Das Beast: My E30 track / street build

[dvallis]

More electrical today.

Mounted the data acquisition box and wired it in.



Minor engineering issue with the wideband controller. For calibration you have to observe the LED on its case (above the "N" in "Innovate"). There is no remote calibration button like the LC-1 has.



I ended up mounting it inside the bulkhead and drilling a hole for the LED.



Everything required to run the engine is now wired into the harness. Did a fully connected test.



Fired up the 12V supply, turned key to ON, threw the ECU/ENG toggle switch. Nothing blew up. LoL. Gauges are reading on Tunerstudio in the background but camera couldn't pick it up.



Here's a better look at the engine harness. We removed about 10 lbs of vestigial wire. From left to right: ECU motec connector, ECU-bulkhead connector (tach, O2, 12V), pulse & crank position sensors, throttle position sensor, water temp sensor, intake air temperature, injectors. 'Bird was right. M20 is a pretty simple beast. :devil:



Final step with the engine harness will be measuring everything to length, then recovering all wire runs with 1200F fiberglass braided loom.

[sampayne]

Very exciting. Congrats!

[dvallis]

Water temp gauge for the cluster is alive.



Whipping the wiring harness into shape. It's getting pretty skinny now.



Re-did the injectors. I'm liking this braided wire loom.



Harness is shaping up. You can see where I'm going with it. Will finish off joints with high temperature tape.

[zaq123]

what's your setup for the oil pressure gauge?

[dvallis]

Oil pressure gauge is VDO 350-066, 2-1/16" 80 PSI. Sender is VDO 360-003, 1/8-NPT 10-180 ohms. Sender will be mounted to the engine bay and connected to a port on the oil block via a braided metal hose.

[dvallis]

Nuke rail arrived. It's a nice piece of kit. Well engineered. I like the screw down injector lock plates. (on the right)





Fuel pressure regulator and fittings. See above for details.



Pulled the intake manifold out of its box. Will be needing this shortly.



I didn't like how the engine harness was shaping up. Too many weak joins and I didn't like the geometry. Decided to start over by test fitting everything on the engine.



Space is pretty tight around the thermostatic valve.



This stuff is self fusing silicone tape. It does not have adhesive and is good to 500F. Comes under various names. Will be using it on the engine harness instead of electrical tape, which eventually turns into goop under high temperature.





The tape is pretty cool. It bonds to itself. By wrapping it you build up a temperature resistant silicone structure layer by layer. Cutting it off you get a solid cross section, not layers of tape.





Here's the harness in progress. Much better I think.

[dvallis]

Engine bay side of the harness is complete. I like the final product. Its got 100% coverage of 1200F weave, no electrical tape and no joins.



Fits nicely on the manifold and rail. Plugs are all in the right place with correct orientation. Just need to wire it to Motec ECU connector and carry on.

[ThatM20Guy]

Dang that injector harness looks awesome!

If you don't mind me asking where'd you get the fiberglass loom?

[dvallis]

Yeah, it turned out really nice. Key is not making joins. Slit the larger loom, pull smaller runs into it and cover junction with high temp self fusing silicone tape. Also use silicone tape to seal braid ends in engine bay. Heat shrink to seal ends inside cabin is Ok.

High temp wire loom was from Del City.

[dvallis]

Fitted the engine harness for length today. This was a good method.



Final step was organizing and capturing all wires off the Motec connector, integrating engine harness and adding coil pack harness (upper left connector below heat gun). Still need to make the final harness to Motec solder joints and a few other connectors, but everything is looking tight and right.

[dvallis]

And .... the engine harness is done. There will be a small secondary harness for oil pressure, fuel pressure, lights and fans but that's it.



Patient survived the operation. Megasquirt fired up with no smoke. All sensors working.



Here's the wire we removed from the engine harness. Pretty amazing. LoL

[zaq123]

how did you wire and routed the wideband? I'm looking for a way to the secure LSU 4.2 connector under the battery tray, similar to where the original o2 sensor connector is attached

[dvallis]

Manual for the LC-2 is here. It's pretty simple. 12V to red wire, ground to black and yellow is the 0-5V AFR analog output. Tape off the brown wire. I had to use data points from the linked manual to calibrate the Megasquirt, so not sure if this will work with your stock ECU.

[zaq123]

Manual for the LC-2 is here. It's pretty simple. 12V to red wire, ground to black and yellow is the 0-5V AFR analog output. Tape off the brown wire. I had to use data points from the linked manual to calibrate the Megasquirt, so not sure if this will work with your stock ECU.

I was more looking into the routing, not termination. Didn't realize you are using innovateM setup. I'm using 3rd party lamda controller that's built into the motronic ECU adapter board for MS2. Figuring out the best way to attach LSU4.2 lamda connector somewhere so it looks "factory".

[kronus]

that tape delaminates from my experience. high temp heatshrink is better but takes more planning.