Engine Detailing

Hey, welcome to trucks.

You know, one of the biggest, most expensive decisions you're gonna make on your truck concerns the engine. Do you want to buy a crate engine? Do you want to build your own? Do you want a big block? Do you want a small block? You got a lot of choices here,

but one of the most important areas that a lot of people overlook and I get a lot of questions about

is how do you detail the engine before you put it in the vehicle? I mean, you just spent some serious money on this engine.

You don't want it to look like a piece of junk when you pop the hood. So what do you do?

Is it expensive? How do you paint it? What kind of paint do you use? Watt's involved in winning a best engine award? Oh, these are good questions and we

are gonna answer some of them for you.

Ok. The first thing that you need to ask yourself is what exactly are you gonna use the truck for? Is it gonna be a full on show rig

or is it gonna be a daily driver that you still want to be able to pop the hood on and show off a little bit.

Asking these kind of questions is very important because that's gonna determine what kind of materials you use, what kind of techniques,

how much money you're gonna spend and how long it's gonna take you.

I'm gonna show you a couple of different approaches today.

Now, this first engine is a freshly rebuilt big block Chevy,

very typical of what you'd find in a new engine or something out of a salvage yard.

It's

black and it's

black,

it's really boring. So, the first thing we need to do is get a little bit of color on this thing, which means you can either use spray cans

or actual automotive paint.

Now, both of those have their pros and cons,

but since this engine is gonna go into a daily driver,

I'm gonna go, the spray can route on this and you will not believe how good it's gonna look.

The first and most important step is prepping the block. Why?

Well, because you know that paint won't stick to grease or gas or dirt or grime. So

wherever you want paint to go

has got to be clean.

A scotch, bright pad and a lot of rags soaked in grease, remover will not only remove the gunk

but it'll also scuff up the surface for the new paint.

Now is also the time to remove anything that you might be replacing later on.

Like an old stock intake or water pump

with the block all nice and clean.

It's time to start taping off areas where you don't want paint to go.

Yeah,

the more time you spend on these details, the better the finished product is gonna be

also a bald up piece of masking tape

with the sticky side out

will keep the paint from going in the cylinders and still allow you to paint around this spark plug area.

Ok. Now it is time for paint

and for that, we're gonna use some duple color engine enamel with ceramic.

Now, the benefits of going this route is it holds up. Well, the heat,

it's very easy to touch up. You got a lot of color choices

and it's cheap, it's only four or five bucks a can and if you put it on right,

it's pretty tough. Here's how to do it.

First, we'll lay on a nice coat of primer.

Once that is dry, it's time to move on to your color coat.

Now, don't get in a hurry here and try to get full coverage with one big old heavy coat just gonna run and zag on you and look awful. Now, you need to take your time, put on two or three lighter coats to get the best results

and there it is. Now, hopefully you can see why all that work was so important.

Now, while the blocks drying,

we are gonna move on to the accessory.

Welcome back to trucks and our engine detailing show where I've just shown you how to paint a block on a budget

using spray cans. And the best part is this looks really good

since we want that engine to do two things look good and run good. We made it called Edelbrock and this is what we got

a polished

air gap intake manifold.

Then to go on top of that, we're putting a 750 CFM performer carburetor.

Then we're using a performer fuel pump

and on the front of the engine, a polished water pump. Then we're gonna dress it all with these elite valve covers and a matching air cleaner. Now, as good as these look,

don't just take them out of the box and bolt them on

and anybody can do that. You wanna detail them so they match everything.

So to make these look like they belong on that engine,

I'm gonna paint some red paint in between these fins

first tape off your parts,

then shoot on your paint

now to keep the polished fins clean,

wipe them down with a rag, soaked in solvent to remove the paint from the fence.

Once you're done, pull your tape

and see what you got.

Yeah, quite a difference, isn't it?

But now comes the best part, putting it all together.

Yeah.

