hello every one , i have gathered various parts that i have changed from stock to aftermarket off of my 87 irock . an was thinking of making another tpi system for my elcamino since i have these parts an have some idea how to work on them already. here are i a fewe questions i have so far ! 1. who here has has a car other than our f bodys with a tpi in it ? 2. has any one used a painless wiring harrness ? what was the hardest part about puting the harrness in ? 3. was thinking of going to a 88/89 ecm not sure which is the better one for maf ? an whats the ecm # . what will i need to change or delete once i run this emc ? an will the chip or prom in my 87 ecm work in the 88/89 ecm? thanks chad

1, Corvettes. AFAIK, thats it.

2, Yes, I have. The engine bay is easy for the most part. But trying to graft all the harnesses together was a bit of a pain. Plus the wire lenghts are not 100% correct. But they get the job done.

Look for posts by Dyno Don and email him. He as done two of the El Camino conversions that I know of. One was a 383 and the other a 350.

1. who here has has a car other than our f bodys with a tpi in it ?

Me. G-body swap.

2. has any one used a painless wiring harrness ? what was the hardest part about puting the harrness in ?

Painful. As stated, tying in the harness to the car itself, not all the connectors are supplied nor are the wires useful lengths. The underhood part is simple, straightforward. The IP harness, neutral hookup, fans, AC switch, etc are not.

3. was thinking of going to a 88/89 ecm not sure which is the better one for maf ? an whats the ecm # . what will i need to change or delete once i run this emc ? an will the chip or prom in my 87 ecm work in the 88/89 ecm?

86-89 ecm's are identical, the PROM is different. 88 is pretty much the same as 87. 89 eliminated cold start, and changed a few other things. You can reprogram the chip from your 87 to 89 code, and disconnect the cold start valve.

thanks guys for the info .
i dont mean to sound like a dumb*ss but please explain more on what u mean by tying in the harrness to the car it self ?
what is the ip harness ?
do u need a netueral hook up on a 4 or 5 speed car ?

an if madmax would send some pics of his g body would be great
thanks chad

A painless harness is made to go into a car which you are installing everything. Like a old 50's truck or some crap. Its not really made to go into a 80-something GM as a factory replacement harness. Some wires are too long (engine bay) some are too short (Everything else.) My car's wiring harness looks unclean and like crap. Thats why I am redoing it all again so I can make it look somewhat decent.

I have a 77 Camaro with a Holley Stealth Ram in it. I used the painless harness and had no problems (except some wires being too short and others being too long, but most were fine). I am using a '165 MAF system.

how did you guys cut a hole in the fire wall to put the wiring in the car tp put the computer in the car ? mine is a maf systen too! what did u use to seal the wires intoo the firewall once they were in there ?
thanks chad

I'm using a Howell harness in my Monte Carlo. The harness passes through the firewall protected by the original grommet. The length of the wiring was perfect. However, the harness does not support electric fans or the AC switch. I'm also still working on the park /neutral wiring. There's a genuine manual trans steering column in the Monte leaving me with a couple of left-over wires.

I put a TPI/700r in a 37 chevy about 5 years ago. I used a harness by a guy in Gadsden AL named "Dr K". It worked okay.
I now have a TPI/700r in a 40 chevy with same harness, works great. I'm using a Painless harness in a 58 vette I'm installing TPI/700r with little trouble. I just got through putting a TPI/700r in my wife's 67 Firebird with a harness that the guy on Chevythunder.com sells on ebay. His is the best yet. I bought a converted Camaro SD harness, all sensors and relays, and 730 ecm, with edited chip for 329.00. His harness conversion was probably I've used yet.
I am also building a 41 Chevy pickup with TBI/4L60E and I'm using the harness/ecm from the same 93 pickup I got running gear out of. A buddy helped me clean out un-needed wiring and just re-taped it. I can hide escess here and there under dash and such, but it came with engine/trans as a package.
As already said, you have to add some wire here and take some away there, but if you pay attention, you can do it.
The chevythunder.com guy has ebay auction #8019360190 going on now. His work is quality and you can get almost everthing you need. He includes good instructions also. His website is killer also.

we used a painless harness to put a LS1 in a 68 camaro. it worked out pretty good. but there were some wires that were too long, it had some wiring that was not needed, & it was missing the wires for the A/C going to the PCM.

i put a 92 S/D TPI setup in my 83 monte carlo, i used the factory camaro harness.
i have most everything working like the factory wanted, P/N, A/C inputs, fans, canister purge, TCC lockup.
the painless LS1 setup in the 68 was easier to put in & hook up, but if i did mine over again with what i know,.. i would still use a factory harness.

i opened up the hole where the 83 carbed harness went through my fire wall to fit the bigger TPI harness. i have no leaks & it stays in place.

how are u guys geting your a/c and smog to work if the wires are not there ? i would also love to see pics of your cars an the engs in them as i might get some ideas for mine . also u say u put the wires where the stock ecm wire would of been , do u know if cars that didne have ecm like my 79 elcamino . wouild it still have a place there but the hole wouldnt be punched out ?
i was thinking of buying a kick panel that had the ecm in it an puting my ecm in it kinda like it was stock ? what do u guys think ?
thanks

I know the owners of several trucks have converted to TPI. I also know of atleast 1 Chevrolet Astro that has a 305 TPI in it. Finally I know of a 1994 TBI 350 Suburban converted to TPI.

