Perf mods

[Kevin O'Connell]

I want to dress the engine bay up and gain a little HP-
I need part numbers for billet aluminum under drive pulley kits.
I need a polished or plated alternator.
I need polished or plated master cylinder cover, oil filler cap, wire separators, power steering res cap, and other dreess up stuff.
What's the best way to get 160K dirt off the engine bay?
Please help me clean this thing up!

 

[driller]

UPR and PA Performance would be a start for some bling.

 

[kustomizingkid]

Powder coated stock parts are the best imo... I hate tacky chrome junk...

 

[96Cordovan]

+1 KK I have seen some really nice engine bays on here so far and none had chrome in them.

 

[ExoticLSC]

I like chrome!

 

[kustomizingkid]

That is real chromed OEM parts, like powder coated OEM parts, it looks good. I bet the chrome plating on your engine cost you more than a lot of people's Marks here did though.

 

[ExoticLSC]

I had the chrome cam and timing chain covers done about 4 years ago, it cost around $1,400 from what I remember. That prep quality is not perfection, but they still look great and the chrome job appears to be durable. That is what actually let me to build the stroker. When I pulled the old covers for the swap, I found tons of sludge, I have pics somewhere, I'll have to post them. Very gross, I couln't bear to reassemble the engine like that. I had purchased the car in '01 with 50k on it and always used Mobil1.

Now I have a better idea about what chrome pieces you don't like.

 

[ExoticLSC]

Kevin, UPR offers some high quality billet aluminum accessories. I used some on my '97, they looked great.

As far as cleaning the engine, I have done this on dirty engines various times:
Use some heavy duty automotive degreaser or Simple Green and a power washer. If you can find one that heats the water, it would work even better. You want the engine to be cold or as cool as possible, then spray the degreaser all over the engine and compartment, make sure that you soak up the rubber parts well. Let it sit for about 5 minutes, start the engine then immediately hit it with the power washer. You must rinse the engine completeley so that there is no cleaner residue left to stain the engine compartment.

On our cars, you should avoid getting too much water near the spark plug covers. If water gets under them, it can sit in the spark plug holes and cause the engine to skip because the spark will short to the cam cover instead of the plug.

With my '97, I would wash the engine comartment everytime I washed the car. That way, the engine would never get dirty enough to require a major cleaning again.