Tidying up engine bay

I want to have an effort to tidy up all the mess of wires & hoses in my engine bay.

I know I'll never get it perfect but I'd like to hide as much as I can behind the wings. First up is putting stuff behind the wings an OK thing to do? I'm thinking of moving such stuff as boost solenoid, idle control valve, wiring from bulkhead to stuff at front of engine, and pretty much anything small that will go there.

Secondly, to get access is it as simple as removing the outer wing? Once that's off will I have plenty of room to manouvre stuff and get any appropriate brackets attached?

Paul Whiffin made an amazing difference to the quality of my engine bay, managed to de-clutter and change the look, Supradibbs car has all the wires in the wing, I have seen this in several US cars on the Supraforum and it looks fantastic

Cheers Dean, I might have a go myself then while I'm feeling all hands on

Another quick one, I want to cover some of my hoses with a braided cover just for looks. The one going to the wastegate initially, the hose is 12mm OD. Anyone know where I can buy lengths of braided cover for this, I had a search on ebay and could only find this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Braided-braid-hose-cover-set-pipe-covers-and-end-chrome_W0QQitemZ300316558846QQcmdZViewItem

Which contains a lot of stuff that I don't need.

TBH Jay you're better off getting the proper stuff. It'll always look better. Sort out where you're going to put the solenoid first, work out the length, and the I/D, and if you can't find anywhere that can help, let me know and I might be able to sort you out. I'd just need to know what type of ends you'll need.

TBH Jay you're better off getting the proper stuff. It'll always look better. Sort out where you're going to put the solenoid first, work out the length, and the I/D, and if you can't find anywhere that can help, let me know and I might be able to sort you out. I'd just need to know what type of ends you'll need.

Yip you're right Kev, no point going to all this trouble if I let it down on the small touches. The inner diameter is 6mm. The ends just push on & are secured by very small hose clamps. I think if I'm doing it properly Motoscope sell lengths of the braided hose with fixtures so I'll prolly just pop down there, unless you know somewhere cheap on tinternet

The two things that worry me about relocating engine bay items into the wings, especially if you're considernig packing it full of the smaller but more expensive electronic items, are:

- how much water ingress protection do the wings provide Vs the engine bay. Imagine driving along a sodden motorway with spray everywhere; unlike most normal cars the undertray seems to keep the engine bay pretty clean, is it like that inside the wings?

- what if some muppet 'lightly' crashes into your car, damaging the wing but that's about it. All of a sudden a £250 fix is a ££££? fix.

Good points Steve. I think I'll look at protecting the smaller electrical items from dampness.

Not really bothered about light crash situation, if that happens I'll probably be locked up after taking my anger out on whoever crashes into me

fair point, no-one would blame you

I thought I'd post some pics of what I have achieved today. It's not going to be a quick job by any means, and it may mean my car is off the road longer than I wanted, but TBH I'm finding doing the whole turbo swap/engine tidy a very rewarding job

Anyways 1st up I found a piece of braided hose in the garage and some anodised jubilee clips, so I thought I'd replace one of the hoses coming off the plenum:

I'm pretty much going to replace most of the main hoses like this.

Next I started the real job of moving most of the messy stuff behind the wing. I removed the inner arch liner and got great access.

Here's a shot of some stuff coming through the grommit from the cabin. As you can see it's as clean as a whistle behind the liner so I don't think there's be any issues with weather/water/spray etc, it's probably cleaner than in the engine bay itself.

One of the first things I did was to move the Defi boost sensor & Aquamist boost pressure sensor there. I made a bracket to hold them as there was a nice bolt hole already in the top of the wing

One of the things that did my head in was the amount of stuff running down the side of my wing. A big power cable from where my battery was relocated to the boot & the water injection hose.

I removed them from the bay totally and ran them through the wing. There was a great piece of OEM trunking which held the power cable & also had some clips which held the WI hose, it's like it was meant to be

With them gone the bay slowly starts to become uncluterred. They use to run alongside the black trunked ABS cable

Here's a quick pic of the job in progress

The next thing I moved was the boost solenoid. With Ryan's advice I located the pin on the ECU that triggers the solenoid and ran it straight through the grommit (all wiring soldered & heatshrunk as I want this to be perfect, sick of all those crimp connectors in the engine bay )

I'm just waiting on some braided hose, hose finishers & various vacuum hose now & I can get all the moved items plumbed in.

Next job is the idle control valve

nice work so far - I need to do similar to mine one day so will watch with interest. It's reassuring that the inside of the wing is shiny clean.

Coming along real nicely Jay. Keep up the good work

What a waste of time, just get a couple of cans of matt black and go nuts. When everything is the same colour not a thing will ever look out of place.

http://www.vwot.org/community/modules/Gallery/albums/album589/083_G.sized.jpg

Going this far??

One thing that bothers me is the power cable. As a rule of thumb, the only time power cable should be out of a plastic sheath is when it's going through a body panel, and then it should be in a grommet. Make sure it's properly fused and protected or any rubbing could lead to a nasty fire. Otherwise it looks awesome. Good job

The braided hose needs to be VERY good quality Jay, its for your brakes!

Cheers guys

One thing that bothers me is the power cable. As a rule of thumb, the only time power cable should be out of a plastic sheath is when it's going through a body panel, and then it should be in a grommet. Make sure it's properly fused and protected or any rubbing could lead to a nasty fire. Otherwise it looks awesome. Good job

Thanks for that, will put it on my list

The braided hose needs to be VERY good quality Jay, its for your brakes!

Which bit Rob?

Edit you mean that short bit, I used briaded fuel line, will that be OK, the bit I replaced was just a rubber hose with little clips at each end, didn't look anything special

No probs. Can't wait for the finished result!

Which bit Rob?

I think Rob's referring to the hose that runs from the intake manifold to the brake servo.

nice work dude

I think Rob's referring to the hose that runs from the intake manifold to the brake servo.

Ahh yeah, will braided fuel line be OK? it didn't look anything special that I removed?

That hose goes to the brake booster, i think it will be alright as long as the hose doesn't squash which if its good quality braided it shouldn't do. Its quite an expensive hose from toyota IIRC.

I seem to remember Paul Mac decluttering his engine bay.

He mounted the relay box in the wing, might be worth pm'ing him.

I don't think you will have issues with dirt or water unless your wing guards are tatty and don't fit properly.

Vehicle wiring products do a good rubber tape that seals on itself that is good for extra proetction of parts that might be vulnerable as well as some flexible tubing for wires.

Are you also going to give that bay a good degreasing too ?

I stil have alot i want too do but gives you a idea

Cheers for the tips Col, yeah the brake braided hose is very strong (I couldn't squash it as the actual hose is pretty chunky).

Yeah I'm going to give as much as possible a good degreasing. I'm going to spray the wing areas once I've cleaned all the eletrical stuff into the wing, hopefully it should look pretty sweet when done