I've got a 383 Super Ram with an aftermarket BW T56 in an 84 Cutlass. I also used a Howell harness.

As said previously, it fit in the stock hole the original (carbed V6) harness went through the firewall.

When I first did my swap, I kept coming up with a code for the knock sensor. I finally traced it down to a wire that wasn't properly connected to the pin. Recrimped the pin on the wire, problem fixed.

All the smog related items needed are there. It's just not set up to run the a/c and the fans the way the factory did. I had to buy a seperate dual fan harness from Howell for an additional $70.

To run a manual tranny, you just connect the two wire that would normally go to the neutral switch together.

The IP harness is the instrument panel harness. With good instructions and some patience, all the wires under the dash wasn't too bad to run. Just take your time. It's not a job you want to try to do in a weekend for a first timer TPI swapper.

I'm soon going to be swapping everything into a better rust free body (86 Cutlass) and instead of using the Howell harness, I'll use a factory harness to run it ExACTLY the way the factory intended.

DENN_SHAH can I email you about using that factory harness? I have a few questions about it.

If you request egr, etc when ordering harness, all the wiring will be there. By using a converted oem harness, you get everything. Usually you will have to get someone to edit out the VATS on your eprom in ecm. There's a guy on ebay that will do that for 20.00.

hey guys thanks for all the info !
sad part is i have already bought a painlesss kit , for egr/ac are the pins there just no wires ? as most of us i am on a $$$ limit . an i still have some small parts too buy . so i guess I AM KINDA STUCK WITH with the harrnes i have but a/c is a must even if it takes it awhile to get it going .
thanks

How did that work out?

I've got an 89 TPI 350 in my cherokee. it hauls ***.

Check out my site for a schematic and lots of pics.
It been a great hobby
I did my harness from scratch and feel it was well worth the effort.
Nothing would seem to fit how I wanted to do it.
what ever you do, solder everything (including crimp pin connection) and you will have a trouble free system.
Mine is SD so it will be slightly different than your MAF setup but may still help.

I'm putting an L69 w/TPI into my '93 Jeep YJ. is that a bad thing?

read those instructions like you would if they were the instructions to living another day. the tech at painless is very helpfull also. The main key to installing the harness is patience. if you run into a problem and do not know what to do STOP relax and think about what you are doing.

It never hurts to reread the instructions and then when you are done with that reread the instructions. If you dont have the paitience or the money to do something right get anouther job and an older more experienced car guy.

I re-ran the harness under the hood about 10 times before hooking up a single wire. It sucked but it looks like this.

A 3.1 sat in hear before.

heres another

FAST 355


how did the lo5 tbi swap to a tpi go in the suburban. The reson i'm asking is cause i would like to go tpi in my truck also. The only thing i see stand in my way is the fact the truck has a 4L60E trans in it.

Did the suburban has a 700r4 in it. If it has a 4L60E what ecm did u use to control the engine and trans as one unit.

a 93/94 camaro/ caprice obd1 set-up?

The 1990-1992 models had 4l60E's in them. Just a standard SD ECU and harness will work.

If you have a 700R4 and want 1990+, you have to buy a adaptor from panless which converts your mechanical speedo into a mechanical and electric.

The swap used the stock TBI truck ECM (transmission control) piggy backed to the SD TPI ecm (runs the engine).

http://www.edgesz28.com/edgesZ28/sub...urban-home.htm

I just did the swap in a 95 Tahoe 4x4. We switched to a 700r4, though, to eliminate the trans control issues. - If you're keeping the 4l60e, then the best way would probably be an LT1 computer/harness. Think of mileage and everything before you do either. Unless you're tranny is in really good shape, an upgrade to a good 700r might be a better way to go. (upgrade meaning NOT stock rebuild...) - I'm about to do the swap in my 95 4x4 burban,(also going 700R4) but I'm probably going to switch to the mega squirt computer, because I'm going to run a small roots type blower. w/ the aftermarket ecu, I'll be able to tune on the fly, and a few other options that seem easier in my opinion...plus I can buy it for the cost of the TPI ecm tuning software/hardware and it has a 3-bar MAP(more boost friendly).

later, justin...

ps. - if you have any questions, PM me...