Review: Durdan Perfab SR20 Engine Harness Repair

[homeslicej2]

Background on my engine harness. I had TopHat Performance in GA swap my SR into my 90 hatch in March 2007. I had tons of issues with their work. The engine harness was especially bad looking. I was told that after my harness, they fired the guy who had been doing them. They made no offer to re-do the harness though. Scott (their then "lead tech") told me that he went through the harness and made sure it was all good. Yeah right. I got tired of driving 100 miles one-way to try to force them to fix all the things they did poorly on the car (esp. since they had it on two separate occasions for a total of 3 months). When my SOHC died, I was 6 weeks from college graduation (at school with nowhere and no time to do a swap) and ~9 weeks from my wedding day. I got impatient, had heard only good things about TopHat at that time, so I brought it to them, HUGE mistake. Lesson here? DIY. I think they went out of business recently, bc their number no longer works, and I've found several other unhappy customers over the past year. Plus, there are a few really good shops in the Atlanta area that I didn't know about until after TopHat had my car. So, fast forward to 3-4 weeks ago. I happened to see this thread: zerothread?id=344160After seeing Bumnah's engine harness in the thread, I decided to contact Taylor Durdan about repairing mine. I had completely unwrapped my harness in an attempt to repair it myself and cut everything to length, but since I had never done any harness I decided a real pro was the best solution. Taylor was quick with his responses and his customer service was awesome. We communicated via phone several times, and we had over 25 e-mail correspondences. He looked at the pics of the old harness and of it undone, gave me a price, and I shipped the harness to him. He got it the Thurs. or Fri. before 4th of July weekend and he shipped it back on the following Thursday (one week from day of delivery). I was shocked and awed when I opened the box and laid it out. I said to my wife, "that is the work of a real professional and of someone who takes pride in what they do" (unlike TopHat). Needless to say, I am extremely pleased with Taylor's work/repair. So on to the pictures. I think they speak for themselves.

Before (TopHat):

The harness is all jumbled up, looped around, and nothing is cut to length Oh, and this is after I ziptied everything up bc the harness was just hanging there and flopping around. The ignitor would smack into the strut tower with the slightest touch!!

After (Taylor's repaired harness):Incense and Stickers Harness laid outECU plug cleaned up, with all uneeded wires de-pinned and gone instead of taped up and left in the harness. Heat sheathing for the MAF (I got just tape with TopHat)S14 firewall grommet to aid in tucking the harness to the firewall (S13 grommet points straight out and TopHat didn't even put one on their harness )Ignitor Chip relocated to Pass. compartment and tucked into pocket behind ECU. Excess length pulled into the pass. compartment so that the ECU can sit on the pass. seat. This aids in ROM-tuning, reading any ECU codes, etc. He told me to wrap the excess around the ECU and it will still fit behind the kick panel, and it does. He used to fold over the excess and tuck it behind the valve cover (like Bumnah's), but does this now for the aforementioned reasons. The thick black wire is my main battery wire running to the relocated batt. See how the harness fits nicely against the firewall, like it should? The smaller tubing that comes out just above the A/C lines is one I installed. It contains the wires/nylon tube for my Oil pres., Water temp, and Boost gauges. I forgot to ask Taylor to add those into the main harness for me and the grommet and hole were there for the power wire to my amps before the swap and battery relocation. Power plugs tucked away inside fender well. He made this long enough to run it along the framerail, under the fuse box, and into the fender well. Perfect fit. The wire loom on the left-hand side and in the middle is spiral wrap I used to cover my Oil pres. sensor wire from where it comes out of the tubing I added. Everything cut to perfect length. Again the 1/4" tubing is what I had to add, had I asked Taylor, he probably would have placed wiring and nylon tubing inside the harness that I could have spliced into my existing lines. And look at that! No more jumbled up, looped around mess of wiring in between the strut tower and intake!! (those greenish wires are from where TopHat reinstalled the ground wire kit I had put on the SOHC and instead of doing it the right way they just attached them wherever they felt like). Another thing on the list to clean up.I also wrapped my boost gauge tubing in spiral wrap from where it comes out of the tubing I added.

Again, before and after:





The pictures don't do the harness justice. I got my harness back in less than two weeks, including shipping. Would have been sooner had I not told him to enjoy his 4th of July weekend and not worry about working on my harness, to which he thanked me. Taylor had to fix a lot more than just improper lengths too. There were messed up plugs (he replaced my busted up CAS plug), tons of excess wires, some crimps instead of soldered joints, bad solder joints that were taped instead of heat-shrinked, the solder joint for the main ignition wire to coilpack and ignition wire (the big 3 lol) was only half-way soldered by TopHat!! No wonder it studdered a bit at higher RPM's/loads. He also removes all unneeded wires from the harness completely. They are de-pinned at the ECU and the plugs and the wire is removed. Anyway, I type too much. His contact info is below and I highly recommend him:

Durdan Perfab (Performance Fabrication)E-mail: [email protected] yes, it's T mail not G mail AIM: vortecflPhone/text message: (813) 766-9304

[adrianfromthecastle]

wow... Nice write-up. Looks great. You can see you fuel filter now, lol.

[otterman]

Maybe I didn't see it in your post but how much did it cost?

Also, why is his name so similar to Tyler Durdan, is this guy even real? lol jk

[Tulsa_S-13]

Yea, I'm going to contact him tomorrow. I have some issues with my wiring I want corrected.

[sr20-thoj]

looks great.. i might just have to have him work on mines as well.. my car runs great.. just need to clean it up.. wires everywhere...

[supreamS14]

I should of went to this guy! XAT is now closed. Maby Carma from my messy wiring job they did that took 3 months .Oh and they screwed this guy over on an ls1 swap! Very un safe job on that. They were nice guys though.

[wzntha]

.

[codyace]

Really nice looking harness! Probably the closest to a professional custom job, or the Wiring Specialities that I've seen to date!

What kinda pricing are we looking at?

To the O/P: If you really wanted to be baller, you can route those harnesses you have on top of your intake, under it

[homeslicej2]

...You can see you fuel filter now, lol.

I know, lol.

Maybe I didn't see it in your post but how much did it cost?

Also, why is his name so similar to Tyler Durdan, is this guy even real? lol jk

Yes, he is real lol. I didn't put in the price, bc I don't know what he would charge for a swap harness (you know send in the KA and SR harnesses and we'll fab it up etc.) and I'm sure his repair bill varies (just as Wiring Specialties' does) depending on damage.

Yea, I'm going to contact him tomorrow. I have some issues with my wiring I want corrected.

He'll take care of it for sure.

I should of went to this guy! XAT is now closed. Maby Carma from my messy wiring job they did that took 3 months .Oh and they screwed this guy over on an ls1 swap! Very un safe job on that. They were nice guys though.

They screwed Taylor over on an LS1 swap? That really sucks. TopHat people were nice too, but it didn't make up for their shoddy work.

how hard is it to pull out the harness yourself? i have a local shop who can check my harness(and repair if necessary) for me, but they charge ALOT for anything they do. if its really easy to pull out the harness, i might just send it to this guy instead.

Pulling the harness is the easy part. Unplug your ECU and dash plugs and push the wiring out through the firewall into the engine bay, unplug all plugs, and voila!

Really nice looking harness! Probably the closest to a professional custom job, or the Wiring Specialities that I've seen to date!

What kinda pricing are we looking at?

To the O/P: If you really wanted to be baller, you can route those harnesses you have on top of your intake, under it

I like it too, again, I don't know his regular pricing, but I'll post below what I paid and the quote that Wiring Specialties gave me back in December when I first started thinking about sending it in for repairs. I know, I know, I wanted to tuck it, but I'm lazy I plan on removing the Intake Mani. when I install my oil filter relocation kit to clean it out and all, so when I do that, I'll probably run the wires under the mani. Taylor reinstalled the hard plastic pieces that keep the injector wires and MAF/CAS/TPS/temp sensor wires rigid, so it would be hard to tuck those with the mani installed. I might go ahead and re-run the gauge wires under the mani. though.

I didn't go with Wiring Specialties, bc of the fact that I hadn't seen an pics of their harnesses, the long wait people are experiencing, that fact there are some complaints (esp. in thread the referenced in the first post) with some minor issues (wrong wiring, bunched up harness, wires not extended enough, etc. ). I can't say what kind of job Yuri does bc I have no exp., but Bumnah's harness sold me, and since Taylor doesn't fold over the excess harness behind the the Valve cover anymore and puts the chip and excess into the pass compartment (which is nice) it is very clean looking.

