Came home after a rough day and went out the garage to take out some real world aggression as I normally do by doing a little work on the Dak. It started out simple enough...change my spark plugs. Well, that led to me deciding to detail my engine, and well.....that led to pretty much taking apart just about everything in my engine compartment. I think I just confirmed my plans for this upcoming holiday weekend. A complete clean and overhaul of my engine bay. I'm still in the "demo" phase (dismantling everything). Here is where I'm at now...hopefully by this afternoon I can start the cleaning phase and go from there. Any tips, tricks, or things to be careful of while I'm doing this? Also, in the third picture...can any of you tell me what that heck this thing is? (<< it down next to the coolant reservoir)

6B8F523B-A6C8-48CC-B07A-32E5D269D6EB-325-000000A924A9365F.jpg

F5617DF2-EA2B-4235-876E-DCF1E75D90EC-325-000000A92B1F4865.jpg



What the heck is this thing???

B923077C-6B18-4624-B325-270C88371BD0-325-000000A9306D6FE8.jpg

 

Detailing a used engine in place is a fairly lofty goal unless you just plan to do a "shampoo" and then just keep it clean (your looks pretty clean already). If you plan to make things look sparkly & new and are going to do painting, I'd recommend a thorough degrease of all the components that you're going to detail and then do a surface prep (different depending on the material) to ensure you can keep the finish on. Finishes to the engine aren't easy because of the heat the finishes are subjected to - that's why you see a lot of chrome and stainless bolt-on glitz, colored and cleanable harness covers, containers for thing like the battery to keep it looking slick, and reserving the paint for the non-heat areas like firewall, inner fenders, hood underside, etc. Something else you can do if you have disposable cash is to remove the stock air cleaner and add a slick looking cold air intake - although this won't give you any performance boost (it gives a performance boost to the sellers bank account), but it will help you give your engine bay that de-cluttered look. De-cluttering is probably the cheapest and most significant change that you can invest your time into (it does take a lot of time to get there).

To start all or any of this, I'd recommend taking your time to make a detailed plan. Look things over, write down all your thoughts, and do some research on-line to find things like products, cost & availability, any issues associated with any changes, etc. Then make a detailed time-line so that you end up doing things once - doing it in an ad-hock manner usually means you need to take thing apart several time and it often doesn't end up looking like you wanted it to.

If you plan to add any electronics to your truck in the future, this project would be a good opportunity to include adding a separate power distribution center to make life easier for yourself. You can get these at any auto salvage yard with fuses, relays, etc. Just ensure you have a reasonable length of wire left with the box to make splicing easy.

 

man.... whatever happened to using a punching bag? Or drinking some beer? lol. hope it turns out for good for ya.

 

That "thing" is your flux capacitor. Be very careful with it......very careful.

 

well, my battery doesn't contain 1.21 Jigawatts so I think I'll be ok, as long as I don't get struck by a bolt of lightning, lol.

Still got a bit of research to do, but I traced it back to the master cylinder, which I'm probably gonna drain, flush, and bleed while I'm at it.

Beer is still good, but working with my hands helps me relax and think.

Tear down is taking longer than anticipated (keep getting more and more ideas), but I'm making progress!

EFAE91CD-2C52-4985-A7B1-649B52204222-571-0000010B991026A4.jpg
,

 

Holy cow man!!!! You need to take a break, grab that cold beer and just take a look at what you have done !! Snap out of it!! Lol

 

Oh, I'm taking a break, pizza and beer... No worries tho man, between my repair manuals, google, youtube, people here on the forum, and my dad coming over tomorrow I got no worries that I'll get her back together with no issues.

Besides, I'm keeping everything very orgainized, every nut and bolt accounted for...

B9C509A8-7C0E-4600-BFCA-59B132F42BBC-571-00000131FD5EF2F9.jpg

 

that is nuts, i'd be afraid to even touch anything in the engine compartment lol great work sir, i'll keep following this

 

I just gotta ask.....why?

 

Thanks VPAD, I'll be sure to keep updating with pics and maybe a few videos. The end goal (aside from maintenance) is to have that engine compartment looking better than new, plus a little touch up on the suspension appearance.

JKeaton: Well, in short, because I want to learn. A lot of what I'm doing may look a little intimidating, but in reality it's not that bad... Just a few nuts and bolts, plus a little research on what to watch out for and how to do it right the first time. I love working on my truck, but of course never done anything to this extreme. Mainly because I've never had the tools for the the job, the place to do the job, and of course the time.

After a harsh winter she needs a little TLC. Flush the fluids, fix little things here and there, find hidden rust and get rid of it, plus a few things I've been planning all winter. If I wasn't already in the medical field I probably would have been a mechanic.