fire wall padding?

[galant344]

I have my engine and frame out doing some small work under the hood and i'm wondering what you guys think about leaving in or ditching the padding on the firewall in the engine bay? you guys think it looks cleaner with out or better with it in? At this point it wouldn't me much for me to cut it out and throw it away. The car is white and i'll be cleaning under the hood as best as i can to get the white engine bay to shine through once again.

 

[TurboTrader]

I've thought about taking mine out, but it is a bit of a pain since you have to pull the brake booster to get it all out. It does look cleaner, but I'm sure it being there does cut down on noise in the cabin, not only engine noise, but road noise as well. I'm not sure about the safety aspect, for example if your engine caught fire for some reason. Lot's of people do it on DSM's with no ill effects, and it does make for a cleaner look.

 

[1941Galant]

^^ You can always do what I did and literally rip the thing out, that way you don't have to remove anything to get it out. I love the way it looks, I'd do it again if I had another VR-4.

 

[BoostedAWD91]

yeah i didnt have to remove anything to get it all out. i just basically ripped it out in pieces as Hill stated he did. thats the easiest and quickest way

 

[boostedinaz]

For heat and noise protection you could always cover the interior of the cabin with something like Hushmat. A little extra work but you get the benefit of a clean firewall and a stock looking interior.

 

[galant344]

yeah everything on the firewall is still there i just have the motor trans and subframe out so i figured while i'm in there removing all the p/s lines and abs lines i should remove the padding too and clean it up as best as i could. I was thinking i'll just cut it out. I wouldn't go through all the trouble of removing everthing to take it out nicely.

 

[JNR]

Just remember that once you remove it, you'll need to keep that painted area clean somehow, or else it looks bad. With that aside, I would want to run something, so maybe the interior idea is not too bad, although not as effective as it being closer to the source.

 

[galant344]

i was thinking about keeping it clean. I probably wont have much of a problem keeping it clean unless i spring a leak on the engine somewhere. THe car rarely sees rain and never sees snow unless its from the drive way. I was a little concerned with the heat factor, but then i don't really drive the car on long trips either. the most is 50-75 miles or so when going to a meet somewhere. At least the exhaust side is not on the firewall.

 

[mitsuturbo]

I know this is reviving an old thread, but i thought i'd add something here. I went junkyarding this weekend and came across TWO different 90 galants that did not have this pad on the firewall. It didn't look like it had ever been there.

I'm thinking of removing mine, as i doubt it help much with noise, especially once you've tossed a 3" exhaust on, and put in poly mounts anyhow.

It looks like Nate Crisman's is gone.

 

[Barnes]

Is there something wrong with yours? If it is in good shape I don't see any reason to get rid of it.

 

[mitsuturbo]

It's ugly?
They collect dirt and aren't really "clean" able. I could clean bare paint. It looks cleaner with it gone.

 

[Muskrat]

My best guess is it's there as a heat barrier. Our engine bay's get MUCH hotter than the n/a Galants.

 

[SouthCaliVR4]

Mine is out, Didn't notice much difference myself but other did, kept asking what I had done to make it louder /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif One was my is it running Lexus owning ex GF so I disregarded her complaint, she complained about everything anyway /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif As I gear up for her restoration I was thinking of ways to help the cabin noise. My thought is to use a sheet of brushed stainless cut to fit the lower firewall section with some type of sound deaden er on the backside, Like Dynamat or some such then mount it with a small (couple mil) air gap off the lower firewall. I figure the weight will be negligible & it will save me time filling & smoothing various sections of the firewall.

This is in the just a thought stage & may turn out to be big a bitch in the real world /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif But since I plan on stripping the car to bare shell & doors it shouldn't prove too difficult but we'll see.

 

[SmoothCustomer]

How do you even get the brake master cylinder out? I ask because I couldn't get it out on the car I tried it on, but it had pretty bad damage so it's possible the strut tower was pushed back enough to make the clearance low enough. I want to take the blanket out at least to paint the bay. The blanket also has a whole so I would like to replace it.

 

[SouthCaliVR4]

It's tight but it will slide out of there, you're probably right on the money with the damage thought, It wouldn't take too much to make it not clear on the way out.

 

[SmoothCustomer]

Yeah. It didn't look out of place but the damage was bad enough I'm sure it was off a little.

 

[cspetros]

Quoting mitsuturbo:
I know this is reviving an old thread, but i thought i'd add something here. I went junkyarding this weekend and came across TWO different 90 galants that did not have this pad on the firewall. It didn't look like it had ever been there.



Yeah, the base model N/A Galant's didn't come with the padding. GS and GSX models, however, did.

 

[mitsuturbo]

After spending some more time looking at my car, doing some cleaning, seeing closer how all the brake and clutch hardlines run, and are fastened to the firewall, i will not be removing the pad. I see the lines in many places could easily be right against the firewall, and this could cause rubbing through vibration, which would in turn cause noises, undue wear, and who knows what else. I'll wash the hell out of it with simple green and call it good.