engine dress up

anyone have any good ideas to dress up your engine bay? pics?

there is tons you can do. I have a bunch of MBA (mallory billit alluminum) in the bay which makes a huge difference but I heard they went outta business (probably bc of outragous pricing)

-colored wire looms, quick and a HUGE difference

start with looms, make it nice and clean, all polished and armor all it to hell

to see what you want to do and where you want to go with it look at pictures, there are sooo many different color schemes and ideas that the possibilites come to seem endless

-brent franker has an appearance guide with more ideas and color schemes to find out what you want, not sure if there is an engine bay pic section tho and I dont feel like going there now to look but check it out, there is a TON of appearance mods and it seems like they are almost as fun as performance mods...

i looked at your site, clean bay....do the !wire mod

-it will get rid of all those wires on the pass side of the bay, huge difference as well and you can see that nice mobil badge you got, like me!

hey we have the same name too...

red is better than pewter.... :roll eyes:

ok, thanks. I am basically keeping it black under the hood...just want a clean polished look. I am also going to get a set of fuel rail covers.

polish it up
remove your hood insulator
wire mod
don't do colored tubing.....it looks cheesy
remove AIR
valve covers
etc.

hood insulators? I dont have any. What is the wire mod?

hood insulators? I dont have any. What is the wire mod?

You don't have padding on the underside of your hood?

no. only the z's and v6's did. the SS's all are fiberglass hoods, and SLP didnt feel the need to put the insulators on. At least this is the case on mine and all that i have seen. :)

the wire mod is where you take the wires on the pass. side fender and relocate em (search for a guide to do it) so that you have a clean fender and it just looks cool

I cant find a guide to relocate the wires on a 98-02. is it the same as on the 93-97? do i have to cut and drill for this to work?

Simple green and brass brushes do wonders for polishing. Armor all works for a great black shine. My brake fluid res. is nice an yellow from the years, I plan to clean it some time... maybe even spray paint it, and get a billet cap. That being said, billet caps. Color wire looms are a personal preference, I don't like them... some people do. If you have a v6, paint the "3800 Series II" on your motor, looks great. Aftermarket intakes do wonders for making the bay look better. Just try things that you think you'll like.

Simple green and brass brushes do wonders for polishing. Armor all works for a great black shine. My brake fluid res. is nice an yellow from the years, I plan to clean it some time... maybe even spray paint it, and get a billet cap. That being said, billet caps. Color wire looms are a personal preference, I don't like them... some people do. If you have a v6, paint the "3800 Series II" on your motor, looks great. Aftermarket intakes do wonders for making the bay look better. Just try things that you think you'll like.

You're not kidding about the aftermarket intakes. My SLP CAI really changed the overall look of the bay.

When I do my thermostat, airfoil, and intake elbow work next week I'm gonna try and detail as much as I can.

you all really think wire looms are that bad looking?

I agree. The colored looms look bad. Just keep it black. Or maybe only accent a few wires, not the entire bay.

Also, can someone please point me in the direction to re-rout my wires on the passanger side. Do i have to cut a hole in the inner fender? also, do i have to disconnect the throttle wire?

Its basically the same for LS1's as it is for LT1's, but here is an LS1 page. The person on this page, didnt want to cut a very large hole, so he cut all the wires and then lengthened them. I didnt want to do this, plus, I wanted to route my amp power cable through this, so i used a dremel to cut a larger hole and i simply slide everything through it.

http://www.poltergeist.us/Misc/WireMod/--LS1 Page

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3755433&postcount=18--Some pics of what I did

i saw the LS1 page earlier. is there anyway of doing this without cutting wires?

also, where is good place to put the battery ground wire?

IMHO, if your goal is to dress up the engine bay of a 4th gen, before you can begin to add anything you must subtract a great deal first. I see alot of engine bays where it looks like the owner took "the easy way out," and instead of removing or relocating a part that would be classified as "clutter", they instead bought some cheap $5 aftermarket cap or cover for it. Colored wire looms are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of this.

Here are some things I'd R&R from an LS1 engine bay:

-Wire mod. (I don't mean just the wires on the passenger side fender, more like lengthening and tucking any and all wires that are showing on top of the motor.

-ABS module. There's a kit from SJM manufacturing that will allow you to completely delete this, and the trick part is that it includes a line lock which will help with performance later on.

-Battery. Relocate it to the trunk. It's one less thing that will detract attention from the engine itself.

-Coils. Get some aftermarket and/or homemade brackets and mount them up underneath the cowl panel. This will also allow you to run some polished or chrome valve covers and not have 75% of them covered.

This is a getting pretty involved, but something I plan on doing myself and have only seen done on ONE 4th gen so far is to cut the radiator mount bracket and reweld it so that the radiator is mounted at a straight up 90* angle. This allows people standing in front of the car to see more of the front of your motor instead of having to look over and down at it from an angle while standing on the side of the car. Really does alot to open things up.

That's all I can think of for now. Hope that helps.

i could see this for a show car...but this is not for me.

my goal is to relocate the wires on the passanger side, and ground wire. polish everything i can. fuel rail covers will take care of the wires there, and i like the way they look. then some polished caps for radiator, clutch, brake, wiper fluid, etc. then to cap it all off with a stb from hotchis, which is also a performance mod.

as for the abs, i dont want to delete that, this is also a daily driver.

as for the battery, well i am undecided. pretty much, i would like my car to look like stephen rupp's. his is perfect IMO.

btw, if anyone knows where he got his caps and covers for the bay, please let me know. Thanks!

i could see this for a show car...but this is not for me.

my goal is to relocate the wires on the passanger side, and ground wire. polish everything i can. fuel rail covers will take care of the wires there, and i like the way they look. then some polished caps for radiator, clutch, brake, wiper fluid, etc. then to cap it all off with a stb from hotchis, which is also a performance mod.

as for the abs, i dont want to delete that, this is also a daily driver.

as for the battery, well i am undecided. pretty much, i would like my car to look like stephen rupp's. his is perfect IMO.

btw, if anyone knows where he got his caps and covers for the bay, please let me know. Thanks!

i could see this for a show car...but this is not for me.

my goal is to relocate the wires on the passanger side, and ground wire. polish everything i can. fuel rail covers will take care of the wires there, and i like the way they look. then some polished caps for radiator, clutch, brake, wiper fluid, etc. then to cap it all off with a stb from hotchis, which is also a performance mod.

as for the abs, i dont want to delete that, this is also a daily driver.

as for the battery, well i am undecided. pretty much, i would like my car to look like stephen rupp's. his is perfect IMO.

btw, if anyone knows where he got his caps and covers for the bay, please let me know. Thanks!

sounds like you dont want to relocate the battery....I bought a cool customized plate for like 25 bucks, not perfect but looks good and was WAY easier....

still confused that people think wire looms are cheesy....:confused:

when you have a bunch of red wires going everywere...its just too much. IMO. it doesnt help to hide things.

Do you ahve any pics of hte battery cover.