How to clean up engine bay?

[FaLKoN240]

Any tips on how to clean up engine bays?

I already have a relocated battery (it's in the trunk) but I have a rusty nasty looking battery tray with a cool blitz intercooler pipe going through it. There's a bunch of wires everywhere (safely). I just cleaned up some grounding locations and the car runs great.

Just the bay looks like shit. I'm tired of mine looking like a wiring nightmare.

Looking for maybe some aftermarket positive terminals, cool ground locations?

Battery tray removal tips?

I know there's a lot of guys on here with cool clean looking engine bays, let me know what you did to clean them up and what kind of parts you used.

[SaNTi]

I'd like to know as well.

[Jdm240sx123]

Just ripp out everything your not using or don't need and get a wire tuck!!!

[blueshark123]

first remove anything not needed and hide everything that u can. rewiring motor is the best way to clean up engine bay. a nice powdercoated valve cover makes a hell of a difference aswell as any other parts you can powdercoat. electric fans cleans it up and adds more space. definitely relocate battery and remove tray. reroute fuel lines remove all ac stuff.

[Schassis707]

tubs... it will get rid of the nasty rusty battery tray and also make it look more subtle. Im currently in the process ive remvoved all smog shit that isnt needed and started hiding wires.

If you really want to get into it look up chase bays or other companies with brake line kits and hide them. Get a ss clutch line and just hide it. Many little things can make a difference, Oh yeah and old school yellow drift freaq mounts lighten it up too lol

[chiboy002]

relocate the wire harness for the injectors/maf/dizzy/temp sensors/ and such between the intake manifold runners/lower plenum.

Relocate fuel filter/lines to behind the lower rear portion of the intake manifold, there should be a spot you can make a bracket for it, or use the stock one. Fuel lines between the 2nd and 3rd runners and route them under the upper manifold.

Remove excessive vacuum lines/PAIR stuff/EGR and block off at the hardlines or at the manifold with freeze plug type of stuff

Clean everything nice and dandy/route spark plug cables in an organized fashion

Clean all the rubber hoses or upgrade to ss lines (black looks super nice) and route the reservoir somewhere hidden but still functional.

Reroute fuse boxes to better locations like next to battery or in the center console. Glove box almost always looks sloppy

Split the stock engine harness better, if you don't plan on rerouting it, and sleeve it or buy one from chasebays or w.e

Clean everything and cover all the small holes left behind from bolts/brackets and repaint.

Trim battery tray, use braille slim battery with a custom battery box in engine bay if too lazy to reroute.

Reroute harness locations that enter the engine bay, so its through the firewall or under the tranny tunnel.

Remove cruise control if you have it, all associated lines, and reroute vacuum lines for stuff like brake booster and such

List continues lol

[Broadfield]

I did an 1/8" ABS plate that I cut to fit perfectly inside the battery tray. Then obviously cut the holes for the intercooler piping and 4 awg positive/negative battery cables. I don't have any super good pics, but this will give you some idea:





...... actually, I forgot I took some pics when I was removing everything:

[Drift_86]

If u got any oil junk u should get some engine cleaner and spry it only around the the junk and rins it off with some water. Also you can get a big brush and just dust of all the tight arears it makes a big diffrest if you try dusting everything.

[codyace]

I did a similar thing as Toby did, made an aluminum tray for that area, seperate battery dealio, and then made a nice hole cut for the intercooler pipe

I'll say this, the battery tray is a MFER and there are a ton of spot welds

[jr_ss]

Originally Posted by codyace

I did a similar thing as Toby did, made an aluminum tray for that area, seperate battery dealio, and then made a nice hole cut for the intercooler pipe

I'll say this, the battery tray is a MFER and there are a ton of spot welds

It sure is an MF'r... I drilled all my spot welds and removed mine. Huge pain in the ass.

[Ratpack_Chad]

I took out my battery tray. Took like 40 min of grinding down spot welds. Pain in the ass, if you can avoid it i would.

[260sx KOUKI]

Strip the intake of all the sensors and block the openings

[Flicktitty]

anyone have any small coolant overflow tanks on there s13's? i dont have room for a stocker, and the CXRacing one i have (looks like circutsports) i dont like the look/size of. looking for something like the size of a soda can. any ideas?

[dt-p88]

I like this thread, good info.

[FaLKoN240]

Originally Posted by Flicktitty

anyone have any small coolant overflow tanks on there s13's? i dont have room for a stocker, and the CXRacing one i have (looks like circutsports) i dont like the look/size of. looking for something like the size of a soda can. any ideas?

You could get the Powered by Max one?

[KiLLeR2001]

My engine bay is a mess. Next time I pull my motor out I'm going to be cleaning EVERYTHING up.

[Pandapants]

Originally Posted by FaLKoN240

You could get the Powered by Max one?

That's a swirl pot, not an overflow tank. I actually talked to Dan about this a couple of months ago. He recommended running an oil catch for a coolant reservoir because it's a little bigger than the swirl pot and then just use the swirl pot as a swirl pot. That's what he's running too.

[dopplganger1]

2x10" Stainless Radiator Overflow Tank Street Rat Rod | eBay, there are more sizes then just make a bracket to mount it next to the radiator.

[codyace]

Originally Posted by Flicktitty

anyone have any small coolant overflow tanks on there s13's? i dont have room for a stocker, and the CXRacing one i have (looks like circutsports) i dont like the look/size of. looking for something like the size of a soda can. any ideas?

I had one made to about that same size. Top fitting obviously vents downward, bottom fitting (imagine a mini catch can) is where the overflow line is hooked up too.

Fits nice and snug in there, doesn't interfere with any AC stuff either

[chiboy002]

Originally Posted by Flicktitty

anyone have any small coolant overflow tanks on there s13's? i dont have room for a stocker, and the CXRacing one i have (looks like circutsports) i dont like the look/size of. looking for something like the size of a soda can. any ideas?

idk if you know Fred, with the white FC, but he has a japanese soda bottle that he uses for something along those lines. I believe its an oil catch can but it's about the size of a waterbottle but made of thick aluminum, its hard to dent.

You can have a shop weld bungs on it or drill and do it yourself, 1 in the bottom and 1 at the top.

Originally Posted by Broadfield

I did an 1/8" ABS plate that I cut to fit perfectly inside the battery tray. Then obviously cut the holes for the intercooler piping and 4 awg positive/negative battery cables. I don't have any super good pics, but this will give you some idea:

...... actually, I forgot I took some pics when I was removing everything:

Hey Toby, where do you buy your abs plastic? I bought some 1/8" thick online and it sucked. It would have so many burrs when cut and they edges wouldn't come out nice and clean

[Broadfield]

Originally Posted by chiboy002

Hey Toby, where do you buy your abs plastic? I bought some 1/8" thick online and it sucked. It would have so many burrs when cut and they edges wouldn't come out nice and clean

You are simply not putting in the effort man. After you cut with a jig saw or whatever you are using, then I go over it with 80 grit then work my way down to finer grits to get a perfect polished edge if necessary. I may start with a bench belt sander or an air sander to get the burrs off quickly. Nothing custom comes easy man. You have no idea how much time I have into the custom interior stuff I do. I might sit there and sand with a finger tip for 3 hours straight just to get a contour perfect.

Also, use a coarse blade when cutting. If you use a blade for cutting metal, it will simply melt the plastic as you are cutting it. So when I'm using a jig saw, I use a gnarly wood blade, but set the orbital action to the lowest setting and just go slow physically.... still fast speed on the trigger though. This will give you a fine cut, but not melt the plastic too much.

[jusuravragecrakr]

Originally Posted by Flicktitty

anyone have any small coolant overflow tanks on there s13's? i dont have room for a stocker, and the CXRacing one i have (looks like circutsports) i dont like the look/size of. looking for something like the size of a soda can. any ideas?

i used one of those limited edition mountain dew aluminum long neck bottle for mine dont have pix right now but it actually gets a lot of attention in my super stock engine bay

[aalbert240]

to remove my battery tray i used a spot weld cutter a regeluar drill bit will just drill right thru jus took mine out yesterday. pretty easy just kinda hard locating the spot welds.

IMAG0280.jpg by arenas211, on Flickr
spot weld cutter

IMAG0281.jpg by arenas211, on Flickr

[SaNTi]

Keep this coming!

[chiboy002]

Originally Posted by Broadfield

You are simply not putting in the effort man. After you cut with a jig saw or whatever you are using, then I go over it with 80 grit then work my way down to finer grits to get a perfect polished edge if necessary. I may start with a bench belt sander or an air sander to get the burrs off quickly. Nothing custom comes easy man. You have no idea how much time I have into the custom interior stuff I do. I might sit there and sand with a finger tip for 3 hours straight just to get a contour perfect.

Also, use a coarse blade when cutting. If you use a blade for cutting metal, it will simply melt the plastic as you are cutting it. So when I'm using a jig saw, I use a gnarly wood blade, but set the orbital action to the lowest setting and just go slow physically.... still fast speed on the trigger though. This will give you a fine cut, but not melt the plastic too much.

thats prolly where my problem was lol
i used a metal blade and didn't really sand it, tried removing burrs with a knife but made it worse