Project Cleaning the Clutter in Our Engine Bay

[Moreno1]

I upgraded the photobucket account and only half are loading

[bmbbl be]

love that electric water pump....is that the finish it comes ? didnt know the finish was that nice

[Moreno1]

Dang! I just logged on and noticed all the pictures came back! How do you spell relief "rolaids", LOL. I was hating the thought of having to redo all the pictures.

[Moreno1]

Originally Posted by GTAHVIT

Nathan. feel free to up load them here... I know it will take some time. but I can help if you'd like to send them to me...

Just let me know.

Thanks for the offer, thats very generous!

Originally Posted by Synner

Here are the ones I got.
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/hdrillkit.html
The drill kit lets me use an electric drill or 1/2hp buffing machines: 4" wheels may be too small for real large jobs but works fine for me. It also includes every compound you'd ever need.

Also got this for tight areas with the dremel.
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/feltbobs.htm

If you want to part with your stock water pump let me know. Doing all the work while my car remains drivable would be real nice.

Synner, thats some cool stuff. I love this thread only because of all the info you guys are contributing.

Originally Posted by bmbbl be

love that electric water pump....is that the finish it comes ? didn't know the finish was that nice

bmbbl be, I love it too. I was going to redo the finish but when I saw this, I said Nah. They call it "Natural". They offered to take my aluminum parts and put them through the same process. I'm stoked! They had some prototype products they were working on so I could take pics but with some different finishes that were killer.

[Synner]

The buffing stuff is super nice. Especially if you've been using those dinky dremel buffing things that cost $10 a pop. What a rip off. The felt bobs will last a good long while. And the cartridge rolls are perfect for the initial smoothing. I have that and a belt sander with integrated 6" sanding disc for metal work. Between all of those you'll cut your smoothing and polishing time to 25% of what it is now. Think of all the other things you can rip off your car and polish with all that saved time.

Caswell has very fair prices compared to most places and it's quality stuff unlike a lot of the crap you find online. I've used it for years for metal, polishing, and powdercoat supplies but not powders since I went to places that made it in-house for more selection and quality.

[Moreno1]

Originally Posted by Synner

The buffing stuff is super nice. Especially if you've been using those dinky dremel buffing things that cost $10 a pop. What a rip off. The felt bobs will last a good long while. And the cartridge rolls are perfect for the initial smoothing. I have that and a belt sander with integrated 6" sanding disc for metal work. Between all of those you'll cut your smoothing and polishing time to 25% of what it is now. Think of all the other things you can rip off your car and polish with all that saved time.

Caswell has very fair prices compared to most places and it's quality stuff unlike a lot of the crap you find online. I've used it for years for metal, polishing, and powder-coat supplies but not powders since I went to places that made it in-house for more selection and quality.

Synner, what would you use to get rid of the initial sand casting of the water pump?

[Synner]

For large flat surfaces or large casting flash I have one of these. I also use it for welding and metal fab stuff that I do.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...4733_200414733
For most everything else I have these cartidge rolls
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/cartrolls.html
I also have some of these sanding drums which I found at Lowes but a typical drill doesn't have enough rpm to spin them fast enough to be very useful.
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/sanding_drums.htm
If you get the 1/8" you can use them in the dremel or the 1/4" if you have a die grinder or drill. The flex shaft for my dremel is incredibly nice for tight areas but only accepts 1/8" shanks which stinks. I've been debating getting one for the electric drill I have as you can get a 1/4" flex shaft for $25. The drill I got had the highest rated rpm I could find; about 2700. I wasn't willing to get a variable speed die grinder as they start at $200 and go up. The die grinder I have spins at 34k rpm which shreds most sanding/buffing stuff but grinding stones work great as well; especially for concave areas that sanding drums can't get into.
I got this one for dirt cheap but don't use harbor freight grinding stones; get them from Lowes or Home Depot. They'll last a lot longer and are made of better stone.
http://www.harborfreight.com/electri...aft-44141.html

I should also add the sisal wheel and aggressive compound in the kit will reduce the amount of sanding you need to do as it's fairly aggressive and can reduce the initial sanding you need to do by hand.

[Moreno1]

Originally Posted by Synner

For large flat surfaces or large casting flash I have one of these. I also use it for welding and metal fab stuff that I do.
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...4733_200414733
For most everything else I have these cartidge rolls
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/cartrolls.html
I also have some of these sanding drums which I found at Lowes but a typical drill doesn't have enough rpm to spin them fast enough to be very useful.
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/sanding_drums.htm
If you get the 1/8" you can use them in the dremel or the 1/4" if you have a die grinder or drill. The flex shaft for my dremel is incredibly nice for tight areas but only accepts 1/8" shanks which stinks. I've been debating getting one for the electric drill I have as you can get a 1/4" flex shaft for $25. The drill I got had the highest rated rpm I could find; about 2700. I wasn't willing to get a variable speed die grinder as they start at $200 and go up. The die grinder I have spins at 34k rpm which shreds most sanding/buffing stuff but grinding stones work great as well; especially for concave areas that sanding drums can't get into.
I got this one for dirt cheap but don't use harbor freight grinding stones; get them from Lowes or Home Depot. They'll last a lot longer and are made of better stone.
http://www.harborfreight.com/electri...aft-44141.html

I should also add the sisal wheel and aggressive compound in the kit will reduce the amount of sanding you need to do as it's fairly aggressive and can reduce the initial sanding you need to do by hand.

