1986350

ok guys i hate my engine bay, its just crowded junky and dirty. I love the look of a clean engine bay with the wireing clean and taken car of. I have pics posted of whats in the now so anyone that can help me clean it up would be great thank you guys. So guys please help me with this and tell me what i can take out for looks and some weight reduction.

Rolling Thunder

Well the biggest problem is things like the emmissions controls (especially the AIR injection system) and the AC. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot you can do about that stuff. Ide recomend keeping the emmissions stuff for legality and because some of that sstuff is important for its running condition unless your willing to reprogram the ECM and the AC is nice to have but at the end of the day its your choice. However thats not to say all hope is lost. The apperance can be much improved by re routing hoses and stuff to more discrete locations or even in a few cases just back to where they were originally. For example i can see a few lines (vacuum and electical) that look like there snaked through hoses or over hoses they would have been under. For example in the second pic the electrical lines over the valve cover go over the air injection hose when they would be hidden and look more natural if they were under it. Of in the first pic where theres that one stray vacuum line that runs between the two heater core lines if it were not snaked through them like that it would be much less noticable. Get what im saying? Although i think the thing your most unhappy with is the dirtyness. It makes everything blend in together like camouflage as if its all one big mess of crap where if everything were clean like new there would be more contrast between parts and and rather than seeing it as being a mess you'd see it as more individual parts and pieces. Kinda get what im saying? Then theres things that could be removed. For example relocaring the battery to the trunk or getting a 4th gen F body collent overflow tank that would sit under where the battery is. Or like the heat shields over the exhaust manifolds. Stuff like that. This is a topic that could go on for days so rather than go over everything why not try narrow it down a bit to something like cleaning, removing stuff, re organizing, a goal like that and go from there. Other wise youll just get bombarded with a ton of suggestions.

ericjon262

upgrading to serpentine belts would make a pretty big difference IMO

SiCkRs

iTrader: (6)

it wont mess up the car if you take out the air tubes and would take a few hoses off

Rolling Thunder

Actually although many people do this beyond the fact its illegal the ECM compensates for the AIR stsyem running. Obviously pumping fresh air into the exhaust manifolds will make the O2 sensor read lean. To compensate for this when the air pump is pumping air into the exhaust manifold it expects the O2 sensor to be lean. If you remove the air system and the ECM calls for air to be pumped into the exhaust manifold the ECM expects a lean reading on the O2 sensor but because the AIR systems not there theres no air being pumped in and the O2 sensor will not read a lean. Because of this the ECM will think the cars running rich and will lean out the mixture. So as you can see it does effect the running condition of the car. You could program out the AIR system in the ECM but you cant just pull it out and have it run 100%.

SiCkRs

iTrader: (6)

So you think that could cause the car throws out smoke because when i bought mine it still had the air pipes but they are were disconnected and still are

Rolling Thunder

No smoke out the exhaust is usually oil or antifreeze or a rich mixture. Because the AIR system dosnt have anything to do with oil or antifreeze and if anything it will make the car lean not rich it should not cause the car to smoke.

ericjon262

you could always just put an LS1 in it

camaronewbie

You are in NC - no emissions here on anything earlier than 1995. So you can yank out whatever you like. Just depends on what you do and don't want. I'm assuming it's a stock carb setup - still using the ECM controlled carb and distributor?

Where in NC are you? I'm in Raleigh area.

Rolling Thunder

Well its still illegal to pull the stuff out but even beyond that like with the AIRs system example posted earlier a lot of that stuff is compensated for in the ECM so without reprogramming the ECM it wont really run right. Dont get me wrong it will probably still run even without everything but not 100%. Otherwise without reprogramming you'd need to get rid of all the computer controlled stuff like the carb and distributor ect. Something to be aware of before you pull everything out.

camaronewbie

That's why I asked about current setup - if it's stock then yes removal will cause an ill effect - but if he's already swapped to a non-cc setup, then it can come out no problems.

SiCkRs

iTrader: (6)

How would i be able to check my car if its running rich because it throws alot of smpke when i step on it and it makes my eyes watery

Rolling Thunder

If your eyes are watering its probaby pretty rich. Although things like black smoke from the exhaust, black spark plugs that smell like gas are also symptoms that your running rich.

Rolling Thunder

Also what color is the smoke? black white or blueish? Does it hang in the air or dissipate rather quickly?

IROCtheThird

iTrader: (15)

If you really want to clean it up, get a non cc carb, mechanical or vacumm advance distributor and you'll have ALOT less wires, plus no need to worry about the A.I.R. injection. I removed my entire A/C system, I had my air system removed from my ECM so my smog pump and everything A.I.R. injection is gone, I got rid of my diverter valve for my coolant and all related lines, just a line from the heater core to the intake manifold, I also removed the cruise control and the long vacumm line and ball for it. After all that I still hate how cluttered my engine bay still looks.

1986350

ok guys thanks for the info. next weekend i will proboly pull out the A/c now that i know i dont need deletes and boxes and crap. I want to rip out that damn AIR thing but if i need it i guess not. Although my car does run extremely rich any info?? Any easy way to turn down the richness? Also im in duhram for the guy that asked where im from im about 5min from chapel hill. Youll see me alot by farrington road.

camaronewbie

1986350 - Any way you can make it to the Char Grill on Strickland Road in Raleigh on Thursday (11/12) at 7:30pm? The Raleigh chapter of the Triad F-Body club are meeting there for a cruise-in, and I'm going to check it out. You'll be able to see what I've removed under my hood and how.