Dressing the stock motor

[AceX]

Since my truck is going to be making its rounds this show season and I'm thinking about trying to dress up the engine bay a bit without pulling the motor or getting too crazy.

I was hoping some of you could point me in the direction of a company that makes covers, and other dress up items.

I was thinking about replacing the valve covers, adding a set of Edelbrock headers, A/C compressor cover, BMC cover, wiring block cover, adding a secondary battery tray, and eliminating the windshield washer assembly. I had thought about going so far as to make a custom engine cover that would be held down by the wing nut of the air cleaner.

Can you guys post pictures of your own engine bays, maybe we can get some ideas flowing.

[Jonboy]

With the wheels you have, I would try for a kind of "old school" look. Maybe some finned aluminum valve covers, or something similar. Check to see what they have in the summit catalog, as they seem to have a pretty decent dressup selection. You might check out some of the advertisers in magazines like truckin' and Sport Truck, and also Street Rodder.

Maybe replacing the washer bottle rather than eliminating it would help clean it up and still be funcional.

[Pyrotechnic]

Your truck has a mostly stock street driven look it to, so I would try to keep that. Don't let those super flashy trailer queen show trucks intimidate you.

An open element air cleaner with a chrome lid, some Chevrolet chrome valve covers and some quality ceramic coated headers would go a long way. The rest will be stock but if it's very clean and grease free, you will have a winner. Wiring block cover is a good idea too, the washer bottle I would leave in place. This way you won't have to spend much but you end up with a clean and simple look.

[vern350]

x3 for the old school, clean, simple look

[old Rusty C10]

any of the books from summit or jegs or even LMC has the kind of stuff you need.. i dont know who has the best prices tho and then when you factor in shipping..
you could also check out advanced autoparts etc

[Low&Slow83]

my open chrome air cleaner cover and chrome chevrolet valve covers did a lot for my engine bay. the endurashine intake manifold doesnt hurt either....

[Walts_restoration]

i like the look of the 67-72 vette style valve covers, but those will set you back an arm and a leg. The proform valve covers arent bad, still have both pcv holes and an oil fill cap (not included), combined with some felpro blue stripe gaskets and a chrome air open element air cleaner, would look prety nice for not alot.

[xtreme80]

There will be one thing you notice if you do a chrome air cleaner and chrome covers. You'll notice that once you do that, the rest of the engine looks really bad. At least that's how I felt. So what I did, is I took all of the accessory brackets off, took off the fan, fan shroud, and several other smaller parts, water neck, etc, and I painted them with a Rust-Oleum Hammered paint, dark grey.

http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=29

That has done so much for the look of my engine, and I couldn't be happier!

[AceX]

What I was thinking was that I might go with these valve covers and matching hold downs.

Then go with Edelbrock ceramicoated headers, Moroso wires, and billet spark plug covers. Add to that an A/C compressor cover, and a wiring block cover.

I think I'm gonna eliminate the windshield washer because the pump is bad and it just looks funny. Plus I can eliminate those lines and wires. Secondary battery tray to house a Kinetik HC1800 would also be a nice addition.

Do you guys think I should go with a different set of valve covers? Maybe finned or ball milled?

[N2TRUX]

Here's what I did. I started with a pretty clean motor...

[N2TRUX]

Then I added a few bits of chrome.

[N2TRUX]

I painted some items and removed some.

[N2TRUX]

Later I went with a more retro theme as I added more details. The point is you can clean and dress as you go. As mentioned above, once you add some shiny stuff, the other parts look bad. Starting with a really clean engine will make a huge difference.

[burger]

This might be a little off topic, but here's a picture of the engine I built for my '54 Chevy truck. The only chrome on it is the air cleaner, which isn't shown in the picture. I took an otherwise stock-appearing engine and painted it a fancy color (even over the aluminum intake). The firewall was smoothed out a little bit and shot with semi-gloss black paint. Also since this picture was taken the valve covers were painted to match the rest of the engine. I had temporarily sprayed the valve covers with cast aluminum color paint to see if I would like the look of aluminum early corvette valve covers.

