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Cleaning up the engine bay *Tuck and Shave*

2585 Views 25 Replies 14 Participants Last post by  milioncaar
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I'm getting ready to clean up my engine bay on my 84 4kqs and have a few questions. I want to remove my power steering pump and was wondering how I go about this, or if anyone has a how to thread on it. I can figure out most of it but a couple things I dont know about. On the steering rack do I route a hose from one hole to the other and just remove the power steering pump and reservoir and hoses????? Does the power steering pump share a belt with the a/c on my car? I want to remove my air conditioning too anyways.



(This is an old picture, my engine is clean now)

And I also want to remove the cruise control.



Can I just rip all of the cruise control components out or is their any special steps I need to take to remove it? Is there a fuse dedicated just to the cruise control that I can remove?

So basically I just need to know what steps I need to take to remove the cruise control, power steering, and air conditioning are. I don't need to do anything special with the timing belt do I?

I think I might also remove the windshield washer pump and reservoir. I never use the washer fluid anyways.

All help and links would be awesome, THANKS!!!!!

PEACE.
CHRIS.
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:bump:
Removing the P/S pump and other stuff makes no sense. Why are you doing This? "want to clean up the engine bay". This isn't a show car, it's a CIS 10v non turbo. It is what it is. Just leave it alone. Remove the belt from the power steering pump and see how crappy it is to drive.
20v90q said:
Removing the P/S pump and other stuff makes no sense. Why are you doing This? "want to clean up the engine bay". This isn't a show car
Is this your car!? :slap: He wants to clean up the engine bay-that's reason enough. And if he's converting to manual steering just pulling the belt won't be an accurate simulation.

Pull the cruise hardware from under the hood. All of it is removable. Everything AC under the hood can go, just take it out and rejoice with a cleaner, easier-to-work-on, lighter, whatever you want it to be 4k! 8)
20v90q said:
Removing the P/S pump and other stuff makes no sense. Why are you doing This? "want to clean up the engine bay". This isn't a show car, it's a CIS 10v non turbo. It is what it is. Just leave it alone. Remove the belt from the power steering pump and see how crappy it is to drive.
Have you ever driven a car without power steering. I had an 86 VW Golf without power steering and I felt like I was one with the car. Driving at higher speeds feels like you actually have control of the car. And people who say that driving in parking lots sucks without power steering obviously don't have any muscles or they are turning the wheel without moving which "dry steering" is bad for you steering rack anyways. Plus PRA4WX is right just removing the belt isn't what it's really like cause you are still trying to force fluid through an inoperable p/s pump.

As for cruise control I have never used it on this car or any of my cars, I never really understood why people love it so much. And for my A/C I'm still trying to figure out if I want to remove that. To show you how much I care about the A/C, I've owned the car for 6 months and I don't even know if it works cause I haven't even turned it on yet. I'm from Seattle and it only gets hot in the Summer and 90 degree days are few and far between. Plus I lived in SoCal which had many 100+ degree days and I didn't have A/C in a couple of my cars down there. So not to worried about it.

I know I will only get a whooping 2-5 HP and 20-30 pounds less weight but that is just one small benefit. I like the look of an engine without all the bullsh!t like trhe good ol' days of just motor and trans. And like PRA4WX said it is so much easier to work on the engine without things I don't even need or care about.

I'm not trying to bash on your thoughts 20v90q, I just want you to know why I'm doing the things I want to do. And no it's not a show care but I do want to take it to plenty of shows. And everyday I treat my car like it's gonna be in a show that night :D

Thanks PRA4WX for knowing whats up, and for backing me up!!!!! WORD!!!!!

PEACE.
CHRIS.
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It's been my understanding that power-steering racks are geared a little differently than manual racks, so just looping the power and return lines on the rack probably won't give you the result you're looking for.
IMO, cruise-control is the best. Especially for long drives like road trips. I've driven 6.5 hours straight, once, in a car without cruise control. My foot was so sore, I didn't want to walk once we got where we were going. But, it's not my car and I don't have to drive it, so more power to ya.
Psychorallyfreak, I'm writing this thread to hear some positive feedback like you and Micah have given. I was gonna just gonna loop the power and return lines like you said but didn't know if it would be as nice as a manual rack. I've heard a lot of junk yards will trade a manual rack with a power rack straight across you money out of pocket. I was just gonna make sure that there was plenty of fluid in the looped lines and thought that would help. I know that Honda owners do the loop trick when they remove their P/S, but of course how many of us trust what the majority of them do :) Do you know how much of a difference there is between looped lines and a manual rack? Have you driven a car both ways? If it's not a huge difference I'm not to worried about it.

As for cruise control you are right, now that I'm thinking about it when I moved from Southern California to Seattle, Washington I did use my cruise control in my 1997 Toyota Avalon (The only Japanese Import I will ever buy again) and it was nice, but I was also on plenty of Norco (Vicodin (This was during my painkiller addiction(I was an idiot :tard: ))) However I don't take to many long trips unless I'm going camping but it's only like a 2 hour drive to most places or if I go to Vancouver Canada and that only about 2.5 hours. Another good thing about cruise control is when you have a cop behind you and need to drive at a steady 35 miles an hour :-D

When I remove my cruise control, what do I need to cap off when I remove the vac lines. I know there's the hole on the Intake Manifold I need to cap off. Right?????
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while i'm not a fan of ps either.. there's quite a difference between an A chassis car that came with manual steering and a 4kq that came with ps that has been disconnected.. kill the ignition (but dont let it lock :p) sometime when you're driving, its real heavy and doesnt even feel that good, i had an '82 jetta with a manual rack and it was fine, like i said i prefer it that way.. but just taking the pump off the 4kq will not be the same. you can convert to a manual rack using a vw fox or early 4k rack, but it's not just a drop in
Audi had manual racks in their rally cars until drivers were breaking fingers and getting blisters on their hands.

