Lower engine cover modifications: Stiffening, lift support, etc.

[DeloreanJoshQ]

Has anyone been successful at modifying the lower engine cover to make it less flimsy?
I saw a post on the forum across the pond where someone added a rod to make it sturdier....

How about lift supports for the lower cover so we don't have to mess with the latch breaking or falling down on us? Is it possible?


Josh Q

[dmc6960]

There is a louvre brace sold I think by DMCCa that has a hook on it to hang the engine cover with. When hung from here it is held higher and has no need for additional bracing. Just make sure your louver struts are strong.

[Farrar]

I riveted strips of aluminum to some of the lower engine cover's horizontal ribs to stop it from flexing so much. It seems to help.

Farrar

[DeloreanJoshQ]

I riveted strips of aluminum to some of the lower engine cover's horizontal ribs to stop it from flexing so much. It seems to help.

Farrar

Any pictures?

[Farrar]

Any pictures?

I thought I had some already, but I can't find them right now. I will take some new pictures this weekend.

Farrar

[Ashyukun]

When I was doing all my main work earlier in the summer, one of the things I did was to use windshield urethane to bond aluminum L-strips to the back of my engine cover- the fiberglass on mine is broken so it flexes BADLY when you try and use the stock engine cover prop. Unfortunately, it didn't hold as well as hoped (may not like the heat from the engine...), but since the strips are still there, I'm going to bolt/rivet them to a thin strip of aluminum on the top of the cover to anchor them in place.

[jerzybondov]

My engine cover is cracked, I've fixed it and reinforced it but it still wasn't enough - especially when random people try and helpfully shut it for you and simply push down on it without popping out the support :rolleyes:

So instead I've drilled a small hole through the underside of the louvre and slipped a small S hook through - this neatly hooks onto the catch on the top of the engine cover and holds the whole lot up. A rather large improvement on OEM if you ask me...

[Farrar]

5289

[painterdave72]

rivet a piece of aluminum strip to the very back edge of the louvre.. you have to take it off the car. .i did this to mine years ago and it does not flex at all anymore... just rivet the strip all the way across the louver on the backedge where it meets the underbody near the window.. dave...

[Spittybug]

rivet a piece of aluminum strip to the very back edge of the louvre.. you have to take it off the car. .i did this to mine years ago and it does not flex at all anymore... just rivet the strip all the way across the louver on the backedge where it meets the underbody near the window.. dave...

Second that....works like a charm.

[DeloreanJoshQ]

Second that....works like a charm.

Pictures from both of you? I'd also like to paint it black so the riveted aluminum doesn't stick out....

Thanks!

[Spittybug]

Got ya covered.

[DeloreanJoshQ]

Got ya covered.

Thanks man, I'll have to try this!

[kajcienski]

Hello! I thought I would share some pics of something very similar I did to stiffen the rear of the lower engine cover plus a couple of other lower engine cover related things...

9629

Preface - The flexing in my lower engine cover was never that bad when using the stock prop but have had the stainless steel grills in for some time now. The extra weight (and quite a bit of extra weight I might add) made it much worse and saw the beginnings of a stress crack because of it. So, I had to do something about it. I had recently purchased an NOS upper engine cover (sun-shade) due to an issue of fresh paint not sticking to it properly thanks to a product called "Black Again". As a side, the original paint of the sun shade has a really cool texture to it (like fine sand paper) in a flat black - over time this smooths out I am told. Anyway, along with the new sun shade, I purchased a shade stiffener with the DMC logo mainly to be used to hold the lower engine cover up instead of the stock prop as many owners do. I found that the stiffener didn't fit all that well and would have required a bit of modification, also the NOS sun shade didn't really need a stiffener at this point. So... Here is what I did to the lower engine cover:


1) Stiffening the LEC (lower engine cover) - I too went the route of using an aluminum "L" brace. We first had to smooth out the fiberglass mold marks as well as notch the tiny brace in the center. We then used windshield adhesive and stainless steel screws to firmly attached the aluminum brace (we had also grained the aluminum and looked really nice). It helped quite a bit. As a side, Dave S mentioned that the original LEC prototype was much more robust and had much thicker fiberglass towards the rear of the cover keeping it from flexing. Oh well!

