Is it just me or do the c4 engines compartment look busy with all these thing-a-ma-jig

 

I agree. There are years that are better than others - example, I think 90-91 L98s are worse than 85-89.

Removing SMOG in my '89 helped a lot. EGR is on my list of to-dos.

 

Just you. Every time I'm under the hood I amrvel at how simple.it is compared to newer cars lol.

 

So, you would prefer to have all those necessary parts covered by a huge sheet of plastic like all the new cars.

 

Actually it’s a very unique looking compartment, I get a lot of WOW when I open the hood👍

 

I happened to like engine compartment that was in 1989 Corvette.

 

I think it's a cool looking engine, way more so than the LT1. Getting rid of the air injection on the L98 cleans things up quite a bit.
It was a different era though, they are a lot better at packaging things now, just the motors aren't as interesting looking.
The LS is not a pretty motor in any way for example, least on the outside. I've seen more and more parts to hide the coil
packs and such on them lately so I guess I'm not the only one that thinks that.

 

I like the look of the L98 quite a bit. Its a little busy as you mentioned, but its beautiful. Chevrolet took a lot of pride in their Corvette engine designs and packaging in the 80’s. The 84 Corvette with the L83 for example, had a battery that was color coded to the engine. GM cared that much to deviate from their original battery colors. Black and grey on the battery just like black and grey on the engine. A magnesium air filter cover and magnesium valve covers. Very unique for the time period. Packaging was excellent and the engine is fairly simple to service. You can put your hands on darn near every external component. The water pump however, is the exception in my opinion. Its layered by components that overlap it, making replacement more of a chore than on the later engines.

The L98 took that a step further with the beautiful flowing intake runners and the retention of the magnesium valve covers. The L98 retained some of the black and grey theme, but the engine bay was considered a work of art by many in that time period. The LT1 is a much simpler design both in servicibility and packaging. Its a beautiful engine in its own right. Its just a little more dull and refined. I find it fairly easy to work on. The LT4 added the red paint to the intake manifold and I personally think it looks great. The LT5 is a thing of beauty. Servicing it a little more of a challenge, but in my opinion, its a gorgeous looking engine. I feel as though GM did a really good job overall on each engine design of the C4.

 

I think probably the mid to late 1960s probably has the least complicated engine compartment before all the smog stuff. But I know that by the late 90s, a LOT of s**t got eliminated. By that point, many GM engines no longer needed EGR because the more modern ECMs could perform fuel and delivery changes much faster and much more efficiently. So, that usually eliminated an EGR valve, and some additional hoses and piping. They also had all gone to DIS ignition by that point, so they eliminated distributors and even spark plug wires with engines that used coil on plugs. I look at my 2002 Ford Crown Victoria, and the engine is basically just a block. There's nothing coming off of it except fuel lines, coolant lines, and A/C lines. I realize that's an early 2000s car, but the engine was essentially the same since 1998... they just improved the heads in 2001. But most 1998-1999 cars are about as simple for modern engines are you're going to get.


The smog pump system REALLY, REALLY clutters the engine bay. I'll be the first person to tell you to keep a working ThermAC (84 model) and your EGR valve. But I will also be the first person to tell you to get rid of that SMOG pump. It's absolutely horrible... it fills the engine compartment with three additional wiring harness pig-tails, an enormous tube running across the front of the engine, two massive manifold pipes attached to the exhaust manifolds, and then another pipe that runs along the passenger side of the car to the cat, along with the pump and some other small tubing. Words cannot express how much I despise it. This is my daughter's engine compartment thus far. She tore the engine down to a long block, pulled the intake and everything, and has painted and built it all back up, as well as repaired all the wiring harnesses (I helped with that part). But look at how much cleaner the engine bay is without the smog stuff...



Also... another thing that people should probably consider. Even though the Corvette is a high-value / high-priced car... and GM's flagship for technology along with top-tier Cadillacs (at the time of our C4s), they still built the engines in a different location from the rest of the car. The final "completed" engine were engineered for ease of installation into the car. So wiring harnesses and tubes and piping and everything was not designed to make it necessarily look good or be easy to work on, but instead to make it nearly fool-proof to install during time of assembly.

The engine compartment might look quite a bit differently if the engine wiring harness was installed in the car first, and THEN installed onto the engine after installation (for example). Instead, the engine wiring harness comes with the completed engine, and merely connected at the bulkhead with the chassis harness.

 

Mine cleaned up nicely.

 

LT1 can look good too. I wish I had a cold air intake with a polished intake pipe instead of this ribbed plastic monstrosity. Even if the OEM setup is best for cold air temps I prefer the simplified looks of a Cold air kit.

 

I liked the looks of TPI engines 👍🏻 cool intake, especially for the era. Air-Gap cooling for each runner, even if it's CFM-limited. The mention of cool & clean engine bays of the late 60's is spot-on 👍🏻 I remember being appalled at the scattered mess of vacuum and electrical routing on various engines from the early efi era. They just hadn't figured out how to group & loom all this stuff effectively yet. The '91 5.0 f150 my dad had comes to mind. Truck engine & all, they didn't care, but dang. Wires, cables & hoses running all directions, over under & thru each other 🤪 from the factory like that! They bothered to create some symmetry in the hoses and various lines on Corvettes atleast & hid what they couldn't.
From an engineering standpoint, Form follows Function, and i appreciate that ideology. Until it makes things harder to work on!
LT1/ 4 /5 are clean and cool visually Less is more 👍🏻
my main bone to pick is the 'achievement'(?) of having all the accessory drives on one side of the engine 🤔 a shorter belt is about the only real benefit. Harder to access stuff, and in C4 case anyways, worse Lt/Rt weight balance 🤷‍♂️ same generation F-body's hang accessories on the passenger side 👍🏻 Somehow America's Sports Car got setup with NASCAR weight bias?? Driver, battery and all accessory drives on the Lt side. Battery should have been in a cubby behind the passenger seat, and the A/C compressor should be on the passenger side of the engine (like the earlier cars). Shorter hoses alone would have made it more efficient by being closer to the hvac housing at the firewall/ cabin, much less, the heat exposure from the cluster of other accessories on driver's side. The power steering reservoir could move forward, or better yet, over to the driver's side were the pump actually is. There'd be ample room with the a/c compressor not there. slightly less cooling effect with reservoir on that side now, but we already have a cooler up front. Increase it's efficiency! Sorry!! End of rant. I just don't understand these aspects when i look at my engine bay 😕 Otherwise, cool 30-40yr old engines to galk at 👍🏻🍻

 

I've always thought the the L98 and the LT5 were the last engines in a Corvette that actually looked like an engine is supposed to look.

Not a fan of covering everything up with pieces of plastic.

 

Ive alwys thought Corvette engineers did a pretty good job of making the engine compartment look good, at least to a gearhead, considering what they had to include. I really like the tilt front end of the C4 which also exposes the suspension.