Ive been taking a look at pics of other's setups and Ive been around the racetrack a few times and have seen the setups out there I always look at details about the engine bay.

The way I feel about building cars is this...

We have the technology, parts, and know-how to make Hondas very quick and powerful. Why cant they look good too?

It breaks my heart when I get a customer in who just dropped several thousand dollars on a "custom" turbo system that looks like a first year metal fab project gone horribly wrong. They thought they spent the money the right way to get a powerful custom turbo system and they ended up getting home depot connectors (not good for heat and boost) and welds that look like a blind man made them.

When I was learning about turbo systems, The first thing I was shown was how to make things look good..(I worked for a Pro 5.0 team) It makes the sponsors happy that they spent the money on a good looking car and it makes it easier to work on. Zip-ties should all face the same direction, hose clamps the same. Then I learned about flow characteristics, turbo sizing and basic metal fab. After years of practicing I would say that I do pretty well.

The import racing scene was very young and the people builing the fastest cars didnt know much.. and it showed. Cars were thrown together, hacked up, they were messy and just didnt perform well.. I didnt build hondas at the time so I just figured that was what they were going to look like.. Even in magazines the cars werent pretty.

I opened up an issue of Turbo Magazine in 99 and saw one of the most amazing setups ever on a Honda.. Jotech's Monster 10 second race car. The paint scheme was a lil crazy and probably caused epileptic siezures but the engine bay.... WOW.
Plug wires, nicely aligned. A real wire harness that wasnt strewn across the engine bay. A nice simple turbo manifold, no spaghetti. And it performed. I showed it to my boss and he was totally impressed we looked over the pics in the magazine for about and hour checking out every detail the magazine would let us have. It seemed to start a bit of a trend.. Freshly painted engine bays, clean nice setups.

Now you see a lot of race cars with very clean setups and it seems that a lot of the cars run more consistently.. Ive always felt that a clean car is a fast car.

Anyway.. I know alot of people are on a budget and have to do what they can to get turbo charged.. but if you can spend a few extra bucks to keep it looking clean.. I feel it will perform better too.. And you can open the hood with pride.

those are my thoughts.. what about you?

jason

 

I hear what you're saying, I guess some people just dont care. Personally im very picky when it comes to cars. Do it right the first time and it pays off in the end. I'll admit though, the paint on my car is lacking when under the hood its very organized and clean

The worst is when a shop does a halfass job on a car though. Take our Civic for example. I disassembled the car completely and put it back together in my garage with hand tools. It was my first serious Honda build so you could say i was a noobie to it. When it was back together, it looked FACTORY or better than factory. All hidden wires, cable ties all straight, wires tucked perfectly etc etc. Then my friend takes the car to a local shop (they should know what theyre doing right?) and they manage to make it look like **** in one quick trip. The fuel connections they did were absolutely horrible. Just cut the end off of the stock filter and wedged a rubber hose over the end of the tube without even flaring the end! It eventually started leaking and luckily didnt cause a fire in the engine bay. If they would have taken the time to do it properly with some Earls fittings, there wouldnt have been a problem but they got lazy. Not a smart thing to do when you are trying to make an impression on a first time customers car. Needless to say, no shops see the car anymore.

 

That is true Jason..
One's engine bay show "flow" and be clean.

 

I'm all for a clean bay and engine. The wire should be in proper order. This is my belief. I figure if there is a problem why dig through a pound of loose wires, then scrap off 3 inches of gunk to find out what's going on. I can't help others, though I do comment to help then understand. Later Allen

 

You know that's the way i do it! I know about the whole "function over fashion" deal, but some setups just look like ****! Make it clean and it will work better and make more power, somehow....

 

Our shop isn't high volume for this exact reason. Being clean and meticulous takes time, thus it is always a balancing act. Putting out ultra, super clean work gets you mad respect, but the flip side is that it takes so long that you can't make a living that way. If you half *** ****, it shows, no matter how fast the car is. So you have to find a middle ground thats both cost effective and clean at the same time. Thats what every good shop that's been around for awhile has found.

 

personally i keep my **** clean as hell for myself, i dont really pop my hood in public for the theif reasons out here, i mean i think having something wired cleanly and having any under-hood installations, (ie; msd, boost controller, whatever) clean will only help you trouble shoot better and more efficiently if anything ever happened,, also for shops tryin to establish good reputations, cleanliness is a good idea too, dont get me wrong ive seen some shitty conditioned cars rip *** at e-town all the time, but they get no props for cleanliness,,,
also props to NJ's own GARY GARDELLA team echo/ for reppin ard and rippin ALL at the NHRA event down south a few weeks ago.!!!!!!

 

I've always been picky about how clean my set up would be. i pay attention to details, i try to hide and cleanly route all my wires and vacuum lines, try to have matching parts so the set up would flow nicely, little things like cleaning the reachable parts of the engine bay and basically try to have the OEM clean look.

I admire those people who have clean race/street cars because i know it takes alot of time and effort to have a clean set up. if they invested those times to keep the set up clean, imagine what kind of work they put in to have a good running car

 

how clean the engine bay is and particularily how the wiring is done really shows the difference between the craftsman and the amateurs. i think most shops could do a better job, its just that the customers want the cheapest price, and that's why things end up looking the way they do.

 

Yes, wiring is one of the things that sticks out. I've seen people use speakers wires to finish a job and butt connectors, now thats real tacky

I give mad props to those people who takes time to hide all their wires, like reroute the engine harness under the chasis. now that takes mad time and alot of extending and soldering

Also what Jason mentioned about welding, it takes alot of time and skills to master it. I know about 3 people that i trust welding things for me and about a million that i would stay away from. i know its hard doing clean welds, hell i know i cant do it.

