engine compartment cleanup modifications

D

decipha

Registered User
why do we have all those vac lines and tee's? anybody care to explain why i can't yank all that crap out and run 1 tee with everything supplied into it? excluding the fpr and boost gauge

I think its just stupid and a dumb ford idea don't know what the engineers were thinking, i'm sure theres a reason for it but i can't seem to find the logic and i don't care enough about the extras to keep it there. it crowds up the engine bay and IMO really looks like crap. it seems as though some of the tees were designed as a venturi but why if its all under vac?

moving on... the p/s high pressure line.. anyone care to explain why it goes from the small 1/4 line at the back of the pump to a large 5/8" rubber hose that goes from the driver side over to the passenger side then makes a U and then drops back down to a 1/4" travels over to the driver side then goes through what looks like a blow off valve then couples to the rack. Theres about 7 connections that could sprang a leak at any given time and i'm not one to be sitting on the side of the road.

Why can't I just run a high pressure 1/4" hydraulic line from the p/s pump to the rack? or maybe even a stainless steel line? any thoughts?

also, anyone want to enlighten me on why the p/s cooler is mounted on the passenger side? I figured i'd move it to the driver side and reduce hose travel by at least 80%.

I'm also ditching the solid rubber mounts I have and am making solid mounts. Since the SCP solid rubber mouunts split on me. Plus with solid mounts I'll never have to worry about them again.


any thoughts? I'm all ears
 
I yanked off a bunch of the vac lines off the plenum today, seems as though ford decided to put 2 more tees on the back top side of the intake plenum. I removed the tee from the boost side and am putting a plug in there so the only fittings left on the boost plenum will be the gauge and the fpr.

the heater core hoses are pretty stupidly done as well, I understand that the metal lines are in effect to keep the lines from the exhaust but why does it have to have a compressed crimped end on the hose itself? i'll be throwing those in the trash and replacing with new heater hoses. Theres also a bypass hose that bunged into the metal heater lines... I'm thinking its there to allow air to pass incase its trapped in the lines and also to serve as a backup incase the heater core clogs up... those will be disposed of with the heater lines.

I don't know what it is with the mn12 engineers... don't they realize the less connections and hoses you have the less chances of a leak? Yeah I understand if all is well like its suppose to be that shouldn't be an issure.. but why complicate things and increase the possibility with more lines?
 
decipha said:
I'm also ditching the solid rubber mounts I have and am making solid mounts. Since the SCP solid rubber mouunts split on me. Plus with solid mounts I'll never have to worry about them again.
Click to expand...

Im all for cleaning up engine compartments. I have scratched my head many times at why something was ran the way it is. I have changed just about everything under my hood to a more logical place. Going to solid engine mounts probably isnt a good idea. The stock ones are set up for damping vibration. Solid rubber dampens less and there wont be any damping with steel mounts. Also there is a possibility that the knock sensor, which are know to be very sensitive, might be affected and pull timing if it mistakes vibration for dentonation.

Ken
 
decipha said:
why do we have all those vac lines and tee's? anybody care to explain why i can't yank all that crap out and run 1 tee with everything supplied into it? excluding the fpr and boost gauge

I think its just stupid and a dumb ford idea don't know what the engineers were thinking, i'm sure theres a reason for it but i can't seem to find the logic and i don't care enough about the extras to keep it there. it crowds up the engine bay and IMO really looks like crap. it seems as though some of the tees were designed as a venturi but why if its all under vac?

moving on... the p/s high pressure line.. anyone care to explain why it goes from the small 1/4 line at the back of the pump to a large 5/8" rubber hose that goes from the driver side over to the passenger side then makes a U and then drops back down to a 1/4" travels over to the driver side then goes through what looks like a blow off valve then couples to the rack. Theres about 7 connections that could sprang a leak at any given time and i'm not one to be sitting on the side of the road.

Why can't I just run a high pressure 1/4" hydraulic line from the p/s pump to the rack? or maybe even a stainless steel line? any thoughts?

also, anyone want to enlighten me on why the p/s cooler is mounted on the passenger side? I figured i'd move it to the driver side and reduce hose travel by at least 80%.

I'm also ditching the solid rubber mounts I have and am making solid mounts. Since the SCP solid rubber mouunts split on me. Plus with solid mounts I'll never have to worry about them again.


any thoughts? I'm all ears
Click to expand...

I shortened about every wire and vacuum line under the hood. I even shortened the fuel supply lines just because they have all the excess in them and didn't fit snug along the shock tower. I took about 6 feet of wire out of the injector harness and ran it along the back of the motor and under the SC to hide it. At one point I was worried it would run right because I yanked out so much wire but it ended up being fine.

I moved the overflow bottle to the core support to clean up that side a bit. And also shortened the brake line that goes from the reservoir to the front of the car. I drilled a hole in the back of the shock tower and ran it from there versus it going in the side of the frame rail.

There are a bunch of things you can do but its a PITA and time consuming. I like Kens idea better. Cover it all up with panels.
 
nothing nicer then a clean engine bay..I was up in the air about doing mine but Im tryong to stay away from mods that cant be put back to stock
 
There are several factory routing schemes that result strictly from needs that are related to the entire assembly process. Certain components are pre-assembled and then sent to FOMOCO to be used on the assembly line where it is more important that things go together in sequence, with as little labor in as short a time as possible. This can all lead to issues later for servicing, etc. The entire manufacturing process is a compromise between low cost/time/effort for initial assembly and ease of service later. The dash is a prime example, where it has to come out as a unit just to replace the heater core. Special tools, as another example, can make the build go quicker, of course - but when it comes time to service/repair later, that special tool can easily become a PITA.