PS- There's a lot of metalflake in the paint and it really sparkles in direct sunlight.... sometimes I run the truck around w/o the hood.

[454HO]

AceX, post a pic of what your engine looks like today.

[tvblazer78]

Looks good,

You may look into black air cleaner and valve covers gloss.. It look like the truck is black too? So it would flow into the motor. chrome on that color would not stand out, so look into it..

Originally Posted by burger

This might be a little off topic, but here's a picture of the engine I built for my '54 Chevy truck. The only chrome on it is the air cleaner, which isn't shown in the picture. I took an otherwise stock-appearing engine and painted it a fancy color (even over the aluminum intake). The firewall was smoothed out a little bit and shot with semi-gloss black paint. Also since this picture was taken the valve covers were painted to match the rest of the engine. I had temporarily sprayed the valve covers with cast aluminum color paint to see if I would like the look of aluminum early corvette valve covers.

PS- There's a lot of metalflake in the paint and it really sparkles in direct sunlight.... sometimes I run the truck around w/o the hood.

[burger]

Originally Posted by tvblazer78

Looks good,You may look into black air cleaner and valve covers gloss.. It look like the truck is black too? So it would flow into the motor. chrome on that color would not stand out, so look into it..

Funny that you mention that. After I tried the faux cast aluminum valve covers, I painted the same valve covers gloss black and put them back on. I thought it would look great, but it really just didn't work. Someday I might try a charcoal gray (like the alt bracket) or maroon.

Oh, the rest of the truck is blue, light blue, gray, rust, and red primer. It unintentionally has a "rat rod" look. Someday I'd like to see it all in one color, but I really just think I'm going to prime it all on color and sell it in the spring. I've had a second child since starting the truck and would really like something with a back seat so I can drive the whole family around.


Ed

PS- To the guy who originally posted this thread -- The purpose of my picture was to show that a CLEAN and DETAILED engine w/o a lot of fancy chrome can look pretty good. Sorry if I started going off on my life story... I've been doing math all morning at work and I'm starting to go a little stir-crazy.

[piecesparts]

There is a lot that you can do with your motor, just cruise through a Summit racing catalog or a Jegs. Another place to look is PACE performance parts.

[bagged01extcab]

Originally Posted by N2TRUX

Later I went with a more retro theme as I added more details. The point is you can clean and dress as you go. As mentioned above, once you add some shiny stuff, the other parts look bad. Starting with a really clean engine will make a huge difference.

N2Trux,
Are those stock vette valve covers? aftermarket? I have been looking at that same air cleaner, but have been unable to find the matcing valve covers. I have a set of GM vette valve covers, but the fins on top don't appear to be as deep as the air cleaner. It's kind of hard to tell from the pics I have been looking at. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks
Trey

[moneyeater]

Here´s what i did! The chrome dressup kit doesn´t cost much and the pulleys are from aluminum some colour here and there and much love with a little amount of money and your enginebay looks clean and functional!

[ed3196499]

I prefer less chrome I think it looks cleaner and its sure easier to maintain. This is the engine out of my old 64 Chevelle.

[N2TRUX]

Originally Posted by bagged01extcab

Are those stock vette valve covers? ....

They are GM LT1 valve covers, from the 70's. The LT1 350 was standard in Corvettes, and optional in Camaro's.

They are not a perfect match for the Mooneyes breather, but they are close.

[bagged01extcab]

Thanks N2TRUX! That answers the question I have been trying to figure out! Now all I need to do is order my breather!

[AceX]

Ok, so my dad and I talked about the truck yesterday and we think we have a plan laid out for it that will help to improve the looks of the engine bay, and make it so I'm not spending tons of time cleaning.

Valve Covers:


Hold downs:


Headers:


I'm also thinking of grabbing another battery tray and running twin Kinetik HC1800 batteries with new Stinger terminals.

My problem now lies in finding covers for the wiring blocks and A/C compressor. Any ideas where to find these items?

[piecesparts]

I made my own wiring box covers out of aluminum and then polished them. The A/C cover is available from many outlets. Try Speedway or Pace.