Repair price quoted by Yuri in December 2007 after seeing some pics of messed up harness: ~$150 He said this was the average repair cost. The site states that it is $80 (but this is a starting price) and Yuri said it could go as high as $225, but not above it. Pricing did not include shipping.

Repair price quoted by Taylor after seeing some pics: $250 Including shipping, I asked if he would do it for $200 and he agreed as long as I paid shipping. So $50 more than Yuri's average, but I think it was well worth the additional cost. I do not know what Taylor charges for regular wiring service. Trust me though, you will not be disappointed.

[Hijacker]

That looks amazingly good!

I do wonder why he wires the ignitor inside the cabin though. It puts it out of the heat and elements, but it makes it a PITA to access. There's nothing wrong with bolting it to the passenger side strut tower IMO.

[homeslicej2]

That looks amazingly good!

I do wonder why he wires the ignitor inside the cabin though. It puts it out of the heat and elements, but it makes it a PITA to access. There's nothing wrong with bolting it to the passenger side strut tower IMO.

Thanks! It was to get the chip out of the heat, but more so to make the engine bay appearance cleaner. I guess it's a trade off though, there is enough slack to put the chip into the pocket behind the ECU, there is also enough to pull it out and make it accessible (after you take off the KP and ECU), but he could still leave on the strut tower he was asked too. All that would be required really is to cut the wires different lengths. If you look at Bumnah's harness, he used to do it that way. In all honesty, I think both locations are fine and wouldn't have cared either way. He asked me if it was okay to move the chip into the pass. area for cleanliness and I told him yes, bc I wanted it out of the heat of the engine bay. Taylor cleared the changes he made (bc I thought it would be like Bumnah's harness) with me before he did them. He communicates very well with his customers and wants to ensure they are pleased with his product/service.

[Hijacker]

I'm glad to hear you had an awesome experience with Taylor.

One of these days, I'm gonna pull my harness off my car and rewrap it to clean up some wiring. Mine's a converted KA DOHC harness, so it sits in place properly, but we had to fab up some subharness and those subharnesses aren't run inline with the main harness very well (like my ignitor to the coil packs). My coil pack 12v constant is just a lone wire ran from the relay box to the coil packs. I'd like to clean it up as well since it's a big yellow "look at me" wire.

[homeslicej2]

I'm glad to hear you had an awesome experience with Taylor...I'd like to clean it up as well since it's a big yellow "look at me" wire.

Thanks, me too, Tophat's work kinda made me lose some faith in the professional/professional shop. lol, I understand the "look at me" thing. That's why I wrapped the gauge wires/tube in spiral wrap, they used bright green wires for the water/oil gauges. Which is funny to me, bc I work at a residential elec. company and green means ground in homes/buildings lol. Wow, you used a DOHC KA harness for the swap. that must have been interesting to fab up. I wanted to repair mine myself, but the main thing for me was eliminating the excess that was all bunched up in the bay and since I didn't know how long to cut everything, or how to re-arrange the wires to pull the excess in the pass. area like Taylor did. So, I unwrapped the whole thing and thought it would be too much of a PITA to do with the harness still in the engine bay. Saw Taylor's work and went from there.

[Hijacker]

The best wiring job I ever saw was someone who had wired an e-fan and fog lights into his 240 using house wires and twist caps. Then he secured everything with duct tape. IIRC, he was also using an unshielded wire for running the grounds. The car had a silvia front I was taking for my car, and the front markers and side turn signals also suffered the same unfortunate fate of twist caps and duct tape. I had an extra set of square front markers and just ended up starting fresh with their harnesses and wired the side turn signals into them.

The SR and KA harnesses are very identical to each other. It's almost creepy. You have to make a change for the tach signal, and you have to cut 4 wires from the ECU plug to run to the ignitor.

[Taylor_Durdan]

ive seen several people who convert the KA harness to work with SR's but i prefer to use whats correct.

i tried alot of new things with this harness and just needed the right motivation to put them in place. Justin was so apprehensive (yet excited) that i decided to pull out all the stops! im very pleased with how this harness turned out. the only reason i have for relocating the ignitor is engine bay cleanliness, really. accessing it is no big deal, and should only need to be if it goes bad. it happens, but its not often.

ill post up my prices if i am allowed to. generally, i add $50 if its a repair job due to the extra volume of work associated... but im a flexible guy. i lvoe what i do and this is supplemental for me. i lost my shop of 8yrs due to burglary and work at S&R Performance in tampa now. My wiring helps pay the bills, plus it kills me to know that there is shoddy work out there. i pride myself for doing the best that i can.

mods, let me know if its ok to post my pricing, if not, i understand

[AZhitman]

Threads like this put me in a tough position...

