wiring clean up / roll bar prep / weight reduction

[gs14racer]

So some of you guys may be in luck as i decided to redo the entire harness on the car, the chassis harness as well as the engine harnes. I will be documenting the engine wiring this time as i get in to it. I am also prepping for the 6 point roll bar im gonna be getting installed very soon.

The wiring has been on my to do list for quite some time so heres some pics of the process so far

Removed the dash to get at the stuff underneath

Here are the a/c components which where useless.





The three a/c boxes weight 22 lbs



Then i removed all the sound deadening in the car with dry ice this stuff came out to 21 lbs

This is what it looks like so far. After the cage goes in the whole inside will be sanded and painted with basecoat and clear coat for the extra bling











The chassis harness with both fuse boxes (not including engine harness and ecu) came in at 51 lbs of just wiring can you believe it. My old battery weighed 32 lbs. So far today i have remoeved 126 lbs of weight from the car stuff that was just along for the ride

The new chassis harness weighs 15 lbs with fuse box and retains all the original functions except a/c and power mirrors. And my new battery weighs 12 lbs so releasticly i am adding 27 lbs of weight back to the car leaving me with 99lbs of total weight savings.
Modified by gs14racer at 6:35 PM 9/23/2007

[T45]

I loved ripping the Z apart. There is so much excess on these cars it's pathetic. The Z32 has 2 of everything too. I removed 2 contraptions from the rear of the front wheel wells that apparently just let air into the exhaust to pass emissions. Each side weighed probably 15 lbs. The stock airbox weighed a ton too. And you wouldn't believe how much the center panel weighs, it's backed by a steel plate, probably weighs 10 lbs.

I am keeping mine a little more stock than you though. I am going for a more sport/touring car than a speed demon. I like a nice quiet ride but also like good performance. I had to draw the line somewhere. If I were going to the length that you are to save weight I would ditch everything in the car except the seats and steering wheel, make some alum skins for the door panels and a nice custom alum dash. Probably also look into plexi windows.

Then if I go that far I would get rid of the windows and un-necessary things like the trunk lid and seat belts and brake pedals. My problem is that I don't know when to stop, so I try not to start.

[gs14racer]

The goal is less than 2700 lbs with the cage in the car, ill be keeping all the door panels and dash and carpet too.

[Guishnu]

You can save A LOT of weight on an S-body.

In all honestly - i have stripped my last two cars by hand (similar to what you did) but with the S15 (the one im putting the VH in) Im actually getting it acid dipped and epoxy primed. This will remove ALL the sound deadening, seem sealer, paint, underseal, everything.

Will also mean that when i seem weld the chassis, it's going to be a lot easier and the welds will penitrate better.

Should loose a lot of weight too.

[tmorgan4]

It sounds like you're already planning on doing the wiring writeup so I won't sit here and try and coax you into doing it. Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to help people like myself and I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with. I'm just starting the wiring myself so this will be a huge help.

[gs14racer]

Sometimes i think im crazy

Just got the bar that goes underneath the dashboard powder coated hahaha

[T45]

Yeah that's a definite waste of money. And you just added 3 oz back to the car. lol

[zehnder]

Yes! Yes!Can`t wait for the wiring write-up.Are you going to draw up a basic wiring diagram or just pictures? I hope if you do, the thread can be etched in stone!Keep up the quality work.

[gs14racer]

got most of the wiring done, just need to get the ecu stuff done.

[SeanDean]

Youre scarin' me with those battery cables about to make a death leap onto that sharp aluminum panel there man....

I'm actually gonna go take some pictures of my wiring to try and help anyone who wants to know on the wiring for an S13, or basically any car, it's really really simple.

[tmorgan4]

I've been working on the wiring for the past few days and learned a ton about how the ECU works on the VH45 and the VG33E. It seems like the majority of the functions are fairly "self-contained" on the wiring harness and plug into the ECU with the main plug, but there are several other plugs on the cabin side that hook into the main harness that runs throughout the rest of the vehicle. Many things run from the main harness into the ECU like the power and ground as well as other sensors that are not part of the engine control harness. Quite a few signals also run from the ECU out through this harness to trigger other things like the fuel pump relay, gauges, EGR valves, and so on.

I went through and labled every wire that goes into the plugs in my main harness. I have a 2000 Pathfinder (had a VG33) and there are 3 plugs + the main ECU plug. One of them is mainly engine functions, one is primarily for the automatic transmission (that I don't have), and the other is full of misc. connections. My plan is to remove these 3 connectors from the VG33 wiring harness and splice them into the necessary parts on the VH45 harness. This way I will still be able to connect the 3 plugs behind the dash just like before, and there will be no need to re-wire any other parts.

