As I follow many of you building beautiful cars, some of the attention to detail is amazing. Question is have any of you gone the extra mile to clean up the engine compartment? I mean as to streamline to look of the compartment as a whole. I am fan of high end builds, such as Singer, PMS, PMB etc. as most of you are, but I can’t help but say 914’s in particular have pretty “messy” engine compartments. They just don’t look as appealing as, 911’s or 356’s, 912’s or even VW bugs.....
If any of you have done this, please post some pictures, looking for ideas to clean up the look.

You would want to start with a 911 style fan ?

And having a clean painted engine compartment
(Definitely not my car )










Photo is off fat performance site
I think it's a four

I guess referring to wiring, vacuum, etc. trying to tidy it up. Not my car, but took the picture for reference, looks waaaay better then mine! Again, looking for ideas.

Unfortunately, the engine faces the wrong way and is mostly hidden in a 6 to really show it off.
But I wouldn't mind having the factory 8 to look at.

I have /6 with sorted wiring, paint and a gorgeous twin plug dizzy... you just can't see much of it.
Add air cleaners and those lovely stacks disappear plus rain hats block a lot of the view, my TP dizzy all you see is a bag of snakes, can't see the fan, etc. You look at my engine and can tell it's well sorted, but on a 914 it's hard to see.

Although they look great I don't like those stack screens, because I drive my teen.

Most people don't even know where the engine is in our "Fiat".

#41 has an engine compartment so clean you can eat off of it today. Very soon it will get oil and it can only go down as far as eating off of it.

Bob B
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I do second the motion! I also get “Miata” sometimes!

@burton73 , @mepstein , @markhenry, I do see that those compartments are nice and sorted. It does seem as though I am drawn to the look of carb’d cars, they look nicer and have more of a performance demeanor. The stock 2.0 type 4 looks ok as the air box takes up a lot of real estate. Like the appearance of carbs with filters, Uni etc. My driver is a stock 1.8 and the wiring and misc vacuum lines are a mess! Building a carbed 2056 and want to get the engine compartment dialed in the best I can. Want to open the lid and just stare at it while enjoying a frosty beverage...

Dion had the nicest FI four I've ever seen. He used a custom CIS setup. My first 914 was a carbed 4. Carbs keep it pretty simple and clean. You do away with a lot of "stuff".

@rgolia has the nicest carbed 4-banger engine compartment I've seen with the CSP air box.

You can add cylinders but still do away with a lot of complication...


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Here it is after the 2056 rebuild. Man is it fun to drive now.
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whoops wrong engine!

I so agree with you on the 'messy' part, and so much of that issue (to me) is the difficulty of cleaning a mid engined car. As others have noted, a lot of the engine is hidden or impossible to see from the limited angle.

Anyway, with my engine out, I've had much time to 'try' and do a clean up of engine and engine bay with limited success, but at least its better.


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I need/plan to tidy up wiring all around this car, but here's the engine bay w/ air cleaners off temporarily

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This is sweet! Any information on your setup?

Stock 76 Cali smog compliant 2.0

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This would look amazing in a 914.

It probably helps to have a darker color or black as far as what you can and can't see.

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I powder coated and painted a bunch. But yeah, some of the clutter is hard to hide...

The engine I have in mine, most of this you can't see in the 914. And you definitely can't see things like the custom ceramic topped Mahle RSR style 3.0 pistons, shame as they're a work of art.

Tangerine Racing can hook you up with a setup.

This one is my '67 beetle 914 T4 2600cc converted to type 1, all metal stock/Joe Cali/ DTM inspired custom hybrid Flatnines shroud and EFI. Again all the trick goodies are buried.

My saying from the old days was "put your money in the engine...not on it." I always lost 'Best Engine' at VW shows because I refused to pimp the engine out with shiny (but crap) chrome.
Now I win at the local shows, just because I have the biggest engine.

There's is different.

I don’t care about fancy fittings, or shiny bits, again looking for a clean look. Particularly wiring and cables.
It’s nice to see some engine compartments that are often overlooked. Nice work!

Very nice!

