

 

A. AC
B. Emissions
C. Heater hoses
D. All of the above

Answer: D. All of the above

The AC, heater lines and AIR lines can all go across there depending on model and engine. On some cars the heater lines will go down to the frame rail and then back to the heater core and others like my LG4 go across the valve cover to the heater core. For your car I'd say the worst of it is the Emissions (AIR) and then the AC which isn't much since I believe your compressor is on the Passenger side (technically right side in automotive manuals).

 

 

I know a guy that mounted his under the hood latch panel, between the head lights, like 4th gen cars. This was on a Camaro that didn't have the TPI panel. He mad his own polished aluminum cover plate, leaving the latch and spring pocket exposed and added access doors on either side that are held down with D-Zus fasteners. I don't have a picture of it nor did I see how he mounted the bottles but it looked really good with those hidden.

 

I just scrolled through a thread that showed 4th gen coolant bottle setups on a thirdgen. Its pretty neat, but I am running a ram air TPI setup, so this wouldn't work for me. I never use the windshield bottle fluid, so I just need a place to hide the coolant tank. I did see a cylnder coolant bottle set up that mounts to the radiator. This was pretty cool.