The two ECUs have almost identical inputs and outputs (with a few exceptions) but they just need to be routed to the correct pin in the ECU or to the right connector.

[T45]

I find it much easier to just swap the VH harness in place of the VG harness and hook up the remaining wires. Pinning isn't fun to me and the Z harness has about 10 wires going to the rest of the car.

[SeanDean]

I don't think he means repinning, sounds like he is cutting off the engine-to-body plugs from the VG harness and wiring them to the VH harness basically making a plug-in setup for the truck.

This is basically what I did on My S13, but Nissan wiring changed a lot from 1989 to 1997 so some wires that were on the same connector originally are now on different ones to match the 240SX ...

[tmorgan4]

SeanDean...you got it. Exactly what I was looking to do.

[gs14racer]

well i got the car to start and run today with the new wiring, ill be documenting it later for you guys

[T45]

I got the Q harness in and it is almost as if it were meant for this car. The ECU mounted in the factory Z bracket in the factory location and the grommet is identical. Too bad the rest of the swap won't be as easy...


Modified by T45 at 2:02 PM 10/8/2007

[gs14racer]

SAY NO TO ENGINE BAY FUSE BOXESIn my opinion the engineay looks much better now, gonna move around a few things to unclutter certain areas cant do to much as there is a drift event this sunday im going to.



Smaller light wait battery in the trunk to help out weight distribution



Total wiring removed weight 53lbs Total weight added back in 9.5 lbs

Plus 85 percent of everything that worked before still works now lol

[T45]

Dude that is a lot of crap you took out! Hellz yeah. I just wish this Z didn't have so much electrical. Everything is friggin power, even the damn mirrors are heated.

The 240 is a much better platform to start with for a VH swap than the Z is IMO. It's lighter, the engine bay is bigger, and you can do it without cutting a hole in the hood.

Too bad it looks like a probe...

[gs14racer]

Almost done

Just in time too drift event on sunday watch for some more action vids and pics

[zehnder]

Hey! Very nice job.I hope you had fun burning up the course.Hate to beat a dead horse, but, are you still planning to write up the wiring you did? Just by looking at the pictures, it is hard to tell what you kept relatively stock and your custom fuse link,what ECU and harness wires you adapted and how,what and where the your relays are placed. If there is a possible way to detail it and make it a "stuck" thread, we could quit rehashing stuff that I`m sure must be boring you to death! Thanks in advance. Zehnder

[gs14racer]

Im still working on the engine harness and depinning the spare one to make a new one, so that will be soon hopefully, Im working on getting the car painted right now though.

On a side note I took the car to be weighed today, came in at 2760 lbs with a half tank of gas and my torque wrench, Well under what a stock s14 weighs so I am happy for now, went the carbon hood finally gets here it should shed another 25-30lbs.

[T45]

Damn that's light. I won't be able to touch you. lol I think im going to be around 3200. The Z is a pig. A good handling, sexy pig.

That's crazy though that you added 4 cyl's, gobs of power and weigh less than stock. What ratio is your rear?

[gs14racer]

And i added 100 lbs of wheels and tires lol still lighter than stock haha.

My stock rear was 4.08 , i changed to a 3.92 which is where I am at now.

I want to change to a 3.70 or 3.63, or 3.54 see what that will do

[T45]

Do you burn through the gears quickly? I remember one of your vids and it seemed to run up rpm's very fast.

I had planned on swapping the Q45 rear end into my Z until I watched the vid on MWS. He swapped the TT rear for a NA rear and dropped one second off his 0-60. Then I re-considered.

http://www.mwsmotorsports.com/mwstv.htm

Second up from the bottom is the NA swap.

[tmorgan4]

Any idea what the width is on your "frame" rails? Or anyone with a 240sx/300zx? I just measured mine and suprised to see they're only just over 29" apart. Fortunately the stock headers will just clear.

[gs14racer]

Do you burn through the gears quickly? I remember one of your vids and it seemed to run up rpm's very fast.

I had planned on swapping the Q45 rear end into my Z until I watched the vid on MWS. He swapped the TT rear for a NA rear and dropped one second off his 0-60. Then I re-considered.

http://www.mwsmotorsports.com/mwstv.htm

Second up from the bottom is the NA swap.

Lets put it this way, I live in the middle of the block, If i take off and pop alll the gears I can spin the tires all the way thru third gear lol.

As far as normal acceleration It does go thru pretty quickly. I have to modulate second if I shift normal if not It will spin the tires.

[gs14racer]

I believe that my frame rails are 29 inches as well, ill make sure to measure next time I get a chance.

[T45]

Damn. And you have what....like 285's on the rear? That's just nasty.

[gs14racer]

295 aoon to be 315's

[T45]

Dude those aren't tires they're ****ing interstates. haha