 

This is the same way i look at auto and machine shops. A clean and organized shop is a good shop and shows a lot to the quality of work they do.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boostaholic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This is the same way i look at auto and machine shops. A clean and organized shop is a good shop and shows a lot to the quality of work they do.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I totally disagree. A messy shop could be the sign of a shoddy shop, or one that's understaffed and overworked. Use the quality of work that comes out of there as a judge. Ask to see a few of their set ups, even their own personal cars, before passing judgement. I know that our shop can be a wreck a lot of times simply b/c we put more effort into organizing the car as opposed to our undersized/understaffed shop.

 

i agree with vaportrail, its really hard to keep a shop clean if you do importing and there's front clips everywhere.

 

I completely understand that, i just use it as a general rule of thumb when finding a good machine shop. My work bay is a complete mess after i do a big job, but i always reorganize and clean up the shop when i'm done to get ready for the next time i work on my car. If i walk into a machine shop and see it's a mess, parts just laying everywhere, very unorganized as opposed to one that keeps the shop clean, equipment clean, and customers orders in an organized fashion i'd rather try them out for my machine work. It's usually a good sign to the kind of work they do and the pride they take into it, but there's always exceptions to the rule.

 

Damn, I still havent found a decent machine shop that i can trust with my parts. The only machine shop i go to closed down

 

I agree jason. I spent a good portion of spring break this year cleaning and straitening up my engine bay. Hell, ive never posted pics of it cause I am still not happy w/ it.

There is a thread goin on right now in drag racing that is kinda related to this. its a diffuser thread and guys are talking about taking a hole saw to there rear bumpers to try to make the car areodynamic and gain .1 tenth. I dunno wtf thats all about- a fast car has to look good too that includes inside and out and under the hood too. generally subtle changes make the most difference. and it doesn't have to "jdm" either. hehe

When I go out and race a 40k dollar vette, or supra alike. I want to come back from the race and pop my hood and have the owner of that car say "damn, that was a clean fast integra i just raced" not, "well if i took a **** in a tin can it'd be fast too."

A clean car never goes out of style. and niether does a fast one


Modified by DIRep at 1:03 AM 5/27/2003

 

I agree with Jason. My philosophy is, Your car is a statement of your own personality. If it looks like ****, then you cant be that serious about this sport. I believe in being thorough, with lots of attention to detail, and also the ability to run good numbers. Even tho most of my friends think differently of my actions by constantly telling me that im ricey because i care about the looks of my racecar, dont understand me or this sport. If your going to do something, why not do it right the first time?... If there were 2 civics looking to get sponsors, and one car was ugly as hell, wires everywhere, running 10.0, and then a sweet, clean looking creation running 10.3, i can assure you the cleaner car will get picked. In every aspect of life, not only cars, greatness is measured by ones desire to be ontop. A true enthusiast is measured by his/her qality, NOT quantity. I may not be the best or fastest player in the game, but i rather be remembered by Some for my professionalism rather then by Many for my mistakes and misfortunes..

 

i don't agree with aesthetic quality having anything to do with performance.
my toolbox and garage are clean as ****...and my engine bay is mechanicaly clean, a little dirty nothing too bad.
but on the outside, my bumper looks horrible, my doors looked like they ran into too many golf *****, the previous owner gave 2 ***** about the paint(and as a result i do too). but yeah, my point is, my car looks like hell. that says nothing about the countless time and money that i have put under the hood.

i dunno, maybe it's just because the professional side of this sport still hasn't hit me yet, and because this is my car that just gets me to school/work and back, and fun at the tracks. but there is something a million times more fun about beating a Z06 with a dirty ugly car. i mean come on, who's there to impress with the aesthetics...
girls could give two ***** about hatchbacks. i could have the cleanest car in the world, but a girl would still think i'ts "just a civic"...

Me personaly, I'm impressed by a car that runs 10's. period.

 

Yeah, but a car that gets you to work everyday and a racecar that someone has been working on forever is just 2 diferent things. Some people will never get notification if they drive ugly cars, If yer car was ugly whenyou bought it, why not make it look nicer? You wil feel better

 

so fresh and so clean is the way to be.

I like a tasteful SUPER clean install... good quality speaks for itself without 10 plates of chrome gay ****.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by twkdCD595 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so fresh and so clean is the way to be.

I like a tasteful SUPER clean install... good quality speaks for itself without 10 plates of chrome gay ****.</TD></TR></TABLE>

But Chrome gets you Home

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TurboDANDEE &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

But Chrome gets you Home </TD></TR></TABLE>

under the cars power or yours?

BTW I do like my chrome valve stem caps. Only chrome thing on my ride.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SIXTYdashONE &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yeah, but a car that gets you to work everyday and a racecar that someone has been working on forever is just 2 diferent things. Some people will never get notification if they drive ugly cars, If yer car was ugly whenyou bought it, why not make it look nicer? You wil feel better</TD></TR></TABLE>

if things would stop breaking i'd love to make it look nicer. heh..

i'm really exaggerrating it's condition, it's not that bad.
but a paint job and exterior work have been on the list for a long time.
but money is money, and 7.25/hr just doesn't cut it.

 

I agree, but the fact is that it all boils down to time when you're working on your own car...time that I don't have much of during the school year (college student). I definitely have wire loom sitting in the garage and various brackets and such to replace zipties, but no time to do it. So, there are som wires "hangin out" and my alarm, MSD and Coil are all ziptied into place. Another thing is that I am constantly changing ****, so unless I am SURE that I won't move something, I'll be damned if I'm going to make my car look like swiss cheese with previously-used mounting holes.

Anywho, I don't know about you guys, but I drive around with my hood closed. So, there.