Thanks, the only thing I want to change is the air cleaner top/bottom, these are cheap tin jobbies with only the one center screw, the 1/2 side cleaner tends to twist. I have a set of alunimum air cleaners with two studs I'm going to install one day.
I like regular stock cloth breather hose, SS looks cool but if it touches anything it saws through it. Also SS is a conductor, so if it ever touches a hot wire it will short out, BTDT.
Also IMHO the cloth breather hose looks more correct and is cheap to replace.

I dunno...whats not to love?

It is a CSP airbox made for buses. It quiets down the carb roar just enough that you can actually have a normal conversation with a passenger. And in my opinion looks way nicer than the twin air filters.
I have always hated the look of the engine compartment. The fuel injection setup looks like a rats nest, the dual carved filters look like a add on, but the airbox from CSP is just right. Not cheap but worth it for the noise reduction alone

RG/rgolia, Great looking set up!

What carb linkage do you use under the CSP airbox? Did the CSP airbox fit without modification? What is the airbox made from? Do you consider it strong and durable?
Thanks.

Tangerine racing cable linkage, no interference with the airbox. It appears to be made of some king of reinforced fiberglass, seems pretty study. It fit essentially without modification.

Jeff, Do you have a 928?

That boy is clean. Just like it came from the factory. Mabie even cleaner.

Bob B

I do. Its a 1981 with 37K miles. A few of us here have 928s.

Friend is messing around with this setup.

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I did a few searches and this is the closest I came to my topic. Has anyone painted the engine bay a different color? Initially my color choice was Alaska Blue Metallic but these cars look great in black and I’m leaning towards a dark blue (thanks to John from Philly and his Azure Blue). But I wanted a lighter color so it would be easier to see the engine. It’s a 2.7 conversion so the paint won’t matter much in the end. Maybe a medium gray in the engine bay but paint the trunks to match the dark blue?

And these will be on the 2.7

That CSP filter assem is slick. I think I might want one of those. As long as it's not a 900 euro one. I looked around for the Goldwing package but got confused.

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I forgot about this thread and guess I should share my carb air cleaner treatment.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm-LOk_IBpg


More details here: http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=352004

and here:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?s=&...t&p=2868946

So not the cleanest, but here's the engine bay of my faux GT build; no insulation, I removed some of the brackets and relocated the relay board to the battery tray (battery relocated in front trunk); GT engine lid release means a shorter tube run. The firewall access is just visible in front of the cooling fan:


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To get to Singer levels of detail / clean, you could go much further - relocating ground studs, bespoke liners, etc. Relocating the dry sump tank in the front would clean up all those connections, fasteners, filler and such. Depends on how much time and planning you want to invest...!

- Tony

2L 4cyl. Red hose ties both head vents together. High mounted breather vented to just 1 carb. the 4 normally un-fuzed wires, now routred into 1 in 4 out fuze box.

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I've always thought about using an air box from a 911 (zenith / MFi type, other?) as a starting point, and re-work it for an air-box for a carb set up in a 914.

Would probably have to cut it into 3rds and elongate it.. weld up everything on the underside and then cut and re-drill for the Webers, etc. But what about volume - too much there? Other obvious problems? Thoughts?

.

Here is mine:

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"They just don’t look as appealing as, 911’s or 356’s, 912’s or even VW bugs....."

This deserves a a response I used to give when I first got the 914. Bugs were very popular in the early 80's, and I heard how I just had a VW engine, just like them..."Yes", I'd say, "but like buying the right house, it's all about location, location, location..."

You're an artist.

Engine bays are tough on 914's.
Hard to see in there and just as hard to keep it clean and tidy.

Easier when you've just rebuilt the car, but then it's still tough to maintain the cleanliness.
I think it looks better without the sound/heat pad on the firewall but then you've got a lot more engine noise in the cockpit.

This was what mine looked like after the rehab.
Unfortunately the crown jewel of a 911 engine, the fan, is impossible to see in a 914.
Ha

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A couple more....

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Trying to keep as clean as possible. MarkClick to view attachment

All stock except for air filters.......and louvered engine lid.