Reflecting Heat

I actually have a GIGANTIC roll of the stuff shown below. It is adhesive backed and it’s what I used to reflect heat from the underside of my hood. I figure if I cut it into strips I can wrap the section of the wiring harness that goes across the block. That way it will be wrapped in wire loom, electrical tape and then this stuff. It should be fine to just rest on top of the engine block then.

That way the regular wrapped plastic wire loom will be fine in the areas that it was just laying on the heads before, and the section that was connected to the OEM manifold suspended above the engine before will be wrapped in this crazy 500F direct, 1100F radiant, resistant fiberglass wrap.

Since it is all silver it should better blend in with the engine block

Some more Tucking

I was able to get a little bit more done on the car today. Picked up some more zinc plated flange bolts to replace the rusty crappy ones on the car. Still have a few more to do.

I ordered some -10an braided hose to go from valve cover to valve cover. I also ordered some black Russell hose ends/clamps to give a nice AN finished look where the new braided hose connects to the valve breathers. For most of the other hoses I will be going with a gloss black silicone instead of braided lines so that they will kind of disappear. I think with the amount of hoses that are visible on my car it would look like stainless spaghetti if I went braided 🙂

I want focus to be on the polished pieces on the engine instead of the braided hoses.

My Project mu reservoir caps also showed up. Thanks to D Money for the hook up on these

I took the existing engine wiring harness and cracked it open to re-route the wires. I then re-wrapped it all nice and fresh. I’ve made it so that the only wires that hang down on the side of the valve covers are the wires going to the coil packs. Can’t really tuck those!!

When I re-wrapped the harness I made sure that the wires were routed so that the harness plug would be at the back of the engine. This will meet up with the wires that I showed in the previous picture that I will route through the wiper area. All the wires “should” reach without me having to lengthen anything. I’m planning on routing the front fuel rail lines under the manifold as well so that the sides of the engine are much cleaner looking. That blue braided fuel line just gets in the way.

Wires, Wires and More Wires

Started to pull some of the wiring harness apart. The idea is that I am taking the wires that go to the engine harness (the one attached to the intake manifold) and run them up through the windshield wiper area. I’ll drill a couple of holes and pop some grommets in there. The wires will be tucked away at the bottom of the firewall and hook up to the harness at the back of the engine block.

That way there will be no wire connections on the drivers side of the engine bay. The extra slack that was in the wiring harness should do the trick for the fuse box relocation.

I’m also going to run the positive terminal off of the starter back through the same way where it connects to the fuse box. The wires that go from the fuse box to the Alternator will be lengthened and re-routed this way too.

Hopefully all the wires will then be tucked under the intake manifold so you can’t see them.

Firewall Work

Another half day’s work and the firewall is starting to look much better. I can’t wait to get rid of the Antilock Brakes and re-route the brake lines hopefully up in the wiper area. I didn’t get the coolant drained today since I didn’t stop by the store to pick up a drain pan. You’ll see my nice TGV cardboard gaskets to cover the intake

Removed the cruise control unit and daytime running lights module. makes that section much less cluttered.

Starting to get an idea of what I am going to do for wiring on the passenger side.. I think I have some tricks up my sleeve that should work out.  I also have some cool ideas for the strut towers. I also love the wiring that comes in from the fender only to exit out into the fender again.

The Carnage Continues

Man there is a lot of crap attached to that intake manifold!! Since I am going to be putting the coolant reservoir where the AC compressor was before, I took out the hard line going over to that area… Crappy thing was that when I removed it the coolant system decided to create a siphon and tried to purge itself!!

So I had to clamp off the hose with a vice grip.. it was like a scene from ER where I had a bleeder and I was looking for a clamp and suction

Today I’m going to drain the coolant system so that I can remove the fans. I’ll be matching up my mishimoto rad with their slimline fans and shroud. Lots of gazing at the engine bay right now devising my plan of how to simplify the mess of hoses and wires

Blow Off Valve Mount

As a quick update before getting into the BOV mounting discussion, I did a little bit of mock-up in cardboard tonight and quickly realized it wasn’t going to give me the smooth lines that I am after.

So I’ll likely be switching to creating a frame and stretching polyester felt over it and hitting it up with some fiberglass…. then the usual of sand.. sand.. sand. I’ll likely join it up with some ABS plastic sheets for where I need the straight flat panels.

I’m thinking about having a new mount fabricated for the BOV and get a new pipe bent for where the old BOV outlet is. It just looks really weird mounted to the spot where the existing flange is and I would like to move it to the new spot. The idea would be a flange with some bolts welded into it so I could just secure it with a couple of nuts.

Wanting to have it all done in stainless steel.

Firewall is already starting to look better with all that AC crap gone off of there. Now that those hoses are gone there is room for me to mount the fuel distribution block up on top of the pitch mount bracket.

I also temporarily stuck the emblem where it will be going. I’ll make a nice little surround covered in Carbon fiber to mount to this spot. I figured I would stick it there to see what it looked like. I’m hoping to have a bunch of time this weekend to try and get some more done.

Engine Bay Panels

Instead of shaving the entire engine bay, welding, filling and re-painting, I’m going to be attempting to create panels that will cover up the sides of the bay that will give the same shaved look.

Hopefully I can start to mock-up the panels in cardboard tonight.. I have attempted to draw the lines in a somewhat perspective view. I needed to get the AC lines out of the way so that I could start to make my templates. Now that I ripped them out yesterday, we should be good to go

The idea is providing panels that will look smooth and cover up the nastiness of the battery tray, the holes etc. While also providing “channels” for hiding the wiring harness with the least amount of wire extension and tucking. This should keep the margin of error of a wiring mishap down but still clean up the engine bay. The goal is to have each side of the engine bay have a one piece panel that will cover both the bottom and side for a cleaner look that two panels for each side.

The idea is that the bolts for securing it to the fender wall will be counter sunk and covered over. They will use existing holes in the fender and then washers and bolts will be attached from the outside.

I am going to be using that little plastic box for a distribution block of the Positive battery terminal where it will connect to the 4gauge wire going back to the battery in the trunk. It will all be hidden under the panels. it will pop up into the plastic box through the circle in the battery tray.

Keeping the panels up on top of the battery tray should provide clearance for wiring to run underneath it.

At least, that is the plan

 

Fuel Fittings and Alternator

The fuel filter/lines/an fittings came in.. Man that fuel filter is small!

Then I decided to take apart the spare alternator so that I could paint up the casing. I’m glad I had this one as a spare because I destroyed it LOL.. everything was seized so I ended up drilling out some of the screws. It took me all afternoon to get this thing apart. I had the freaking impact gun on the pulley nut for what seemed like forever.. I also hammered out the bushing that is used for the AC compressor to connect to it.

I think I will be taking my existing alternator to an alternator build shop and have them switch the casing once I have it painted so that I don’t screw it up

Started with this…

Ended up with this:

And will be painting the casing with gloss silver and the band on the outside of the wrapped wires with the black. Much like Neil did with his build.

Custom Emblems

I had these made up for a little cover that will cover up the mounting brackets for the washer bottle. I made two just in case I mess one up

Digging In

Did some more work this morning.. Damn that was cold in the garage!! Here is the before picture:

Then I took the fender off and pulled all the wires out… You can also see a little ABS plastic box that I am thinking about using to hide some connections. I’m not sure if I will need it or not. I will likely create a plastic cover cut to shape for the battery tray to clean it up.

I then pulled the catch can out of there… the current plans are for the catch can and the coolant reservoir to go where the AC compressor currently sits.

And where-O-where did the wires and fuse box go?