Page 1 of 14

Engine Bay Wire Tuck

PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:15 am
by teal_dx
Before:
Image
What a mess! This pic was taken after I started, so a few things are already missing or moved...

Image
Here we have the driver side wiring harness. This comes out on the firewall and runs all the way up to the headlights & washer fluid tank.

Image
The idea is to extend the wires by soldering so that you can re-route them through the fender, out of sight.

Image
Image
Here is the modified harness

Image
The driver side installed

Image
Image
The wiper motor harness clips were too big to fit through the hole (that was already there, no drilling) so I connected that part of the harness after the wires were ran through the hole.

Now onto the passenger side:
Image
Image

There was also already a hole on this side that works perfect to run the wires into the fender area.

Image
Image
I soldered to extend this harness as well. I soldered in the car, it was easier then pulling out the entire harness.
See the fuse box in the pic, that is now going to go on the cabin side of the firewall. All the harnesses that went to it will stay inside the cabin as well.

Image
no more wires! Also note the battery is gone, as well as power steering (converted to manual), and the brake proportioning valve (mounting this on the inside of the firewall as well). The fuel filter will now be an in-line filter.

This is an ongoing project, so this thread will grow as I get closer to being finished...

This was the start of my wire tuck/shaved bay project...
http://civic-eg.com/viewtopic.php?p=247#247 <click to see the bay get shaved!

PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:10 am
by eghatch
gonna look pretty clean with this and the shave project!!

PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:03 pm
by 1993 Civic Si
:(

Can't see the pics...

PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:14 am
by solbrothers
lookin good!!

PostPosted: Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:45 am
by littledelsol
Are you doing it for show?

PostPosted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:59 am
by teal_dx
I never really showed the car before (wasn't show worthy) I just drove it on the street and auto-xed it now and then. I'm a fan of the "less is more" look, so I figured I would do this while I had the motor out. Next year I'll probably take it to a show, since it is going to have had a complete makeover, or definitely to some local cruise-ins so I can pop the hood and have people wonder "where did all the stuff go" 8)

PostPosted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 5:55 pm
by -EJ1- COUPE
its just so much smoother having it shaved :D

Update!

PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 5:39 pm
by teal_dx
So far I have hidden the harnesses thar run on the inside of the bay from the back corners to the headlights & engine harness. The Headlight harnesses are in the fenders and the harnesses that were in the rear corners will now meet in the middle where the heater core hoses were. Next I have to modify the engine harness to go to the lower center of the firewall.

Image

Since I am paranoid/anal when it comes to wiring, I am going to label everything first. I actually have my original harness, 1992 D15b7, and a D16z6 from 93-95. The difference for 1992 harnesses was the map sensor was a separate unit mounted on the firewall instead of a sensor on the throttle body. So rather then a wire/plug going to the throttle body, 1992 has a smal vaccum line.
The wire would be easier to hide, but since I will replace the stock map sensor with a motorolla 2.5 bar sensor (about the size of a quarter) in the near future, I'm going to use the setup which will allow me to switch those sensors easily. The motorolla 2.5 bar doesn't look like it would easily mount to the throttle body w/ map sensor that the 93-95 uses.

So my MAP sensor will be mounted on the inside of the firewall instead of on the outside of the firewal as it was stock. My 92 engine harness does not have the wires/sensor for the MAP, these are located on the cabin harness. However, the 1992 D15b7 harness does not have the single wire for the vtec solenoid, or the 2 wires for the oil pressure sensor on the head (to tell the ecu when to activate vtec). These are easy enough to add though, I added them when I installed a mini-me setup so it will be deja vu this time around.

Image
I labeled the harnesses, the D15b7 and the D16z6. I set the labeled D16z6 harness aside to use as a reference just in case I cut the D15b7 one up to the point I can't tell what is what.

Next I installed the D15b7 harness:
Image

Image

And then start to remove all the tape & wire loom. The left side main plugs and right side main plugs will need to meet in the middle.