Thanks Synner, If I decided I not to keep my water pump, I'll let you know.

[Moreno1]

Got some stuff to do the inner fenders. I going to give them a skim coat to remove all the spot welds and ripples. I'm not going to start to till I mail the intake for powder coating. I want to enjoy driving the car while I can. I should have a week of down time to get all the work done.



Got some harness extension from http://www.casperselectronics.com/store2/ These will allow me to reroute the throttle body and map harnesses. Once I do this, I wont have any wires running up the front of the engine.



The extension are wrapped in a similar material I used for the spark plug wires.



Got the connectors so that I can complete injector harness 2.0. You could see I already gave a hair cut to one. These are a lot nicer than the factory units. For folks who would want to get rid of the factory Circus colors connectors, you could buy them without the pig tail wires and just replace your exiting ones with these.



Nothing to do with cleaning your engine bay but the solenoid in the plastic bag is pretty cool. It prevents the trunk from popping open by accidentally hitting the bottom when you have your keys in your pocket. In order to open the trunk, you have to press it twice.

[Synner]

Originally Posted by Nathan Moreno

Thanks Synner, If I decided I not to keep my water pump, I'll let you know.

Cool. One other way to go for an all in one kit is an intake manifold polishing kit. Its exactly the kind of stuff you're doing if you don't want all the extra compounds and wheels. Although I really prefer the versatility of the drill kit. This way I can do everything, stainless, aluminum, copper, brass, etc. Stainless and aluminum take different compounds so keep that in mind if you want a do-everything kit

http://www.amazon.com/Eastwood-Alumi.../dp/B0035Y9CHU
Handy little chart courtesy of Caswell:

[NEGXXIS]

Originally Posted by Nathan Moreno

EZ, thanks for posting the pics. I agree with you, it fits the thyme really nice. The only left for you is a aluminum radiator to finish it off. I'm looking into one myself.

I love the idea of relocating the ABS! Just tough with the engine in. I know I will do it at some point, so expect some PM's in the future, LOL.

I kind of like the black radiator ...it keeps all the focus on the engine

Yeah I cant even imagine relocating the ABS with the engine in....it was a bitch to do with the engine and subframe removed..LOL

My next huge project is relocating the underhood fuse box to the trunk and rewiring the entire engine harness to feed from behind the engine to keep as much hidden as possible ( I did this on a 93 Ford Lightning with a custom Turbo kit a few years ago)...I will also be using some of your wiring connectors for the injectors and such. But I have 4 more big car shows this year so I will probably wait till this winter to do the wiring and fuse box stuff.

[tonytahoe]

Nathan, I am gathering parts to set up my fuel rails.On the 1st page you have a pic of your intake with the lines coming off the back.Is there 2 extra straight fittings on the back of the fuel rail you didn't add to your list??Just want to order parts once,Thanks.Tony--

[Moreno1]

Originally Posted by tonytahoe

Nathan, I am gathering parts to set up my fuel rails.On the 1st page you have a pic of your intake with the lines coming off the back.Is there 2 extra straight fittings on the back of the fuel rail you didn't add to your list??Just want to order parts once,Thanks.Tony--

Tony your right, I did leave a couple of parts out because it was a proto-type set up that I was doing with TechAFX. I need to contact Will "owner" and get the rest of the parts # to update the list. I will try calling him tomorrow. I'll let you know.

[Moreno1]

Originally Posted by EZ SPEED

I kind of like the black radiator ...it keeps all the focus on the engine

Yeah I cant even imagine relocating the ABS with the engine in....it was a bitch to do with the engine and subframe removed..LOL

My next huge project is relocating the underhood fuse box to the trunk and rewiring the entire engine harness to feed from behind the engine to keep as much hidden as possible ( I did this on a 93 Ford Lightning with a custom Turbo kit a few years ago)...I will also be using some of your wiring connectors for the injectors and such. But I have 4 more big car shows this year so I will probably wait till this winter to do the wiring and fuse box stuff.

EZ, if you relocated the fuse box, that means I have to bother you some more, LOL. Definitely something I also want to tackle! I hate that thing. If we get rid of it, I was thinking of doing two close out panels.One for each side. Anvil is out here by me. Perhaps having them do something in Carbon for the C5 community. If not that, something in metal. Maybe we can both do it at the same time and bounce ideas.

I should have the APEX wiper fluid relocation bottle next Tuesday. For now, I was thinking of doing a small close out panel once I got rid of the factory unit.

Oh, I agree with a black radiator, even if it were aluminum. I just don't like the plastic look of the factory unit.

We should start charging vendors for all these ideas that they can use to create products for the market, LOL.