We're already hooked up with Yury at http://www.wiringspecialties.com, who's been supporting NICO for years.

However, TD's work looks real nice as well.

I'm all for our members getting the best goods at the best price, and supporting companies that support their forums and Nissan enthusiasts in general.

[Taylor_Durdan]

i understand completely. im a moderator on several boards and an active member on countless more. i wish i could be more active on others, but work, wife and busy lifestyle prohibit. i dont check my PMs often, but i answer my emails almost immediatley. im not out to put anybody under, either, by any means, but i would rather a superior product be available for everyone. ive been doing SR swaps since 2000 and have had my hands in over 85% of the swaps in Florida alone. if anyone has any questions, not just wiring related, feel free to contact me. Since this thread was started with me in mind, ill try and keep any advertising posts contained therein. I'll let my work speak for itself.. thank you

[homeslicej2]

Threads like this put me in a tough position...

We're already hooked up with Yury at http://www.wiringspecialties.com, who's been supporting NICO for years.

However, TD's work looks real nice as well.

I'm all for our members getting the best goods at the best price, and supporting companies that support their forums and Nissan enthusiasts in general.

I know. I was kind of wondering if I would step on toes/put the forum in a hard place with this thread (I hope I have not), but I wanted the SR community to know what an awesome job Taylor did on my harness. I have no personal experience with Yuri, or his work, and thus can say neither good nor bad about him/it. I did a lot of research on Taylor and found nothing at all criticizing his work, only praises. I decided to try him after my review of the Wiring Specialties thread, Bumnah's harness had me sold, along with the few problems members noted with Wiring Specialties' work.

Justin was so apprehensive (yet excited) that i decided to pull out all the stops! im very pleased with how this harness turned out.

What can I say? I get excited about my car I'm glad we could help one another and I'm super happy with what you did to the harness. Just ask my wife, I don't think she's ever seen me happier about something to do with the 240.

The best wiring job I ever saw was someone who had wired an e-fan and fog lights into his 240 using house wires and twist caps. Then he secured everything with duct tape.

That's going to lead to a nice one day.

[supreamS14]

Taylor, Did you ever work for xat?

[Kalypso]

this is my new favorite thread.

taylor can you post your email?

[homeslicej2]

^lol, I posted his contact info in my OP

[Kalypso]

I found it in the other thread a minute later

[Taylor_Durdan]

Yeah, i used to work at XAT for a bit after i closed the shop down. i wasnt there for the infamous LS1 build, but i heard all about it. not my work quality, thats for sure. for now, i dont have any plans on reopening my own shop anytime soon as im having a blast working at S&R Performance. We've been building some really high end vehicles here and the higher ups are totally iving me full creative liscence on most of what we build.

[supreamS14]

Yah, I could tell by your work that you had nothing to do with my harness job at xat!

[Taylor_Durdan]

just a heads up... my tmobile sidekick decided it doesnt want to read my sim card anymore. so sick of these phones.. ugh. i wont be able to respond to any tmail emails.. nor be able to answer my phone... if you need to reach me, you guys can email me at [email protected]

[duffman1278]

OMG thats a nice harness, did he use a brand new harness? Cause the wires look brand new.

[homeslicej2]

Believe it or not, that's my same used harness. Taylor did replace some of the more damaged wires for the MAF (which had about 4 or 5 solder joints in it that I found when I unwrapped it) and the O2 sensor, which had some messed up wiring too, but no, it's still a used harness. $200 for a new SR harness and modified to fit into the chassis would be a steal of a deal. I'm telling you, like Bumnah said, the pictures don't do the harness justice, it was done extremely well.

[Taylor_Durdan]

i just finished John Van Ness's S14 SR harness. it came in the mail 2 days ago, will be shipping out tomorrow. i hate having my sidekick broken bc i cant get any of my Tmail.

ugh

[mistamacadamian]

XAT was a great shop, where did your tuner end up going?

[Clawhammer]

I believe Martin is at Z Fever now.