Car Companies Should Design Prettier Engines

"Berang" (berang) 10/02/2016 at 09:25 • Filed to: None

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Saw this on this photo on the front page and something struck me. The plastic tank on the left is a darn good looking plastic tank. Somebody must have thought about how it should look and decided it should look nice. The engine on the other hand just gets a plastic cover. Surely if thought can be given to the appearance of a plastic tank, thought could be given to the appearance of the engine. Just make the engine pretty and there’d be no need to hide it under a piece of plastic.

Spridget > Berang 10/02/2016 at 09:28

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If you’re giving us an excuse to post pretty engines, then I’ll take it.

Sam > Berang 10/02/2016 at 09:31

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Usually the plastic cover covers sound deadening material, so they can’t really make it pretty.

LongbowMkII > Berang 10/02/2016 at 09:33

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Between modern wiring/tubing and plastic manifolds, There are no pretty engines until you go exotic where people care.

jkm7680 > Berang 10/02/2016 at 09:34

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GOD DAMN IT KINJA LET ME A POST A GIF. MOTHERFUCKER.

Nibby > Berang 10/02/2016 at 09:37

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THAT ENGINE IS ILLEGAL

Pich, with Z32 now featuring Civic [Si] / No > Berang 10/02/2016 at 09:47

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The good ole days

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Berang 10/02/2016 at 09:52

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I like my engine cover.

E90M3 > Berang 10/02/2016 at 09:56

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At least this one is functional, helps deliver air to the throttle bodies.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > Sam 10/02/2016 at 09:59

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I took mine off and it made no audible difference. Closing the hood is what killed the injector noise, not the cover.

Sam > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies 10/02/2016 at 10:00

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A lot of cars have foam or something underneath the plastic cover. My E34 has a foam insert thing that goes over the top of the intake manifold.

Berang > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 10/02/2016 at 10:04

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Yes but that one is the engine cover equivalent of a string bikini wedged right into the crevice.

Berang > Spridget 10/02/2016 at 10:07

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Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Berang 10/02/2016 at 10:08

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Given how little most owners will open the hood themselves, pretty engines are gone from everything but exotics.

Berang > LongbowMkII 10/02/2016 at 10:08

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There’s nothing stopping a company from molding a paisley pattern into a plastic manifold. No excuses! 

LongbowMkII > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 10/02/2016 at 10:09

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Inline 6 manifolds would be far superior.

Berang > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap 10/02/2016 at 10:09

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Well then they could at least make the engines look ridiculous. Rhinestones and soul crystals should be all over.

Berang > Sam 10/02/2016 at 10:14

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Isn’t that why they have to pipe fake engine sounds into the interior?

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Berang 10/02/2016 at 10:15

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But that would cost them more money

Berang > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap 10/02/2016 at 10:19

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Not having an engine cover at all would save them money.

Checkmate.

Probenja > Berang 10/02/2016 at 10:27

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I think that is more because car engines need to be quiet nowadays and it’s much cheaper for the manufacturer to add fake noise through the speakers than to make a fancy exhaust system.

And you can have your small hot hatch sound like something completly dumb:

Probenja > Berang 10/02/2016 at 10:31

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Because this is how it looks like when the manufacturer doesn’t even care about giving you an engine cover:

duurtlang > Berang 10/02/2016 at 10:37

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If you have no cover you get questions about ‘how’s that an engine? Where is the rocker cover?’

(Yes, the air filter housing and it’s tubing has been removed)

Laurence > Berang 10/02/2016 at 10:40

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I thought this earlier when I had sort something on my parents fiesta- I’d got used to looking at the engine in my own car (far from a beautifully designed engine, but better than a plastic cover), so when when I saw this really ugly plastic box I was surprised. Somebody got paid to design this, then somebody else at ford thought that was the best they could manage, so it went into production, and now rather than an engine, a mk6 fiesta has a black shoebox with some noo-noo hoses sticking out the side

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > LongbowMkII 10/02/2016 at 10:47

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Not pretty, they can look OK enough even with plastic intakes - see L86 and EZ36D

HammerheadFistpunch > Berang 10/02/2016 at 11:01

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It’s not nice noise, it’s (loud) injector tick and high pressure fuel pump whirr

Berang > HammerheadFistpunch 10/02/2016 at 11:07

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Don’t tick and whirr shame, this is a safe space.

Needmoargarage > Berang 10/02/2016 at 11:49

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I wish it were so simple. Having been in the middle of this before, I can tell you there is a constant squabble between engineering and studio guys about the engine covers. However, neither gets what they want when finance guys get involved. *sigh*

LongbowMkII > Berang 10/02/2016 at 12:27

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Except consumer reports would show a 2dB greater engine noise scaring off the normals.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Berang 10/02/2016 at 12:32

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It’s actually a two-piece bathing suit. The bit that says BMW is actually just a faux valve cover.

ranwhenparked > Berang 10/02/2016 at 14:31

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The plastic engine covers cut down on NVH, I suspect that if manufacturers were to eliminate them in favor of exposing the actual engine, they would get more complaints than compliment.

jimz > Berang 10/03/2016 at 06:09

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it’s a pretty brutal trade-off. When you get down to it, every dollar of cost added to a car adds about $100-200 to the sticker price once all of the development costs are accounted for. So if you’re going to add that dollar in cost, you’d better be able to show at least one of the following:

1) The competition has it, and a potential customer expects it so we’ll eat the cost

2) the competition doesn’t have it, and a customer might pay us more to get it, or

3) it’s regulatory and we can’t sell the car without it, so we have to eat the cost.

Engine “prettification” doesn’t matter to most people, so it doesn’t normally get done. but when you get into performance cars, it does start to matter. Which is why a 5.0 F-150 has this:

but a Mustang has this: