What does your engine bay look like?

[Intrepidation]

This should be a fun thread. Post photos of your engine bay(s) of the car(s) you own. Feel free to tell us a little bit about your engine, its specs and the vehicle it belongs to.

It'll be neat to see all of the different engines...

...and how clean you keep them

Kicking this off will be the Intrepid, which I always keep clean:

It's Chrysler's 3.5 litere, (213.583 cubic inch) High Output V6. It makes 253 horsepower at 6,400 rpm and 255 ft-lbs. of torque at 3,590 rpm.

The engine debuted in 1993 in the first generation LH cars, and was significantly reworked for the 1998 model year. In the 2000 model year it was only available in Intrepid in R/T guise, otherwise they used the 2.7 or 3.2 V6. LHS and 300Ms (where mine came from) came with it as standard.

The Prizm I haven't really paid as much attention to, but I did finally clean it up today. 16 years of dirt and grime.

The Prizm's Toyota built 1.6 liter, 97.6379 produces 105 horsepower at 5,600 rpm and 100 ft-lbs. of torque at 2,800 rpm.

[ocnblu]

Both look decent for 200k. I'm sure my engine bay is dusty as heck after heading back into the campground this weekend.

Good idear for a thread, DF.

[Nick]

M62B44tu

M62

4.4l

technical update (vanos)

Mileage in this pic is a hell of a lot less than what it has right now, and a different engine too, but otherwise, unchanged from this pic.

Current mileage is in the 160xxx range, probably around 100xxx on the engine, or somewhere close to it.

For those not in the know...99 BMW 540i 6-speed.

Edited August 30, 2010 by Nick

[Intrepidation]

Very clean Nick!

I plan to repaint the bolts and plenum brackets which have rust on them black. I'll probably repaint the plenum too at some point, maybe have a shop do it. Same colors, just better paint...and more glossy.

[balthazar]

You seem to have fantastic amounts of free time, DF. Not faulting; just saying.

[Intrepidation]

Not really, I just take pride in keeping the cars looking as good as I can.

It doesn't take long to clean the engine bay. Even after 16 years of dirt buildup it only took me an hour or so to clean, and once its clean its easy to keep it that way.

[balthazar]

{tee-hee} This is the engine bay of the B-59 :

It's Buick Motor Division's 1972 455 (7.4L) V-8, which will be bored .030, giving it a final displacement of 462 CI.

Block has been hot tanked & deburred (externally & the lifter galley).

Stock power figures (gross) were 315 HP @ 4600, 510 TRQ @ 2800.

Those are T/A Performance's aluminum Buick Stage II SE heads. She'll likely run a big Demon carb.

Build goal is high 10s in the quarter, which will require around 550 HP & 575 TRQ for a 4200lb car + driver;

straightforward & formulaic when working with a BBB.

[Intrepidation]

Those heads look so nice and shiny. Plans to clean up or paint the block?

[Drew Dowdell]

I imagine it'll be Buick green ones he's done with it.

[balthazar]

Good questions. BBBs were a nice bright red- I am 95% likely going with that. There'd be no fooling anyone who knew nailhead Buicks were 'Buick green'... that this was a nailhead, so little point there.

And I hate AL engine components left natural- so the heads & intake will be painted, too.

In fact, from happy associations building model cars in my youth; the transmission is going to be red, also.

[Intrepidation]

Yeah, one of the things that sucks about aluminum is that it looks great when its new, but as it oxidizes it gets rough and dirty like you see on my engines. I know quite a few people paint their 3.5s Hemi orange when the engine is out, but I think I'd just paint it silver. Red should look nice!

[daves87rs]

Nice engine Balty....I like it!

As for engines, everyone knows what a 2.2 Ecotec engine looks like...and since I have three of them.....

[GMTruckGuy74]

Not really, I just take pride in keeping the cars looking as good as I can.

It doesn't take long to clean the engine bay. Even after 16 years of dirt buildup it only took me an hour or so to clean, and once its clean its easy to keep it that way.

Any tips or advise to clean an engine bay? I haven't done it in years (10+), and both the G6 and Envoy are in need of an engine cleaning.

[Intrepidation]

Any tips or advise to clean an engine bay? I haven't done it in years (10+), and both the G6 and Envoy are in need of an engine cleaning.

There's a few methods to doing it. One is to spray degreaser on it while the engine is cold, let it sit for 5 minutes, scrub areas that are very dirty with a brush. Turn the engine on and rinse carefully, followed by letting the engine warm up to dry itself. You have to be careful to protect things like the ECU and Power Distribution Center though.

I prefer to do it by hand. Simple Green works great, just make sure not to leave it on bare aluminum for more than 5 or 10 minutes, as it can be corrosive...or get the aluminum safe stuff. I actually used Meguiar's Quik Interior Detailer and some rags to clean the Prizm's engine bay. Works great and its safe for paint, plastic, rubber, and such. Depending on what parts you're cleaning you can either spray on the part or, if you're rear the plugs on the valve cover, spray on the rag and wipe. If you want to get a nice shine on black plastic areas, a neat little trick is to apply some tire shine to them. Works nice and gives them a nice shine, for a little while anyway.

[Drew Dowdell]

What about those of us for which aluminum is new fangled stuff?

[Cory Wolfe]

The last engine bay I paid any attention to was the Millenias. The rest I havent kept clean... and really not much point of it on the Golf.

[Intrepidation]

What about those of us for which aluminum is new fangled stuff?

Well if its made of Iron or Steel or Stainless Steel you wouldn't need to worry about how long Simple Green stays on the surface. Meg's Quik Detailer works well too, like I said. I used it to get the oil stain off of the Prizm's valve cover.

[Robert Hall]

Hmmm..I don't think I've ever photographed the engine compartment of any car I've owned. I think my Jeep has a lot of dusty oily black and silver stuff under the hood.

[BuddyP]

Right now my garage is an engine bay