And there it is, it's hard to believe that this is the same engine that we started out with just a little while ago

and this is easy. This is something that anybody can do

and if you're gonna spend this kind of money on parts,

make sure that you're taking the time to detail them up to fit what you're working on

now. As nice as this looks.

Are you gonna win a best engine award with this?

Uh, probably not to do that.

You're gonna have to step up to the next level.

So, what exactly does that mean? Well, say you're working on a vehicle like the Hairy Hauler?

Oh, that's right. You haven't seen the Hairy Hauler since it's been done. Step back. Take a look at this thing.

This body is now wearing several coats of that custom PPG color we created

and the guys at Jacob's custom auto body spend about 400 hours smoothing this body down making it look this good. Come here. Take a look at this.

They welded all the hinges in, smooth them down.

All your door gaps are right where they need to be

and you've got a body line here now where you didn't have one before

then, of course, all the dents, all the wrinkles are gone. This thing is as smooth as a baby's butt

and this bed looks just as good. They spend a lot of time on this too

now to go under that cab and bed when you saw me build this chassis on the show, got a four link in the rear and custom cross members and

the braking system is in and

an independent front suspension.

The only thing original on it are the two outer frame rails. Now to power this vehicle,

I also put together this wild injected early

hemi. Now, there is no way that I'm going to paint this engine

and this chassis with a can of spray paint. It's not gonna happen.

No, they deserve the same color that's on the bed and the body. Now obviously painting this engine isn't gonna take near the amount of time

that it took to paint that body,

but it is gonna take more time than the other engine we painted and I'm gonna show you why after the break.

Welcome back to trucks

and our show on engine detailing. I'm showing you some of the tricks involved in doing this.

Now, this first engine is something we pulled off in just a couple of hours and we painted it with duple color engine enamel out of a spray can. Of course, we finished it off with a

bunch of Edel Brock accessories.

Now, this is the type of project that you can custom tailor to your budget

and this will look awesome in any kind of a street vehicle.

Now say your engine is a little more special. You want it to really pop, you want it to last a long time

and you wouldn't mind winning a couple of best engine awards somewhere. Well, you've got no choice but to go to a real automotive paint. That's right with all the hardeners and all that goes along with that.

Now, going this route,

you have good news and bad news. Of course, you knew that the good news is detailing your valve covers and your intake and your accessories.

It's pretty much the same as we did on this engine. So you know how to do that.

The bad news is, you are gonna spend a lot more time

prepping the block, paying attention to details

and you're gonna spend a lot more money

on materials. Now, if you've decided this is the route, you wanna go.

The first thing you need to do before you start tearing things apart

is decide how you want this thing to look

where you want paint to be, where you want polish to be chrome, whatever you wanna do,

this is your creation, make it look the way you want it to look.

However, make sure that it follows the same direction that you're going with the rest of the truck because you want it to stand out,

but you don't want it to look goofy and look out of place. Now, once you've decided all that

start taking off your accessories,

all right. Now, we can start prepping the block and this is where all the details come in.

Instead of just giving it a good cleaning,

we're gonna take an assortment of grinders and we're gonna smooth out all the rough castings and all the edges on this block.

Now, obviously, this is very tedious and time consuming, but the more time you spend here,

the better it's gonna look later on.

All right, with the block finally smoothed out and all there, we'll start with etching primer for the bare metal,

followed with PPG epoxy primer.

Now, this stuff is not cheap, but you do get what you pay for and this is not the place to cut corners.

Once the primer is dry,

we are ready for our base coats and clear coats.

Now, like I said before, this is the same custom PPG color that we put on the body. So this is gonna match up really nice.

Now, another thing that you have to factor in if you're going to go this route is the safety equipment and the spray guns that you need to shoot automotive paint

and the fact that you're gonna have to rig up some sort of a temporary spray booth to

keep overspray from getting all over the place.

Wow. Take a look at that.