Chevy had fun trying to explain why one of their cars was built so that some of the spark plugs seemed impossible to reach later without removing the engine.

And don't forget Detroit's penchant for designs that promote after-purchase income for dealer networks...parts that break easily, etc.

Look under the hood of a new car, where nearly everything is hidden...talk about tidy - imagine working on one twenty years from now :)

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yeah i couldn't imagine cars of the future, i got a feeling though that cars in the distant future aren't even going to have vac lines, fuel lines, or even gasoline engines... with the tesla roadster out electric cars are taking a stand.

back to the supercoupe though im pretty sure im going to clean up a great deal of the funk that ford put in this thing nearly 20 years ago. And when im done the finished product shall be nice and clean.

pics will follow with before and after... give me a little time though i don't really have to time to work on her as of right now (work ya know)
 
that's a good thought ken i didn't even think about it, i wonder if others with solid mounts have experienced that, i heard from a few guys with solid mounts that they didn't even notice a difference over the stock mounts, I even remember reading on her a post about it. I'm going to have to try it out, if it doesn't work i'll have to dampen it, perhaps hockey pucks will work.

btw.. you wouldn't happen to have a double intercooler laying around would you? I know a guy that knows a guy that knows a guy in the market for one

kenewagner said:
I'm all for cleaning up engine compartments. I have scratched my head many times at why something was ran the way it is. I have changed just about everything under my hood to a more logical place. Going to solid engine mounts probably isnt a good idea. The stock ones are set up for damping vibration. Solid rubber dampens less and there wont be any damping with steel mounts. Also there is a possibility that the knock sensor, which are know to be very sensitive, might be affected and pull timing if it mistakes vibration for detonation.

Ken
Click to expand...
 
decipha said:
that's a good thought ken i didn't even think about it, i wonder if others with solid mounts have experienced that, i heard from a few guys with solid mounts that they didn't even notice a difference over the stock mounts, I even remember reading on her a post about it. I'm going to have to try it out, if it doesn't work i'll have to dampen it, perhaps hockey pucks will work.

btw.. you wouldn't happen to have a double intercooler laying around would you? I know a guy that knows a guy that knows a guy in the market for one
Click to expand...

I have one with shroud

Ken
 
i figured out why the pcv valve vac line is restricted.

with the pcv valve connected to plenum vaccum its closed at idle. The plenum pulls 20hg of vac at idle according to my gauge which is to much for the pcv to operate so it sticks closed. With the pcv connected to the intake inlet tube it allows the pcv valve to barely open just enough to allow it to suck gases from the crank case at idle.

so it looks like im going to have to put a reducer on the pcv valve so it'll operate better. I'm thinking bottlenecking it down to a 1/8" hose will do the job nicely. I'll post back with my findings.

also im labeling this thread my official 'modernfication' thread.
 
decipha said:
that's a good thought ken i didn't even think about it, i wonder if others with solid mounts have experienced that, i heard from a few guys with solid mounts that they didn't even notice a difference over the stock mounts,
Click to expand...

The difference is noticeable. Often times folks that go to solid mounts are also doing wheels and tires, which will change things up. With the 5 speed, it's much more noticeable as you feel the vibration in the shifter. It's not that things vibrate bad or anything, you just no when the engine is running more so than you would with the standard stock motor mounts.
 
well its been a while since i started this thread and i think its about time i post an update

work and my 92 408w turbo 5spd build have been taking priority over my black 90sc even though i tried to not let it.

i was in a pinch and had to make the car mobile again so some things didnt quite work out the way i anticipated. The car is back together now and appears pretty much like stock minus the headache of vac lines. I also removed the p/s cooler all together. I dont have any pics to post and even then it wouldn't be anything to get your panties in a bunch over so i guess this thread was a failure.

if anyone wishes to continue in this endeavor and post a clean sc engine bay i'd love to see it.
 
Bump because my wire harness looms look like poop and if I'm going to re-loom them, I might as well make them nice and tidy too. Post pics if you got 'em.

PS: What'd you end up doing to minimize vacuum lines?
 
nothing, in the end i put the original tee's back on, its really quite optimal the way ford designed the vac lines, they may appear to be a mess but its really pretty much the most effecient way to route the vac lines.

the only thing that puzzled me was that there is a hose from the boost plenum that connects to the vac plenum so under boost it recirculates, i drove around with both ends capped and one day i decided to swap it back to stock just to see if i noticed any difference. Believe it or not it did make a noticeable different in the behavior of the engine.

Its my assumption that ford put that bypass hose there to minimize backpressure on the supercharger when the throttle blade slams shut and the bypass valve opens.
 
I've considered putting my cross-talk hose back on as well. Any thoughts on using solid tubing for the vacuum lines and tucking them up under the cowl by the firewall?
 
My concern with hard lines is engine movement so that you would still need a flex line in there anyway. So its either rubber or braided.
 
I was thinking of using one hard line with a few tees in it and then short runs of rubber hose (though braided sounds nice) to said tees. Anything to clean up the engine bay a little more.
 
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