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OK, so I'm hoping this will be my only thread for this upgrade. Most of my questions are electrical based, but there might be a few unrelated ones along the way. Hope that is ok.
This first entry will be mostly just hashing out a little bit of information about the injection system I've bought. Questions, pictures and detailed information will be added as soon as I have time to do so.
First off, my car is right now a mostly stock LG4, albeit an 87 model with the 081 heads and a roller cam. I have been trying for ages to get the old carb to work properly, but it keeps stumbling with intermittency, a problem I have never been able to pinpoint. As much as I want the carb to work, I have now grown tired of trying and failing. So, last month, when I happened to stumble upon a used TPI setup for sale not far from where I live I decided it was time to go injected.
Secondly, I do not live in the US (sadly), where parts (new and used) seem to be readily available, and getting a new relay or pigtail connector can be done by swinging by the nearest autozone or similar. Cheapest shipping option avaialbe to me usually takes days or weeks, depending on size, and with shipping and handling costs and import taxes, any purchase price will at least triple by the time I hold the item in my hands. The reason I've added this information is so that hopefully you will keep in mind that the easiest solutions for me (if the setup I have bought turns out to be a hassle) might not be to "just get a new or different one". Such a thing might not be an option for me. I am hoping that we can make what I have work
And what I have, ladies and gentlemen, is a TPI system (intake, fuel rails, runners, plenum, throttle body and harness) that has been taken from an 89 Firebird with a 350 engine, converted to MAP, and put together with an aftermarket Haltech E6GM ECU. The wiring has been lightly modified by the looks of things, and features such as EGR and AIR seem to have been removed).
The guy I bought it from had it installed in his 74 Camaro with a tranny that did not have a lock up function (the latter of which is one of my concerns that I'll be adressing later on). He also used an MSD standalone ignition box, which he did not include, and so I have converted it back to factory ignition wiring. According to the P.O his car was running strong and everything was working fine when he removed it (upgrading to stroker/carb combo)
There were a lot of extra junk and unused wires included as well in the harness bundle that I got , but most of that I have carefully removed and stripped down to its essential components. A few pigtails were missing, but I have managed to get most of them, among others the knock sensor and the ignition coil connector (paid $61 all totalled for just that last one, just to give you a little perspective).
Now, having said all that, I guess I'll start by asking about the Haltech ECU. It can apparently be programmed in a lot of different ways, but only if I can get it hooked up to a computer. It has a propriatary connector on the back of it, but I am missing the cable that connects it to a computer through a serial port (do those even exist any more?) I sent an email to Haltech to inquire about the cable, but they could only refer me to a diagram and advise me to try and fabricate a cable of my own. If any of you can help me figure out how to do that, I think a lot of my follow up questions and concerns can be stricken, such as how many pulses per mile has the road speed input been calibrated for(4000? 2000?), can I use my existing knock sensor, has the ESC functionality been completely deleted (none of the wires were hooked up when I got it), will I still get fault codes from the SES light, etc etc.
Thank you all for any help with this. I am hoping I can have it all up and running by the summer.
More questions, pictures and info will follow in the coming days.
Post a good clear non-fuzzy pic of the connector with a ruler next to it. Be aware that the connector pitch is likely to be in the international standard for such things, rather than metric; likely to be a .100" pitch.
I am also trying to figure out which knock sensor this system will need. As I understand it, there are different sensors for 305 and 350 engines, but GM also made a change when going from MAF to MAP IIRC. So which will fit the bill for my application? 90-92 MAP system on a 305 engine. I don't suppose I'm so lucky that I can use the one I have on it now?
That one looks about right I'll shop around for it locally now that I have the part number. Next step I guess will be to get a Serial cable for the other end, which is what the manual calls for. Unless of course I can skip a step and wire it diectly to USB.
Quoth the manual:
"The programming cable supplied with the Haltech E6GM is a standard serial link extension cable.
One end of the cable will plug into the Main Harness PC Interface connector (near the main
connector). The other end should plug into the mating connector at the back of your computer.
The plug on the computer may be marked "Serial", "Mouse" or "COM"."
That one looks about right I'll shop around for it locally now that I have the part number. Next step I guess will be to get a Serial cable for the other end, which is what the manual calls for. Unless of course I can skip a step and wire it diectly to USB.
Quoth the manual:
"The programming cable supplied with the Haltech E6GM is a standard serial link extension cable.
One end of the cable will plug into the Main Harness PC Interface connector (near the main
connector). The other end should plug into the mating connector at the back of your computer.
The plug on the computer may be marked "Serial", "Mouse" or "COM"."
You should be able to find a serial to USB cable pretty easily.
