Das Beast: My E30 track / street build

[dvallis]

... The regular GM coils are far more sturdy and provide more than enough voltage (stock coils will arc over two inches).

I meant point me to the "regular GM coils packs". Never used them before.

Thanks

[dvallis]

BIG Weekend

Decided to finish the cabin conduit run while we were waiting for the new wiring channel to arrive. Here's the rear bulkhead LB with wire pulled and everything closed up.



Then we started on the front LL. Needed to make a mounting plate for it first.



Then mounted it. Love how every single piece of extra metal in the car is aluminum. Except the cage. :devil:



We secured the flex conduit with rivited one hole clamps. It's not going anywhere.



Flipped the car around in the garage and set up to solder the connectors on.



Work in progress. We're pretty good at this now.



New 2"x2" flex conduit arrived just as we were finishing that job. Good timing UPS.



Needed massaging to make room for data acquisition hardware



Conduit is a perfect fit in the bulkhead. Gives us a lot of wire fill area.



Now that all the harnesses and individual wires are finished, final assembly is going FAST. We are literally 75% done with wire install. Lots of prep slogging made the final job a breeze. Not to say it isn't detail oriented. We're still stabbing relays, routing wires, connecting to terminals. You have to follow the schematic slowly, carefully and get it right. Really satisfied to see it coming together now.

[ForcedFirebird]

I meant point me to the "regular GM coils packs". Never used them before.

Thanks

Ah, apologies. Pontiac Gran AM, Chevy Camaro v6 etc. All the 3800 and 3400 variants had them, and they are a direct replacement to what you have there. They are super cheap used, almost never go bad...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1994-pontiac-coil-packs-buick-gm-super-charged/263442478134?hash=item3d56653436:g:6VMAAOSw5dlaNpiS

Even new they are about $30-50.

When test firing on them with the MS, the arc is strong enough to jump between the two spark plug wire lugs lol. I've been hit by them o.0

[dvallis]

Zap! Ouch. :grin:

Are you by any chance a Megasquirt expert? Will need advice at some point once we get to MS tuning.

[ForcedFirebird]

Not sure about "expert" but I have tuned many m20 turbos both on MS and the stock ECU over the years, but sure, just post up and can help any way I can. :) Each car/engine is a little different, but ultimately the m20 is a very simple engine to run.

[dvallis]

So many wires

Almost finished with the bulkhead. Good thing we switched to a 2x2 main conduit. All relays stabbed.



Here's the big picture view. Lots of connectors. 12VRUN and 12VALW busses fully connected. Still a few loose wires for the dash warning light modules left to be connected.



This will get turned into the switch panel.

[Digitalwave]

Some times I think you are absolutely insane to be rewiring the car from the ground up. Then I remember the electrical gremlins that I have had/am still troubleshooting, and realize I am just envious that your wiring and connectors will all be brand new.

[dvallis]

Sometimes WE think we're absolutely insane rewiring the car. :devil: But like you said, I know exactly how many wires are in it (104), where they are and what they do.

[dvallis]

Good progress on the dash

Big day today. Finally fitting the dash back in the car. Not final for sure, but it's good to see big pieces going in place.



New switch panel test assembly. I like the NASA space program look with switch guards and toggle switches.



Here's what it looks like in the dash. Holes above are for the AIM dash.



Will be lots going on behind here eventually.



Before any wiring, we have to design the panel back lighting mount. LED boards and light pipes will attach to this aluminum fin.



Next we need to make the light pipes. Starts by cutting 1" x 1/4" bar stock acrylic into 1-1/4" lengths.





LED has to go into the acrylic. We made a metal jig to ensure each drill hole went right down the middle, and did not crack the side of our light pipes.



Drill press with precision rotary depth gauge helps a lot.



Finished product: LED board, light pipe and cable assembly. Repeat 13 times.



Here are the rest ready for installation.



Testing one LED module in the switch panel. Nice results. Illumination is even in intensity and color across the label. The cheap ass LEDs we are using have poor collimation, meaning red, green and blue do not focus on one place. The light pipe acts as a combination color mixer and diffuser. If its too short you get color separation and hot spots. Too long and you lose intensity. We experimented and found 1" length to be a good compromise. Remember, the IGN label will turn red if the breaker below it pops. Easy to quickly notice if something is going wrong during a race.



Final trick is to keep each light pipe from bleeding into the next. Obi Wan had some nice thin metalized tape to take care of that.



We ran out of daylight. Declared victory and called it a day.

[325e '87]

I think it’s funny that all you need to wake up the beast is a file cabinet key.

I also think it’s fantastic what you’re doing and hattip for going with m20 engine.

[dvallis]

LOL. "File cabinet key....". There may be a security device built into the wiring harness. Wouldn't be much good if I published it on the internet. :devil:

[ForcedFirebird]

I have that same exact drill press vice lol.

[Bamboozled]

Awesome Build!

[dvallis]

Dash final stretch

Nearly finished with the dash today. Lots of good things happening.

Trimmed the bulkhead wire routing hole. Always a good idea.



Drilled the switch panel mounting holes.



Primed and painted the switch panel housing.





Mounted all the back light assemblies



Wired and mounted all the switches







Illuminated push button start looks pretty cool



Connected the wiring harness to the rest of the switch panel. Yeah, I know. We're freaking crazy. :devil: All that wire will be carefully pulled back through the bulkhead when we mount the panel. Looks like a mess but every wire is labelled and accounted for.





Next time we'll do individual circuit testing with 12V and a dummy load before buttoning everything up.

It's coming along nicely.

[dvallis]

Big milestone. Switch panel is on the dash. We have a bench supply powering the 12V Always rail. Key is not on so all switch labels are illuminated cyan.



Turning the key energizes the 12V run rail, sending power to all the relay coils. Switch labels light up white because LEDs are being driven RGB for each one.



We tested each circuit with a 1 amp dummy load ... aka light bulb. In this case the ECU / ENG toggle switch is on and we have a load connected to the ECU connector power pin.



Great progress.