What are you guys doing to clean up your engine bays? I have the 3.1 and I'd like to make it look a LOT better. Here's some things I plan on doing....

Polish the plenum, and paint the raised areas... Do I need to use engine enamel, or will any duplicolor hold up?

Ditto the valve covers.

Switch over to a TPI dual snorkel air filter housing, and wetsand/repaint any black plastics (radiator cover).

Degrease the engine block.

Lastly, I was gonna pick up one of those Taylor wire clamps for my plug wires. Does anyone make a sleeve that goes over the plug wires? I'd like to switch over to blue silicone hoses, blue plug wires, and convoluted blue tubing around the wiring harness, but I just did a tune up not too long ago and I don't want to pay for new plug wires just to get blue ones. Anyone know where I can pickup plug sleeves and blue silicon hoses for the 3.1?

I should probably get a new coolant/washer fluid bottles, mine are probably pretty yellowed.

Anything I might have left out that you thought of? Also, I know this has been said before, but what things should I cover up before spraying in the engine bay? Distributer, alternator come to mind, what else?

Mathius

 

i was in the same boat, i ended up doing all those things, i'd use high temp paint just to be safe, and take it easy on the chrome whatever you do :P
trev

 

wire covers, I know Jegs & summit sell them.

I too used the 500* spray paint on the engine, couple more pics





I'll clean up the bay more is spring, do a little touch up w/black paint.



edit: sorry about the "stupid big" pics , but maybe somebody can us'em for refrence or something. I also thadn't trimmed down the plugs wires yet, but they are now cut to fit

 

Wow..that's a nice paintjob man... What year is your car? I just noticed your IAC valve assembly is completely different than mine...I thought they were the same for all years.....

Mathius...get a chrome oil filler cap, and a chrome power steering dipstick... They're nice little touches.. You can buy distributor caps and rotors in black, tan, red, or blue...just gotta look around. Blue Streak ones are blue and are sold at Discount/Advance Auto Parts.
And if you wanna be extra ghetto-fly, you can do what I did when I got bored one day...pull all the bolts/nuts/screws you can find out, spraypaint them on cardboard, let them dry, and reinstall them.

 

Hrm, I don't want to contaminate the inside, but is there any reason why I can't paint the outside of my master cylinder? A little degreaser and clean up and some spray paint....

What do you guys recommend in the way of silicone hose replacements and what exactly have you replaced? I've seen $150 show kits at Stylin Concepts, and seen them as cheap as $20 for a Matrix set at Summit.

Mathius

 

Don't see any reason why you couldn't paint the master cylinder. Friend of mine painted that, his wiper fluid tank, and his engine overflow tank all at once. The hose kits, they sell a set for $20 of 4, 6, and 10mm hoses at Autozone I think...but I don't recommend it. I hardly used any of it. 10mm is too big for anything except brakes, but it's too small for brakes. 4mm is too small for anything. I ONLY used the 6mm out of that set...used it for two lines, one was cruise control, which I then yanked and capped because I don't have cruise control anyways...box is broken. The other was.......uhhhh.....from the charcoal canister over to something on the passenger side of the plenum I think.

 

As long as it runs, has working AC & passes smog & gas stations often, I'll leave the 3.4 as it is.

 

Well what sizes do you recommend? Is there a kit out there that might be better?

Mathius

 

Can't tell you what sizes would work since I never got around to buying them...but if I were you, I'd order some 6mm....maybe 12mm would work for the brakes..and a few sizes in between for sh*ts and giggles. Lol, sorry...can't tell ya. All I can say is I didn't use 4mm or 10mm.