steel brushes

[nyle]

Man. I'm obsessed lol. They do wonders. I've been going around cleaning off all the grime from my motor and stuff. You can see the big spots that are done. still got a good bit of work to do though.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/knahrgang/car/P4200041.jpg

[Bobbak]

looks nice you can eat ur dinner off ur manifold
keep up the good work

[SDKmann]

Hmmm, Im gonna have to try that, I dont like to open my hood cause it looks absolutely awful under there.

[tiFreak]

I have to do that too, my engine looks like crap

[LobsterMagnet]

+1 for an ugly engine... my engine is dirty and the bay is Boston green! Embarrasing indeed!

Looks great Nyle... did you use any solvent, a brush and water, just a brush?

[nyle]

I haven't been using any solvent. I have some brake cleaner that would probably help. But for now just the brush works great. I have midterms this week (and my room mate just bought an xbox 360) so i have less time to work at it. It seems like there is some sort of laminate coating on some of the plastic too, so I've been brushing that off and re-painting it (flat black spray paint).

[aceyx]

Cosmoline.

[nyle]

I'm thinking about painting my valve cover glossy black. :)

heres where i'm at now. I pulled off the manifold and repainted that. pulled out the airbox and repainted that, cleaned my strut housing while the airbox was out. basically if it comes out easy, its getting cleaned and in a lot of cases repainted. all black plastic i've been repainting flat black. gives it a really nice and new look.

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/knahrgang/car/P4240053.jpg

[elchicano]

man it looks nice i have tons of wire brushes so im gonna do this.

[CirrusSR22]

Someone on here painted the raised BMW logo on their upper intake manifold black. It looked really sharp! Not sure about the neon orange though...... :wink:

[Marv17]

wow nyle. that looks nice and clean. thats what i've been doing to my engine bay as well... hope its okay to share some of my pics too on ur thread. i just want to show how a lil cleaning, scrubbing, and repainting does to the bay...

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c93/Mblanco17/My%20318ti/DSC01569.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c93/Mblanco17/My%20318ti/DSC01568.jpg

[nyle]

it's red in person, not as orange.

and marv: of course you can share pics in "my thread". lol. we're all family, and i paid attention on the sharing day in kindergarten. lol


i think i'm going to do a black red and white theme. i want a white strut brace.

on a side note: how noticeable is the brace during driving?

[Marv17]

to tell you the truth. i dunno. its nice having it on. nice eye candy. holds on tight. but im no aggressive turn taker. i may take corners fast but no sharp turrns. ya know? its supposed to tighten up everything up front but i dont think its good alone. everyone recommends the x-brace and possibly the rear strut bar too. but its up to you man. it makes the bay look nice i'd admit.
but ooohhh... a black, red and white theme? that'll sweet too. hmmm. black motor parts, white brace. red hoses??
i can picture that...


p.s. sharing is caring...

[nyle]

well i was thinking. i already went and did the manifold red. i was screwing around with it in photoshop. i think valve covers will be black. maybe some hoses white, and some caps red (peake tool plug in cap spot thing, oil, secondary air valve) or the other way around. i was thinking about doing different engine systems different colors. idk. we'll see how it turns out.

[Marv17]

alright. just give us some updated pics down the road...

[nyle]

i did a little more painting. i think this will be all the red unless i get around to taking off the lower intake manifold. other than that. black and i decided yellow instead of white (represent germany lol).

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc19/knahrgang/car/P4260055.jpg

[Maverix]

My motor was clean the day I bought it. And at least once every 4 months, I take it to a self serve car wash and thoroughly clean the insides. I just have to be careful not to get it on any of the paint. Also, some degreasers help a ton!

[nyle]

yeah. i need to do that for some stuff. i have an oil leak that has been going on for ever apparently. so there is some nasty oil caked on all over. I painted my lower intake red like the other stuff, need to take a picture of that. One day when I feel brave I'll paint the head and valve covers yellow (yay germany). While i'm down there i'll replace the head gasket for good measure and all that stuff on the way.

[Maverix]

Ti's are famous for their oil leaks. Luckily, when I purchased the car, the owner replaced the engine. That completely resolved leaking problem, and I haven't had a single problem with it since.