Delete little wiring box of death

[doublespaces]

Has anyone opened this wiring harness junction below the intake manifold? Wires come out of the box the wrong directions and its such a cluster f*ck. I want to get rid of it or clean it up somehow, I'd love to hear your method or any photos of how it is connected inside.

References:

Customizing Injector/Coilpack/waterpump harness questions - update: It's done now.

Hi guys, Been running the DOCRACE 6266BB kit for little bit now and with the hot summer months coming of course I was expecting to see some heat related issues. EDIT: See post #7 for results. Thanks for your help and advice :) "Bonus" pic of the car :

bmw.spoolstreet.com

 

[silverstreak18]

Its nothing complicated, just splits that main harness into smaller groups for the individual sensors and components. You can open it and run/extend any wires as you see fit. I would only consider doing it personally if I wanted to really clean up the look of my engine bay. Or if it really, really bothers you that bad lol.

 

[bahn]

As stated above there's nothing special inside of it. I have a spare harness in the garage, I'll take a picture shortly for you.

 

[The Convert]

As the guys above stated, it’s just a housing to split up a larger loom. I ran a wire or two for my pi kit through main and then out an unused port in that box to keep the wiring clean. You could always delete it and clean up the wire routing by doing a nice pretty motorsports grade custom wire harness retrofit by rywire or similar.

 

[bahn]

@doublespaces Better late than never, this one already has a couple wires pulled out but you get the idea.

 

[fmorelli]

I just find it a pain in the butt to deal with when removing the intake manifold. M54 engines were done this way as well, and same pain in the butt. I'm not sure how better arranging the wires would help (assume it does since you seem inclined). I'd almost want to mount it to something other than the $&!@^$%^! manifold.

Filippo

 

[Mikejones1208]

Honestly you really dont have to keep it mounted to the intake mani, mine has been laying there not mounted for like 3 years and everything is fine.

 

[The Convert]

I just find it a pain in the butt to deal with when removing the intake manifold. M54 engines were done this way as well, and same pain in the butt. I'm not sure how better arranging the wires would help (assume it does since you seem inclined). I'd almost want to mount it to something other than the $&!@^$%^! manifold.

Filippo

I suppose you could just make an L bracket and mount it directly to the motor.

 

[fmorelli]

I suppose you could just make an L bracket and mount it directly to the motor.

Yeah ... it's all apart now. Suspect I should take a look at that.

Filippo

 

[Jeffman]

First time taking it off it was a PITA. Second time just a little time-consuming. Subsequent times no longer an issue, super easy.

 

[SlowE93]

First time taking it off it was a PITA. Second time just a little time-consuming. Subsequent times no longer an issue, super easy.

Pretty much the same. Even the 1st time its easy if you pry at just the right angle and location.

 

[JimboFresh206]

its all in the wrist tbh

 

[doublespaces]

So checking out Rywire as @The Convert has suggested to me earlier, I've been looking at this again:

I'm considering making a modular harness, so everything coming across the firewall, put a connector or two there and customize the rest of it to replace this box so it would be half OEM and half custom. Eventually I could work my way back to the ECU box and make some nice connections so removing the DME sub connectors would be a lot simpler.

Right now, I'm motivated by this as I've done the M3 cowl and have done some mods to that harness that goes across, I removed the corrugated tube it travels in and wrapped it in tape. I'm beginning to question that for obvious reasons and I want to eliminate any potential wiring gremlins that may be causing.

I think this can be done one section at a time, but I'm worried about the change in resistance from the wiring differences and additional connectors.

 

[derekgates]

wow... that would look so damn good. I can imagine a nice intake manifold, m3 cowl, relocations to driver side... cleaned up wiring. Oh baby


[Edit]: forgot to mention, a friend of mine is swapping an Integra engine into his CRX and went Rywire and the quality will knock your socks off. Absolute top notch.

 

[The Convert]

So checking out Rywire as @The Convert has suggested to me earlier, I've been looking at this again:

View attachment 37241

I'm considering making a modular harness, so everything coming across the firewall, put a connector or two there and customize the rest of it to replace this box so it would be half OEM and half custom. Eventually I could work my way back to the ECU box and make some nice connections so removing the DME sub connectors would be a lot simpler.

Right now, I'm motivated by this as I've done the M3 cowl and have done some mods to that harness that goes across, I removed the corrugated tube it travels in and wrapped it in tape. I'm beginning to question that for obvious reasons and I want to eliminate any potential wiring gremlins that may be causing.

I think this can be done one section at a time, but I'm worried about the change in resistance from the wiring differences and additional connectors.

Resistance concerns and laziness are the main two reasons I haven't done something very similar yet. If you make positive progress on this, please keep us posted.

 

[doublespaces]

Resistance concerns and laziness are the main two reasons I haven't done something very similar yet. If you make positive progress on this, please keep us posted.

I'd be more inclined if I could get an EXACT wiring harness. But I think we know that theres so many different wiring options, that may not even be possible. Perhaps I'll roll the dice and see if I can get one that matches then verify pins with continuity checks. Sounds really boring.

This would let me get some resistance readings between two harnesses though, get an idea of what kind of range there is.

 

[rac]

This would let me get some resistance readings between two harnesses though, get an idea of what kind of range there is.

Don't get hung up on it to stop you from doing this. What is the resolution on your multi-meter, 0.1ohm?
There are online calculators available - you might not even be able to read the theoretical increase you add.

If your custom harness goes a size heavier wire and replaces a portion of the oem harness you might even drop overall resistance from end point to ecu.
In any case the changes wont be significant enough to change any input/output signal.

 

[doublespaces]

Don't get hung up on it to stop you from doing this. What is the resolution on your multi-meter, 0.1ohm?
There are online calculators available - you might not even be able to read the theoretical increase you add.

If your custom harness goes a size heavier wire and replaces a portion of the oem harness you might even drop overall resistance from end point to ecu.
In any case the changes wont be significant enough to change any input/output signal.

Thanks for the input, I've never done any of this before so it will be part experiment and part learning. Perhaps I'll consider tackling this as a summer project, since it's too hot to drive the car or work in the garage in a meaningful way.

If anyone has suggestions for which parts to use for this project, I'm all ears. Otherwise I'll just be trying random stuff.

 

[The Convert]

Thanks for the input, I've never done any of this before so it will be part experiment and part learning. Perhaps I'll consider tackling this as a summer project, since it's too hot to drive the car or work in the garage in a meaningful way.

If anyone has suggestions for which parts to use for this project, I'm all ears. Otherwise I'll just be trying random stuff.

Motorsports ECU Wiring Harness Construction

 

[fmorelli]

Thanks for the input, I've never done any of this before so it will be part experiment and part learning. Perhaps I'll consider tackling this as a summer project, since it's too hot to drive the car or work in the garage in a meaningful way.

If anyone has suggestions for which parts to use for this project, I'm all ears. Otherwise I'll just be trying random stuff.

@barry@3DM

Filippo