engine dress up
Thread Starter
2nd Gear Member
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 361
From:
engine dress up
Hello everyone,
First of all I know many will think this is a waste of money and effort, but its what I like.
I'm not really interested in gaining horsepower (my 05 is plenty fast for a daily driver) what I would like to do is dress up the engine so it looks good. I like showing off the car, in shows and freinds and would like to pop the hood and get a "Wow". Any suggestions that are easy to install ? I was thinking an cold air induction system or somethign like that...
Thanks...
quit looking at the bunny !!
First of all I know many will think this is a waste of money and effort, but its what I like.
I'm not really interested in gaining horsepower (my 05 is plenty fast for a daily driver) what I would like to do is dress up the engine so it looks good. I like showing off the car, in shows and freinds and would like to pop the hood and get a "Wow". Any suggestions that are easy to install ? I was thinking an cold air induction system or somethign like that...
Thanks...
quit looking at the bunny !!
2nd Gear Member
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 398
From: Ontario, Canada
RE: engine dress up
CAI, plenum cover, billet covers, wire harness covers. I am in the middle of covering all the factory wiring harnesses with chrome wire covers. The plenum cover is a cheap and nice looking improvement. Replacing or painting valve covers also looks good, several threads with pictures of people who have painted their's.
2nd Gear Member
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 459
From: Texas
RE: engine dress up
You pick CAI, though you say no power?
LoL, Ne ways man. What exactly do you mean then?
I'll throw in what I got. Go to partscheap.com, they got some sweet engine dress-up items such as Oil Caps, Coolant, Dip Sticks, etc. Also you can powdercoat your cam covers, radiator cover, and don't forget about plenum cover. uniqueautomotiveparts....search something like that. You can also do braided hose lines as well.
Now there are other ways of "dressing" up the engine performance wise. Like CAI of course, as you mentioned, Fuel Rails, and ummm I dunno, there's gotta ne some other stuff, I just can't think right now....go search a little and see what you can come up with man. But I guess thats a start. Hope I helped you out a bit.
- Justin
LoL, Ne ways man. What exactly do you mean then?
I'll throw in what I got. Go to partscheap.com, they got some sweet engine dress-up items such as Oil Caps, Coolant, Dip Sticks, etc. Also you can powdercoat your cam covers, radiator cover, and don't forget about plenum cover. uniqueautomotiveparts....search something like that. You can also do braided hose lines as well.
Now there are other ways of "dressing" up the engine performance wise. Like CAI of course, as you mentioned, Fuel Rails, and ummm I dunno, there's gotta ne some other stuff, I just can't think right now....go search a little and see what you can come up with man. But I guess thats a start. Hope I helped you out a bit.
- Justin
2nd Gear Member
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 467
From:
RE: engine dress up
make the cold air one of the first things. as soon as you open the hood it is right there up front in the middle. a nice looking one always catches the eye. plenum cover looks good over the stock manifold. replacing the radiator cover looks good. I just got done replacing the coolant overflow tank with an aluminum one. a strut tower brace looks good too. then there are all the little caps and stuff you can replace. oh and a hood lift kit so you don't have that stupid prop up front. the valve covers look good but they are harder to see so are not something that will make a big difference right away.
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[IMG]local://upfiles/52614/130777D318614519BFB96AFE7458F447.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]local://upfiles/52614/97F8CCDC4082496FA3DBBB22011A0017.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]local://upfiles/52614/130777D318614519BFB96AFE7458F447.jpg[/IMG]
4th Gear Member
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 1,065
From: LI, NY
RE: engine dress up
The CAI and the plenum cover are defnitely the firt thing you see, but in my opinion, the next most important thing is to do something about those valve covers. I painted mine for about $20 in paint and $10 for the ford racing decals. Believe it or not, one of the most important things you can dor for you engine appearance is free. KEEP IT CLEAN!!! Nothing looks better then a nice clean engine compartment. Armorall all of your hoses and wipe everything down with a damp rag every time you wash your engine.
You might want to do something about the strut towers also. There are a few comapnies that make really nice strut covers but I just put a plastic disk on top of mine. I painted it body color and painted the top of the strut bolt ody color as welll. I was going to buy the MGW strut tower cover but the old ones make the hood bow and the new oones are not that good looking. Steeda has a nice one but I'm not sure how it will work with my strut bar.
Here's a picture of my engine bay. I haven't gotten around to buying all the billet pieces for it yet and I don't know if I will.