Ok, so the connector is on its way, and I'm getting an rs232 cable this week. What I really need help with is which wire conects to which pin. I could probably manage to connect Rx and Tx correctly (50/50 chance I would mess that up as well), but the rest of the pins I have no idea.
Can anyone help me make a pin by pin numbered instruction for an electronics newbie like myself?
I've found a picture of the ECU kit with cable and all. Seems like the main connector that plugs in to the ECU splits into three separate connectors.
"The programming cable supplied with the Haltech E6GM is a standard serial link extension cable. One end of the cable will plug into the Main Harness PC Interface connector (near the main
connector)."
Notice the "Patch cable" and "Program cable" on the picture below.
Might be that the rs232 cable only needs Rx, Tx and ground perhaps?
Connector fits into the socket, but the pins don't seem to enter their slots properly. The connector stops when it reaches half way in. Phone died recently, but I'll see if I can't snap a picture of it later.
Ordered a smaller connector with same pin out specs, i.e 0.100" pitch and so forth. Seems the measurements might have been inaccurate, so I'll get a hold of a dial calliper later today and get some more accurate measurements.
In the mean time, I've been looking at the engine control harness at the other end of the ECU, and I think I'm getting close to repairing the hack job that the P.O did.
I do have a couple of questions I'm hoping you guys can help me with, and I'll post some pictures to go with it. Becuse, as I said earlier, this was originally an 89 MAF setup from a Firebird, which has been converted to a MAP setup using an ECU from Haltech. The system I bought came with three pin out diagrams for the ECU. One from Haltech, one that says "issued by GFO", and one that presumably the P.O has made. There are some discrepancies between the three, but they also complement each other at some points. However the color coding on the diagrams do not always match up with the colors on the wires.
First question, is this fuse box original, or should the wires going through it really be going through the fuse box in my dash? I can't recall having seen any external fuse boxes on my LG4 setup, but I suppose TPI is different
Secondly, I have no idea what this connector does. It has a red and a black wire coming from it. The black wire has been cut, but I suspect it goes to ground. The red wire splices into the large red/blk wire coming from the fuel pump relay (terminal A). Do I need it, or can I remove it?
And, I am also wondering how to connect the fan relay. Terminal A (orange) goes to a long coil of wire not connected to anything. Terminal C (blue) has been cut 10" from the relay. Terminal D (tan/white) has been cut about 6" from the relay. Terminal E goes to a single fuse and then to another coil of thick wire not connected to anything, and terminal F is a small thin black wire that is cut 20" or so from the relay.
I'm still looking for a fan relay wiring diagram for an 89 TPI firebird, but from what I've gathered so far, the fan seems to be operated by the ECU, and not the fan switch in the passenger side cylinder head. Is that correct?
Caliper measurements showed that the pitch is 0.125" with a row spacing of ~5mm. If I can't get a connector that fits I might just solder or crimp the wires. At least temporarily, to see if the thing still works. I'm ordering two single row 0.125"x6 connectors to see if that works.
But I still have no idea how to connect the two. I have an RS232 cable and a USB transition cable, so I am ready to cut and connect, but without knowing which wire goes where I'm dead in the water.
One step closer to figuring out the fan relay, if nothing else. At first I couldn't figure out why the relay had five wires going to it and only half the wires were correct color code. Turns out whoever converted this system from MAF to MAP decided to use one of the MAF relays as a fan relay.
Status quo on the ECU connector. Haven't found any 1x6 0.125" pitch connectors, so I'm just going to use insulated terminal connectors and plug them in one by one. Question is, can I do a dry run as it were, connecting the system to a 12V battery and to a laptop while it is still in my living room? Just Tx, Rx and ground?
Got the system installed. Figured out all the pins to the ECM harness. Got a hold of an original Haltech connector cable, and an old laptop with a serial connector running Win98.
Car starts and runs, albeit a bit rich for my blood, but I can't connect to the ECU. The software starts on the computer, but when I try to connect to the ECM it does nothing.
To summarize the last six years: Bought a factory TPI harness, but even still I never got the Haltech TPI-system to run quite right. Switched bak to the original LG4 CCC carb setup. Moved houses a few times in between and in the process I lost the programming cable, so now I am back to square one. Only difference is, now I have a 3D printer and am learning how to use Shapr3d to create what I need
At least all the pins line up, but I have to adjust the outer dimensions of the connector.
First draft of a prototype connector. Plan is to make it work with standard Delphi Metri-Pack crimp terminals. Once it's finished I'll upload it here and to Thingiverse.com for anyone to download and use.
02-25-2016, 03:22 PM
Let me know if they aren't doing it for you Sofa, and I'll get a better ruler.
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