Now, as good as that other engine looked, it doesn't hold a candle to the way this one looks. Of course, it was a lot cheaper to do. This one took a lot more time, a lot more equipment, but now at least you have some choices when it comes to detailing your engine.

So there is no reason to drive around

with an ugly engine,

unless, of course you're building a sleeper, which

that

is a whole different show.

Well, we're taking a break. Get out of here

now, I suppose you're wondering about this big white truck with the dual racing stripes and rush

across the windshield.

Well, this is the Jack Roush

performance F 150

it's their version of a hot street truck.

The first thing that grabs your attention on this rig is the styling package

like an old Shelby mustang. You have dual

lemon stripes flowing up the hood and over the custom hoods.

And of course, they also flow down onto the custom chin spoiler.

Rolling stock is 20 inch wheels, front and rear with performance rubber

and the sides are treated to ground effect side skirts

that are finished off with a classic triple stripe to make this thing look like a big mustang

out back. The stripes continue and a rear wing sits on top of the tailgate to

try to get some downpours on the rear end at speed.

But there is a lot more to this truck than appearance.

Yeah,

Jack Rauch has a reputation for going fast

and to do that, the stock 5.4 engine is tweaked and massaged stuff with an eat super charger and then sitting down the road with a tire eating 405 horsepower and 480 ft pounds of torque

and you never know when you're gonna need that.

I'm about to smoke me a buick here.

Oh, yeah.

Mhm.

The big challenge for this truck though was to get it to handle because this is a big long extended cab rig.

But

rush got it to handle surprisingly well with the sports suspension system

that includes performance shocks, springs and sleigh bars.

Now, I know you might be thinking that's great. But what about the lightning? Isn't that Ford's performance truck?

Well, the bad news is the lightning has been canceled. It's gone no longer made.

The good news is this Rusch

F 150 fills the hole for a Hot Ford performance truck.

But if you want one, you better get moving

because they're gonna go quick

and you don't want to be left behind in a cloud of smoke.

You know, it seems like just about every accessory you put on your truck nowadays requires electrical power. That's why you have got to have a strong battery

if you don't wanna get stranded somewhere. And one of the toughest batteries out there is from Decca

and it's called the Intimidator. Now, this thing is completely sealed

so it's not gonna leak on you. No matter what kind of situation you get into,

it's also vibration

and shock resistant and the best part is it's got deep cycle power. So it's gonna run your winches, it's gonna run your lights, your stereo system, whatever you wanna throw at it,

putting it in. Very simple, got top and side post. Capabilities. So if you want a tough battery,

the Decca Intimidator is where you need to go.

You know, one dilemma that everybody faces that messes with cars and trucks

is how to keep all this fancy polished aluminum and metal polished.

It can be a major chore.

Well, I've got something here that is gonna make your life so much easier.

This is called metal armor. Now, this is a premium metal polish that will absolutely make your metal sparkle. Take a look at this.

This is the side of a water pump without metal armor looks pretty good. Yeah, then this side is with a metal armor.

That's a huge difference. The best part is, this stuff is very thin. Goes on like water, you just wipe it on, wipe it off, it's that easy.

Now, you also get a polish for paint

and you get a final sealer that you put on the metal. It seals the pores keeps it from oxidizing.

That way. You don't have to go back every other week and rep polish your metal.

So if you want your metal to really pop,

you need to get yourself some metal armor and quit messing around.

You know, if you've been working on newer trucks at all over the last couple of years, you are probably familiar with the super chips, Max micro tuner.

This thing is a programmer that you just plug into your diagnostic port,

punch a few buttons

and you pick up some extra horsepower and performance. Nothing new there.

What is new is the max micro tuner for the Ford 6 L power stroke diesel?

Now, if you're driving one of these trucks, what this little box holds for you is an extra 80 horsepower and an extra 180 ft pounds of torque and all you do is plug it in,

punch those buttons

and go play guys. It does not get any easier than this.