9632
9631
9630

2) Alternate LEC support - The aluminum brace helped stiffen it quite a bit but the heavy stainless steel grills still made it flex too much. So, we had seen that on one of the DMC prototypes they used a full LEC support rod (instead of the poorly designed support on our cars now) and thought we would give that a go. We went to the junk yard and purchased several different types of hood supports from a variety of cars. We ended up going with a support from a Ford Taurus. This is what we came up with due to how the supports are constructed and how they need to be mounted. We are still working out the details so it looks a bit rough (needs fine tuning and paint). It fits perfectly along the air filter box and stays out of the way.

9633
9634

3) Related to LEC fixes, there are a number of owners with lower cover latches that have blown apart the wimpy fiberglass hole where it screws in. When I got my D, someone had epoxied a bushing into the hole which quickly started to crack apart on me after some use. The only solution was to re-fiberglass in that area to lock in a new bushing. It worked beautifully and solid as a rock! Here is what that looks like right after painting.

9635

4) This is mostly cosmetic, but I wanted to minimize any vibration that the lower cover made. I ended up getting a few long pieces of the door trim that clamps to the edges of your door as to help protect it when accidentally opened into something. I lined the outer edges of the LEC and liked how it looked - was subtle. Whether it helps with vibration, who knows... I don't have a super great picture of it but you can see the trim around the edge of the LEC in the picture above with the LEC fully propped where the big washers are around the latch.


Best,
M

[Kenny_Z]

I used a product called Black Again on my lower engine cover but I got my paint to stick really well by using a strong degreaser. The degreaser I tried was actually in the Walmart cleaning aisle and was made to use on stoves. It was 3 bucks a gallon. I just didn't water it down as much and used hot water. I even degreased my Mustang's engine block with it. That stuff can cut through anything.

[kajcienski]

I used a product called Black Again on my lower engine cover but I got my paint to stick really well by using a strong degreaser. The degreaser I tried was actually in the Walmart cleaning aisle and was made to use on stoves. It was 3 bucks a gallon. I just didn't water it down as much and used hot water. I even degreased my Mustang's engine block with it. That stuff can cut through anything.

Ineresting! I'll have to give that a try on my old sun shade - couldn't hurt. However I am told that Black Again seeps into the fiberglass so not sure how the degreaser will solve that. The painter painted and stripped it like 3 times with no luck. It gasses out and causes the fish-eye issue - perhaps just plain trim paint would work? At any rate, I will probably just sell the old shade with that disclaimer. It had some repair done and is now in perfect shape, apart from the paint issue. Any takers? The shade is in north Florida...

[DeloreanJoshQ]

Hello! I thought I would share some pics of something very similar I did to stiffen the rear of the lower engine cover plus a couple of other lower engine cover related things...

9629

Preface - The flexing in my lower engine cover was never that bad when using the stock prop but have had the stainless steel grills in for some time now. The extra weight (and quite a bit of extra weight I might add) made it much worse and saw the beginnings of a stress crack because of it. So, I had to do something about it. I had recently purchased an NOS upper engine cover (sun-shade) due to an issue of fresh paint not sticking to it properly thanks to a product called "Black Again". As a side, the original paint of the sun shade has a really cool texture to it (like fine sand paper) in a flat black - over time this smooths out I am told. Anyway, along with the new sun shade, I purchased a shade stiffener with the DMC logo mainly to be used to hold the lower engine cover up instead of the stock prop as many owners do. I found that the stiffener didn't fit all that well and would have required a bit of modification, also the NOS sun shade didn't really need a stiffener at this point. So... Here is what I did to the lower engine cover:


1) Stiffening the LEC (lower engine cover) - I too went the route of using an aluminum "L" brace. We first had to smooth out the fiberglass mold marks as well as notch the tiny brace in the center. We then used windshield adhesive and stainless steel screws to firmly attached the aluminum brace (we had also grained the aluminum and looked really nice). It helped quite a bit. As a side, Dave S mentioned that the original LEC prototype was much more robust and had much thicker fiberglass towards the rear of the cover keeping it from flexing. Oh well!

