Here are a couple engine shots of our Grassroots Motorsports $2002 Challenge TII.

http://community.webshots.com/user/turbojeff

Were headed to Orlando Florida from Oregon in late Feb, if your around Orlando at all drop by the event.

www.grassrootsmotorsports.com

Jeff

 

I've seen motors in wrecked cars that look better than mine.

 

nice looking engine

 

it may not be shiny, but its 1.5x bigger....

mike

 

how much did it cost you to do all that polishing????

 

We did all the polishing, so it was free. My teammate did the polishing, I'd say he has about 100+ hrs into it. It wouldn't take a professional that long but he was learning as he went.

Jeff

 

Im still trying to get the polishing thing down, it takes me forever to get something to look nice.

 

well how do you polish stuff? can it be done in a school metal shop? also, how much would you say all that would cost?

 

haha thats so true. my engine bay is a holocaust.

 

gorgeous!



and yes, that is a high flow leaf.

 

it is the hugest PITA ever. I tried my hand at it on my extention manifold:




Basically, you sand it down.. and sand some more.. and keep sanding...forever...and never stop..

start with course..like ~100 or so... after you've spent a year sanding it that way, move up to maybe 220 or so... another year, 600.... it gets REAL smooth.. I just got fed up with mine so I rushed it...

It looks alright...but not perfect... At least it looks better than those pictures make it out to be..

-Tesla

 

it takes a year to do that ****?

 

exagerating a little bit.. I spent maybe 5 or 6 hours sanding it, all by hand.. a sanding block was little use, since it doesn't really fit in there.. some form of power sander would make it a lot easier..

-Tesla

 

what event is going to happen is late Feb???????????

 

I have a question...

how do you clean your engine bay? i mean if it looks like crap to begin with how do u clean it? pressure washer? but i heard if u do that theres a chance you get water lock and u can't start the engine without running some compressed air in.

Also what detergents do u use to clean the engine bay

 

That thing looks sweet! You guys should see his FD....I was drooling over it last time i was there. CJ

 

The grass roots 2002 challenge.

 

what do you put on the metal after you sand it

 

Ok, I've had a couple beers so bear with me if I make a couple typos.

CJ, your too nice, my FD isn't that nice, just wheels, DP, CB and a few polished and chrome pieces. BTW I'm finished with the other FD, got some good experience doing a silicone hose job, call me...

To polish aluminum, if it is really rough cast it needs to be sanded a little. After the ROUGH sanding you need to have a polisher, we got a 1hp motor from a military surplus type store, then we got a couple of polishing wheels (in our case at Lowe's) and someone gave us some polishing compound and some more wheels, three types actually.

You don't need to sand that much, the 1hp has some ***** and with the rough compound it will take off some pretty deep scratches from sandpaper, you'll need to wear gloves to keep your hands from burning, the aluminum gets hot. After your done with the rough stuff you need to work down to the finer grades to remove scratches from the heavier compounds.

Don't sand to much, it'll cause more work later. Use the polisher, lots.

To be perfectly fair I didn't do any of the aluminum polishing, my teammate Jeff B (ARex7, or something like that) did all of it, it took lots of time and made a mess out of his garage and house with a smeary black mess of aluminum, polishing rouge and cotton polishing wheel.

Come down to Florida and check out the 13 sec TII FC that looks awesome, we probably won't win but we will leave with our heads up high!

 

you shoulda bought a dremel ;-)

 

I used Castrol super clean before I had any polished stuff. Super clean will screw up the polished parts.

Spray the motor down with some water from a hose, spray Super clean on the engine and then on the bottom of the hood, use a rag to rub the hood and painted surfaces you can reach easily. Rinse, repeat... Don't let any stage of cleaning last more than a few minutes. The really greasy built up areas you'll have to hit with some high pressure water.

Super clean is a harsh cleaner, try not to get any on the outside of the fenders or hood, underneath the paint has been weather much less so it should be OK. A small amount of waxing may be required on top of the fenders to shine them up again if you get some on the exterior paint.

Water lock from washing the engine is BS, just don't stick the hose down the intake! The only cars I've had trouble with are a 86 Ford Tempo (wet dist cap) old VW bugs. I've washed 20-30 motors with either a hose or high pres water at a car wash. Becareful with the high pressure water though, it can damage stuff if you hold the nozzle right up to rubber parts or foam cover rubber, electrical connections can be sprayed but keep the nozzle at a distance. Common sense stuff...

Anytime I do and engine or trans replacement I take all the parts (engine, trans, starter, belly pans, motor mounts, etc) down to the car wash after I've sprayed them with super clean. They usually look like new when there done....

 

i wanted to make my engine shiny
now i know what i want it too look like!