The manual racks have quite a bit more turns lock to lock than a power rack. Without the pump working even with the lines connected together, turning the wheel on a power rack will certainly beef up those biceps, especially at slow speeds.

It's your car and you can certainly do what you wish, but IMHO dropping the power steering will be a detriment.

On the other hand.. You can use a manual rack from a VW fox, or early 4000.
I think after listening to all the facts on this thread that I'm most likely gonna stick with my power steering until I can get my hands on a manual steering rack from an older 4k.

Does the power steering and A/C run off of different belts????? If not and I remove the A/C belt do I need to do anything special to remove the A/C unit?????

As far as the cruise control removal goes what should I know? What do I need to cap off?
i dont wanna seem like a jerk or ass, but..... if your asking if the AC and power steering run off different belts, do you think your competent enough to change the rack? :roll:

i mean... a 1 minute visual inspection, someone who is mechanically competent would beable to tell...

again.... im not trying to be a jerk here, im just trying to ask if you think your getting in over your head?
i'm in a completely different state then my car right now.

I installed 2.5 inch drop spindles on my dads VW Bug when I was 14. I've swapped 2 b18c's into 2 civic's and a b16a into a crx. I've mini-me'd 3 civics, lowered probably close to 20 cars. Bagged my friend's Ford Ranger then installed a pro comp suspension and 2 inch body lift when he popped a bag 2 years later. Installed a greddy turbo kit on a gsr.....Do you want me to go on. And by saying you don't want to be a jerk here doesn't enable you to say whatever you want. I'm mean this site is designed for all of us to feel comfortable to ask eachother questions, even if I did have access to my car people should still be helpful.

But i'd say I'm pretty mechanically competant.
Some questions just have to be asked reguardless of how it makes one look.
Natrix did have a point but with your additional info is now null and void.
PS and AC are on different belts. Cruis is stand alone. Pull the vac pot, hose and the black box(vac pump). All that's left is your wiring to the cruise unit(vac pump).
In my mind on the PS issue, I have always liked the Audi PS. It does have a good road feedback through the wheel. It's not an over powering PS system like a lot of the American cars were. Personally I`d stick with it.
Hey I seriously wasnt trying to offend you. This is a message board, and I've run into people who wanted to do alot of things, but they just werent prepared or able to do it. Some eventually get very discouraged and give up on an otherwise very nice project car....

And your absolutely right. This site is designed for all of us to feel comfortable to ask eachother questions, even if those questions are to help understand someone.

I appologize if I did offend you in anyway.
i love clean engine bays, the ones that look like theres nothing else but an engine.. i hate the whole wireing and cluttered look..

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i have been helping my buddy shave his mkIII's bay. it came out pretty sweet, except he is impatient and didnt wait/listen to me and rattle canned the darn thing when we finished. now i have to help him sand it back down so my buddy can come over and professionally paint the darn thing. :x
Yeah "Addicted2Quattro" that's exactly what I'm going for, that engine bay is some dope snizz!!!!! :-D

Natrix, I know you didn't mean to piss me off or anything, and I did take it way to personally. It's just that I've been working on cars for a long time, although I'm not the best in the world, I'm pretty damn good at it. So I guess when it's sounds like someone is questioning my ability to work on a car, it gets me going.

HaHa, I know that the cruise control isn't belt driven. I figured that the cruise control is pretty easy to remove. I just got back home to my car and checked it out and I thought that there was a line for the cruise control that went to the intake mani but I was wrong. I guess all I really need to know is what I do with the hoses from the cruise control that go through the firewall under the brake booster.
I dont know what effect just removing the pump and lines would do to the rack itself. A manual rack would have to be installed, Id think, which isnt easy.

Removing the cruise should only take a few minutes, just remember to cap off the necessary vac lines.

AC components are alot of weight and can take a while to remove.

IMHO a clean engine bay like the one pictured above is really tough to do with the JT or KX engine; the CIS and associted stuff just takes up too much space, and then you have the radiator, coolant tank, yadda yadda. As Audi modernized the engine bays got alot cleaner (UrS4, B4 90, etc).

Without putting a more modern engine in there with fancy covers its really going to be a challenge to just clean things up by removing things. Makes it seem like the car is missing necessary parts more than anything.

If you can get a manual rack that would be neat though.

Just my 3 cents :)
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I like manual steering a lot, and can tell you exactly what will be involved in converting your 4KQ other than removing all the PS stuff and swapping racks.

I installed a VW Fox rack on my Quantum. The Fox rack's input shaft (what connects to the steering column) is shorter than the PS rack's shaft, so the lower piece of the column needs to be lengthened. At the same time, the PS column and the manual rack have different splines, so you need to make a hybrid lower column that mates the two together. Also, the steering damper (which you will want with manual steering) bracket is a bit in the way of a brake line, so it needs to be cut, re-positioned and welded back together. You could possibly get away with just bending the bracket, but welding makes a neater, more OE job of it.

It's a simple conversion that is well worth the effort, but you will need to be able to weld or to know somebody who can.

Steering feel is fine. I have been driving Foxes for years, so I am totally used to manual steering. Don't let people scare you out of converting if you like manual steering. The ratio is set up on the manual racks to give the driver more mechanical advantage, but it does not significantly affect steering quickness or the responsiveness of the car.
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If all you want is to make the pump and lines invisible, why not do an MR2 electric pump conversion and tuck it away somewhere ( like where the HVAC is) :-D
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