You might want to do something about the strut towers also. There are a few comapnies that make really nice strut covers but I just put a plastic disk on top of mine. I painted it body color and painted the top of the strut bolt ody color as welll. I was going to buy the MGW strut tower cover but the old ones make the hood bow and the new oones are not that good looking. Steeda has a nice one but I'm not sure how it will work with my strut bar.
Here's a picture of my engine bay. I haven't gotten around to buying all the billet pieces for it yet and I don't know if I will.
5th Gear Member
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 2,179
From: Nor Cal
RE: engine dress up
All kinds of things you can do it really depends on how much you want to spend and exactly what you want. Many companies have billet oil caps and other various under hood stuff. The painted to match or custom painted Plenum cover is a very popular thing. Figure out what you want it to look like and how much you want to spend.
And let's NOT confuse MGW with MidwestAuto Gear two completely differant comanies and they sell differant items.
Richard
And let's NOT confuse MGW with MidwestAuto Gear two completely differant comanies and they sell differant items.
Richard
2nd Gear Member
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 363
From: Tulsa, Ok
RE: engine dress up
That gold color on the valve cover looks good. The ford decal looks stock with the gold. Good job.
ORIGINAL: odiaz
The CAI and the plenum cover are defnitely the firt thing you see, but in my opinion, the next most important thing is to do something about those valve covers. I painted mine for about $20 in paint and $10 for the ford racing decals. Believe it or not, one of the most important things you can dor for you engine appearance is free. KEEP IT CLEAN!!! Nothing looks better then a nice clean engine compartment. Armorall all of your hoses and wipe everything down with a damp rag every time you wash your engine.
You might want to do something about the strut towers also. There are a few comapnies that make really nice strut covers but I just put a plastic disk on top of mine. I painted it body color and painted the top of the strut bolt ody color as welll. I was going to buy the MGW strut tower cover but the old ones make the hood bow and the new oones are not that good looking. Steeda has a nice one but I'm not sure how it will work with my strut bar.
Here's a picture of my engine bay. I haven't gotten around to buying all the billet pieces for it yet and I don't know if I will.
The CAI and the plenum cover are defnitely the firt thing you see, but in my opinion, the next most important thing is to do something about those valve covers. I painted mine for about $20 in paint and $10 for the ford racing decals. Believe it or not, one of the most important things you can dor for you engine appearance is free. KEEP IT CLEAN!!! Nothing looks better then a nice clean engine compartment. Armorall all of your hoses and wipe everything down with a damp rag every time you wash your engine.
You might want to do something about the strut towers also. There are a few comapnies that make really nice strut covers but I just put a plastic disk on top of mine. I painted it body color and painted the top of the strut bolt ody color as welll. I was going to buy the MGW strut tower cover but the old ones make the hood bow and the new oones are not that good looking. Steeda has a nice one but I'm not sure how it will work with my strut bar.
Here's a picture of my engine bay. I haven't gotten around to buying all the billet pieces for it yet and I don't know if I will.
2nd Gear Member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 269
From:
RE: engine dress up
Now I would have to agree though, that just getting a CAI for just looks is going to be expensive, especially if your just looking for show and No go. California Mustang has a lot of Dress up parts including a few covers for your Stock Air box 
http://store.cal-mustang.com/cm_able...2&DETAIL=1
NowI like show and go
, so I have been slowly dressing up my engine bay as well. I got the Granatelli CAI in Satin, It had some imperfection in it with some minor scratches, but fixed that right up with some paint, and replaced the boring filter with a better functioning Show one.I also started some stainless lines, steeda fuse box cover and did some custom paint work toSteeda's newengine plenum cover. hoping to finish itall up this spring.
BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
http://store.cal-mustang.com/cm_able...2&DETAIL=1
NowI like show and go
, so I have been slowly dressing up my engine bay as well. I got the Granatelli CAI in Satin, It had some imperfection in it with some minor scratches, but fixed that right up with some paint, and replaced the boring filter with a better functioning Show one.I also started some stainless lines, steeda fuse box cover and did some custom paint work toSteeda's newengine plenum cover. hoping to finish itall up this spring.BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER
4th Gear Member
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,111
From:
RE: engine dress up
Id post pixs of mine but you pretty much got it in the above i have the plenium cover and the chrome air intake .... some of the shows ive been to a lot of people like the air brush their plenium covers and replace the front black cover and air brush that too it looks amazing in my opinion theres also lots of little chrome goodies you can get for under the hood and powder coating your valve covers although it takes some work looks great.
Ive also seen one guy who got a awesome looking pony with fire painted underneath the hood looked pretty awesome.
Ive also seen one guy who got a awesome looking pony with fire painted underneath the hood looked pretty awesome.