First off let me say this, this is the first car im ever tearing into and i may sound like a dumb@ss sometimes, and im not the best at explaining things, but i dont know nothing about motors, i build and race national race quads...Well i have a 1988 firebird with a 350 and the wiring is absolutly insane, it was a 2.8 efi car and i think the prievious owner left all the wires, now this is a project car so im just getting an idea on some things, all the work is going down in the winter when i pull the motor, BUT, i need to wire A LOT of things, i need to wire just about all the gauges besides the tach, and anything else the motor needs to run, not sure what all that stuff is but thats what i need help with, well i guess what im wondering is how hard would it be to wire all the stuff i need done? Is there any wire kits i could get? Well i know some of you are probably lost at this point but share your knowledge, tomarrow i will snap some pictures of the wiring hell this thing has in it......Thanks.

 

Since you say the wiring was a mess, if I were you, I would purchase a Helm service manual for a 1988 Firebird. Helm makes dealer service manuals, and they have all the wiring diagrams for that year of car. Otherwise, I think that you'll spend more time on here trying to take pictures and figure out the wiring without diagrams.

 

If you want to buy a kit as you mentioned and rip everything out and start celan, I would look to get one from Painless.

http://www.painlessperformance.com/

 

Sorry guys i was busy the past couple days....check out this mess....






What the hell is this thing? lol

 

i believe thats the vacuum canister

 

I feel your pain, man, I really I do. My dad and I have been rewiring an 87 IROC trying to reverse what some moron did in an attempt to run TPI without the computer. It took us about a year of on again off again work, but we've just about got the wiring stuff ironed out (this, of course, is when it bites us square in the @$!). I can't even begin to recommend the service manual enough. There is no other way of slugging through that colossal mess without the correct schematics at the least, and some of the diagrams in that book are absolute lifesavers. It's certainly doable, just takes patience...lots of patience. Good luck.

 

That's the charcoal EVAP canister. The thing on the top is the purge solenoid.

 

Does it have to stay?
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Where can i get a service manual like you talked about?

 

It doesn't have to, but it improves fuel mileage a little bit. It captures vapors from the gas tank, and when called upon by the ECM, they're used. If it's working correctly, I wouldn't remove it.

 

I have no idea if it even works haha

 

It's computer controlled, so I'm guessing no


There is a proper way to remove it... You will need to vent the gas tank another way, through a vented cap.

 

haha well i guess ill leave it...