9632
9631
9630

2) Alternate LEC support - The aluminum brace helped stiffen it quite a bit but the heavy stainless steel grills still made it flex too much. So, we had seen that on one of the DMC prototypes they used a full LEC support rod (instead of the poorly designed support on our cars now) and thought we would give that a go. We went to the junk yard and purchased several different types of hood supports from a variety of cars. We ended up going with a support from a Ford Taurus. This is what we came up with due to how the supports are constructed and how they need to be mounted. We are still working out the details so it looks a bit rough (needs fine tuning and paint). It fits perfectly along the air filter box and stays out of the way.

9633
9634

3) Related to LEC fixes, there are a number of owners with lower cover latches that have blown apart the wimpy fiberglass hole where it screws in. When I got my D, someone had epoxied a bushing into the hole which quickly started to crack apart on me after some use. The only solution was to re-fiberglass in that area to lock in a new bushing. It worked beautifully and solid as a rock! Here is what that looks like right after painting.

9635

4) This is mostly cosmetic, but I wanted to minimize any vibration that the lower cover made. I ended up getting a few long pieces of the door trim that clamps to the edges of your door as to help protect it when accidentally opened into something. I lined the outer edges of the LEC and liked how it looked - was subtle. Whether it helps with vibration, who knows... I don't have a super great picture of it but you can see the trim around the edge of the LEC in the picture above with the LEC fully propped where the big washers are around the latch.


Best,
M

Awesome! Thanks for sharing this info!!!

[Squall67584]

I'm not sure if this was addressed before, and excuse my idiocy, but what keeps water (from either rain or washing) from going through the lower cover's vents and onto the engine/electronics?

[dmc6960]

I'm not sure if this was addressed before, and excuse my idiocy, but what keeps water (from either rain or washing) from going through the lower cover's vents and onto the engine/electronics?

NOTHING!!!

Everything exposed can get wet with no issues. Assuming your coil cover is properly secured, your boots around certain electrical plugs are not torn, and your spark plug wells are properly covered by the wire boots.

[jawn101]

Here's a question - how do you access the other side of the hinges for the LEC? I believe one of my bolts holding my LH hinge to the body is loose, but I'm not sure where you look to tighten it. Do you come in from underneath the car? Is it behind the vertical parcel shelf carpet?

[DMCVegas]

I'm not sure if this was addressed before, and excuse my idiocy, but what keeps water (from either rain or washing) from going through the lower cover's vents and onto the engine/electronics?

ALL engine compartments, even front-mounted engines will get wet when you drive them in the rain, and are designed as such. Most of the electronics are inside the car anyways, so it's not that big of a deal.

Traditional cars and trucks have a rubber gasket above the firewall and lips around the front and sides, but it's to keep steam in, not water out. That way if you splash through a puddle or large amount of water and it hits the exhaust manifolds the steam doesn't shoot up and cover the windshield so you can't see. Otherwise it's quite normal to have the drains for the Air Plenum and sometimes the A/C plumbed into the engine compartment. Open engine compartments are nothing to worry about.

[AdmiralSenn]

Here's a question - how do you access the other side of the hinges for the LEC? I believe one of my bolts holding my LH hinge to the body is loose, but I'm not sure where you look to tighten it. Do you come in from underneath the car? Is it behind the vertical parcel shelf carpet?


They are just above the rear parcel shelf carpet wall. I think you'll need to take the upper trim panel out as well as the vertical wall piece but they are accessible from that area.