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:Althought most people may not ever see the inside of your engine bay, there is always that "what if" factor that makes many people decide to spruce up the appearance of their engines... I am here to show you how I maximized the look of my engine bay for minimal amounts of dollars....
:Note: Purists who are ONLY into racing and not into aesthetics may want to hit the back button... you will not get much out of this... To the rest, here it is...
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:Now before I get started, I must mention 3 things (disclaimer's of sorts):
:#1 - I actually spent close to $1200 on my engine this go around (due to maintenance products and a couple repairs). However, if you were just interested in making your motor "look good", I have broken it down and discovered that all the parts you "see" to make the motor look good only cost a hair over $500.00 (hence the title). I would recommend, however, doing the maintenance while you are at it and spending a little more.
:#2 - This cost estimate only applies to people who have a stock engine bay and want to go with the polished theme...powder coated themes or other themes may cost more or less depending how you go at it...
:#3 - To do what I have done, you MUST have a lot of patience (and time). Expect your car to be down for quite a while, so a daily driver would be very nice to have.....
:Okay, that said, here is how I did it --->
:Step 1: Make a plan of how you wanted your motor to look.... I decided I wanted to go with the black and polished theme (that way if I ever get that chameleon pink to lavender paint scheme I desire so much, I will not have to change the engine color scheme). Once you get that far, it is time to make a wish list and begin ordering.
:Step 2: Order what you need ahead of time... here is what I ordered - I have broken it down into 2 catagories (Asthetics and Maintenance) and given them approximate prices (so you can see what each thing will roughly cost:)
:Aesthetics ($500 goal)
:-Misc. Sandpapers, dremel bits, polishing wheels, compounds (for manifold and misc. polishing): $150
:-Paint (est.): $20
:-Stainless Bolt Kit: $40 (could probabaly be cheaper by piecing it together yourself)
:-chrome Brake and Power steering caps from SPLparts: $50
:-Plastic for Radiator Guides: $30
:-Metal for Radiator Cover: $20
:-Hardpipes from Ebay: $198
:-Zoopseal (optional - will keep the polished items "bling" - $115
:TOTAL: $508.00 ($623.00 with Zoopseal)
:Maintenance (some of them you WILL need.. the rest are probabaly a good idea to do this if you are gonna take the plenum off anyway)
:-Misc. Coolant tubes (needed), Throttle Body Gaskets (needed), Plenum Gaskets (needed), valve cover gaskets, spark plugs, fuel regulator, fuel damper, Injector Dampers, PCV's, Injector Harness, etc.: $400
:-Fuel Injector Cleaning and component replacement (from Witchhunter...very good service and price) : $82
:-Powertrix Engine grounding kit: $50 (cheaper if made yourself)
:-TOTAL: $532.00
:Step 3: Once you have everything you need, begin removing your plenum. Be careful with this. One of the most important things I can tell you is to make sure you label EVERYTHING! All tubes, hoses and plugs you disconnect, place a small piece of masking tape on each end with a number to match them up. It will take longer, but it will make it easier in the end... Here is a good link on how to remove your plenum and re-assemble it -- and also some pics of my removed plenum:
:Plenum removal link 1.
:Plenum removal link 2 -- go to the "Tech" section.
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:Step 4: Once your plenum, coolant pipes, CAS, and all other misc. items are removed, it is time to begin the beautification process:
:The first thing I did was paint the items I wanted to paint. These items were: Timing belt covers, Throttle cable cover (with Nissan sanded off), Balance tube and fuel tube, Battery tie-down, Fan shroud (with all the lines sanded off for a cleaner look), and the Hicas/power steering reservoir area (which I painted on the car) - if you don't like the Hicas, now would be a good time to remove it.
:Make sure to sand all of these down to remove all the nics and scratches - make sure you finish up with at least a 600 grit before painting....take a good degreaser to remove all the oils and such, and begin painting color(s) of choice. I chose satin black. Here are the results:
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:Step 5: Once all the items are painted to your liking, it is time to begin polishing.... THIS WILL TAKE A LOT OF PATIENCE AND TIME (took may about 40 hours) - If you get aggravated easily, don't do this.... below are 2 links with good info on how to polish your manifold (and other products). One thing they don't mention in these links is is to make sure you buy plenty of dremel 80 grit flapper tools. They will help A LOT on getting some of the hard to reach areas. Polishing link 1. Polishing link 2.
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:Here are the staged pictures of how my manifold progressed.
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:And here they are fully polished 
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:For owners with stock radiators: I ended up purchasing a "radiator cover" from ebay in order to make the top of the stock radiaitor look nice. When received the product, I realized it was nothing more than a piece of angle aluminum that you can buy at any hardware store with the appropriate holes drilled in it.... Oh well, you live and you learn I guess. You may want to pick up a piece of this aluminum and polish that too... it makes the radiator top look real nice...
:Another word of advice is to buy some Zoopseal. It is really easy to apply (three stage process, takes about 1-2 days with cure time) and doesn't take away from any of the reflectivity of the polished surface like many clearcoats can. With this, you are supposed to be able to stop any dulling or oxidation for 2-3 years...Only time will tell how well it works, but everything I have read on it is positive.
:Step 6: Fabrication of items. I decided to use plastic and make myself some of those radiator air guides that many people have in aluminum or carbon fiber (please note: the platic I used was a little too thin...I will make them again with thicker plastic). This is real easy to make and cost less than $30 for material. I simply started with cardboard and made templates (measuring like crazy), then transferred those to the plastic and cut it to size...simple as that.
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:Step 7: Now it is time to reassemble the motor. This is basically the opposite of the disassembly so it should be easy (as long as you took my advice and labeled everything). Here are some other things you can do while reassembling:
:A -Replace all the rusted and corroded hardware with stainless hardware. It WILL make a difference in overall appearance. Rusted bolts look bad. There is a kit out there that has all these bolts that makes this easy
:B -Relocate your PTU (for a cleaner appearance in the engine). Most people relocate it to the filter are.
:C -Relocate (or remove) your cruise control. It has been done before here on tt.net and it makes for a much cleaner engine bay (search and you will find). I have mine removed right now, but I will re-locate and re-install it later when i have
:D - Route all your hoses, wires, and main engine wiring harness as out of the way and as hidden as possible. This may take a little work to find a way that works for you, but I really think it will clean up your engine bay.
:So, for a mere $500 and some change, You should have a nice, all around good looking engine bay that you will be proud to show off when the time arrises. Here are some more pictures of my "finished product"..
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:Hope this helps....
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