How To: Wire Tuck/Engine Clean Up

L8R · May 1, 2006

Okay, I have been getting random PMs on how-to clean up the motor a little more. This is a little how-to on how I did it. If something goes wrong and you ruin something, don't yell at me please. (enguard)

This was over a year ago. The pictures are old, but the idea is still there. Where you bolt or ground new wires is up to you and that is the hardest part of this task. There are tons of places to re-ground things, but you just need to find them.

Also, now would be a good time to do any motor work:
Installing ground wires
Installing motor mounts
Doing the coolant by-pass throttle body mod
Installing turbo... (first)

Thing you will need:
- Electrical tape
- Scissors and a razor
- Extra wire loom
- Extra Vacuum lines (if you want to buy aftermarket ones like hosetechniques, now is the time)
- Various wrenches and tools
- 2-3 Days time
- Extra vehicle incase something does go wrong
- A strong back. Believe me, I was aching after a while
- Extra bolts or screws
- Vacuum plugs (incase you want to remove the cruise control)

First, remove all unnecessary items from the motor:
- Battery
- Battery tray
- Intake piping to the throttle body
- Strut tower bar
- Anything else you can see that might get in the way

Next, I undid the wire loom near the transmission

From here, you can re-tape the wires and section them off better and hide them under where the battery tray will go. Also, there are tons of ground wires near the engine block and radiator hose. You can connect that to one grounding point instead of 3 or 4 different ones.

Much cleaner!

The first time I did this, I was lazy to take the tray out, but I redid this again later.

Well, not much has changed except the wires on the transmission look cleaner, but lets take this a step further...

L8R · May 1, 2006

Next, this is the trickest and probably most time consuming part... how to move all those sensors!

I at the end moved 3 sensors on the firewall (pic will be on the bottom). This just takes a matter of looking where to bolt things in and re-taping all the wires neatly. I can't really explain this part in detail becase it is a matter of doing it yourself.

Next thing to go was my diagnostic box located near the driver side fender. I removed the brackets and ground wire point. I moved the ground wire to a point on the transmission hidden under the car. A jack and removing the front tires might be useful to see under the car and look for screw holes there. I moved the diagnostic box behind the battery. On the battery tray, you will see a hole in the rear end of the tray. You can chose to zip tie the box there or get creative with that spot. There is where my diagnostic box has been relocated to till this day.

Next bulky item to be removed is the cruise control. For proper removal, check out http://www.floptical.net/mazda/ for the user manual. I never use my cruise control, so I figure why not remove it. I removed the bracket holding all the sensors also. I found places under the intake manifold to re-bolt the sensors and hide them. You may need to cut the electrical tape and retape up some wires. FOR THIS ENTIRE ENGINE WIRE TUCK, I DID NOT CUT ANY WIRES!!! If you plan to cut wires and reconnect them, be consious of what you are doing.

This is the wire and plug taped up since I won't be using it.

This is the passenger side of the motor without the cruise control. Looks emptier and cleaner.

L8R · May 1, 2006

I also removed the water resevrior tank since I don't use my rear windshield wiper or front wipers. I don't have any pictures, sorry.

This is what I removed from the motor.

(Picture Removed, Sorry)

I'm sure some brackets can be used in other places to move other things.

This is some current shots of the motor right now. I have since got a new intake and put my radiator fluid can back in.

You can see the 3 sensors that were on the intake manifold before have been moved to the firewall. The only things that are on the manifold are groundwires.

For the car show, I removed my AC fan and my mud guards from under the car.

A lot of other things have not been discussed in this thread also. How to clean the motor can be found in the apperance section. I usually just use simple green, hose everything down, and wipe everything clean (be sure to remove the battery and intake and tape of the throttle body!)

I also removed my power steering line that runs in front of the radiator as you can see from the picture above. Here is how I re-routed it (not my car obviously)

The pink is the lines I removed and the blue is how I redid it. I have had no problems with my car since doing this.

L8R · May 1, 2006

Below are various motor pictures. Some will give you ideas where you could move things. Thank you to whomever I have borrowed this from

I would also consider moving your battery to the trunk, moving the fuse box to the fender well, or other things if you want to get really extreme!

Chrome helps too!

There are a lot of screw holes hidden, you just have to find where to bolt new things on.

L8R · May 1, 2006

It is just a matter of removing a lot of crap you don't use or hiding things. Here are other motors. VERY nice motors. Some can argue there is no point to this, but I do like to enter car shows and cleanliness is key. To each their own...

Good luck to you guys out there and don't take this post to heart. As you are doing the wire tuck, you will see things maybe I didn't catch. I did this about 5-6 times. All the pictures of my car in this thread are old motor shots and I have since hidden a little more things here and there a little better. There is always room for improvement but like I said, things like this take time and the an eye.

Peace

(first)

Bala · May 1, 2006

Sub (first)

ChefChris · May 1, 2006

subbin too

L8R · May 1, 2006

Okay, finished! I'm sure I left out a lot of things... there is just so much to write and do for this entire process. Feel free to past away!

Maxx Mazda · May 2, 2006

Jeez man, props for sure! I know that a clean bayl ooks phat, but I went on another approach and jsut redded or whited out everything in my bay. I think busy engine bays look phat, but that's jsut me. Peace!

Pirana · May 2, 2006

sweet, well I know you gave me the idea to clean up the water neck crap of wires....next on my agenda is to relocate everything on top of the intake manifold. Got to show off the Perrin fuel rail you know.

L8R · May 3, 2006

brealmp3 · May 3, 2006

sub!

just in time for HIN!

thanks

MSP#735 · May 3, 2006

damnit, im tryin to make the kick ass engine bay list!

Pirana · May 3, 2006

Now you need a new pic of my engine bay...that one is crappy.

MSP#735 · May 3, 2006

^^^ well post away my friend!

Pirana · May 3, 2006

I just thought he might use one of the newer pics....hehehe.

L8R · May 4, 2006

Sorry Vic, I didn't have anything saved that is newer

Post pics on here and I'll replace them on my first page.

Thanks!

Pirana · May 4, 2006

ok stop twisting my arm

Boston5761 · May 18, 2006

I saw that some of you guy's removed the engine hoisting hooks, the one in the front and the one up near the tb. I thought about doing this or just painting them black with high temp paint.

any suggestions? remove them or paint them?

L8R · May 18, 2006

I would just remove them. If you paint them, they'll look nice in the beginning, but over time itll chip and fade, even if it is high temp. paint.

How To: Wire Tuck/Engine Clean Up

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