Image

Image
I just ruined some Japanese factory worker's hard work :lol:

Now after you have all the tape & plastic loom removed, you can start to lengthen & shorten any wored that you need to. I would use solder on every connection with heat shrink tubing! Also be careful what you cut:

Image Image
The thicker grey & blue wires from the distributor are shielded wires. I have heard of problems coming from these wires being cut.

Overall, most of the cutting will need to be done to untangle the mess (mostly on the right side of pic) rather than to lengthen/shorten. I plan on keeping the harness as long as possible so the plugs will be on the inside of the firewall out of sight.

Also in the below pic you might have noticed the resistor box next to the engine. After the new motor/clutch have some miles and it's turbo time, I'll need to tap into the injector wires to install this for DSM 450cc's. I hope there is enough wire on the inside of the firewall to do this there to keep that ugly box out of my clean bay.

Image
Here is where I left off untill the next episode... I'll be doing some cutting & soldering. Then last I'll re-wrap the harness :)

PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:57 pm
by teal_dx
here's some pics I found on H-T of someone's tucked harness (droppedcrxsi):

Image

Image

Image

I'm aimimg for the same final result

PostPosted: Wed Jan 10, 2007 9:00 pm
by teal_dx
another example... mine might look more like this:

Image

here is a really nice one:
Image

PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 10:47 pm
by teal_dx
Image
phresh_5 from H-T, stock is on left & tucked is on right. Looks perfect!

PostPosted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:35 pm
by LaMbErT*
I know jack shit about wireing so wont be happening with me unless some smart arse does it :P Its gunna look sweet im still waiting to see the end result :D

PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:31 pm
by teal_dx
Ok, made some more progress since the weather is starting to warm up here 8)

Image
Image

I had all the wires sorted out & routed... next was to protect them.

Image
I had enough wireloom from the 1.5 harneses I disected. Start by putting the big wireloom on the thicker bunches of wires.

Image
Then work your way down to the thinner areas. For now, just use a piece of tape every once in a while to hold them on.

Image
Image

For the Injector wiring, I just rotated the injector 180? so the clip faces the rear, then wrapped it up.

Image
Image
Of course something had to not fit, the clips got in the way of the tabs on the fuel rail. So I shaved a little bit off.

I'm also adding the wires for vtec on a non vtec harness. A good time to show you how to install wiring pins!

http://www.6thgearadvertising.com/misc2 ... uck/81.jpg
Before you start, pull out the white plactic piece on the connector with a pair of pliers, it pops right out.

Image
Next, pull the rubber plug out of the hole you'll be using.

(taking the wires from my donor/scrap harness) Now is the hard part. They sell tools for removing the pins, but if you're careful, you can do it yourself. Here I used a scribe (looks just like a dental tool).
Image
Where the tip is pointing, I put the tip in a little and pushed up on the pin. That pushes it over a plastic clip in side and lets you slide the whole thing out.
Image
It might take some practice, but look inside and you'll see what I mean. But be careful, they can get bent up if you use too much force.

Image
Then get the harness that you have removed the rubber plugs on, for your wires to go into. Be sure the pin is facing right side up and slide it in. You'll hear a litle click when it goes into place. Go easy though, you may not get it on the first try. Then put the plastic cover back on (carefully so that all the pins go through the holes so you don't bend them).

PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:42 pm
by Jsa-SIR2
wow, you should write i book! your cars going to be sick! 8)

PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:49 pm
by teal_dx
So with those little details done, back to the main harness!
Image

Image

Image

Just add the plastic loom and then wrap! Start taping on the end and wrap your way down. Overlap each wrap a little bit.


Here's some pics of the finished harness:
Image

Image

Image

Image
In the above pic, note the curved coolant hose on the right (the cleaner one)
Normally the line coming off the side of the head would go into the heater core, and the line (clean end of the tube) going into the thermostat housing wold be coming from the heater core. Since I ditched all my climate controls, I looped the two together.

Image

Image

Here's a close up shot of the sending unit for the aftermarket oil pressure gauge, mounted on a sandwich oil filter. one of the remaining 3 outlets will be for the oil line to the turbo.
Image