Ok this is gonna be a long post with a lot of questions. Please bare with me.....

I just bought an 88 Iroc from a guy in town which had been stolen from him. The theifs ripped the engine and transmission out of it before ditching it. He had no insurance and no place to rebuild the car so he was forced to sell what was left of it. I picked it up for $750.

I have a freshly built 360cu in sbc to install in the car as well as a th350 which has been built up as well. The engine is a 70's model block, cast iron heads, Performer RPM intake, and 750cfm carb with a HEI ignition on it.

I do not want to run the a/c or smog components. I do want the heater but do not want to use the stock hose routing system with that funny little black thing that goes way up by the a/c compressor. I do not know how to route the hoses, and had heard that there was some reason for using the stock configuration. ???got me???

The crooks wire in a nice little hurry and cut all the wires about 6" from the firewall. There a only a few wires left intact. I have a manual and am going to go through it but and tips on which wires will be essential for me would be appreciated.

The radiator and fan setup is gone from the car. Im wondering if a stock style radiator with the single electric fan will be enough to cool the engine or if I should go with a larger radiator and a dual electric or pulley mounted fan setup. ???opinions???
If i do go about using an electric setup what would be the best way to configure the fan's on/off setting as I have no preinstalled wiring as it sits right now?

Considering the fact that I am not going to use half of the components that were originally in the car I am debatng on using the set of serpentine brackets I got from a friend or just using a V-belt setup for the alternator and power steering. ???that a good idea???

Im tired of typing...Ill ask a lot more q's soon...I promise!

 

Tell us a bit more about it, did they cutted ALL wires ??? likes, turn signal harness, ecm, wiper , EVERYTHING

if so, get a donor car and transplant everything, or you may get 18 circuit painless wiring kit !!!

 

There are TWO big groups of wires coming from the firewall. One is on the drivers side...one on the passenger side. They cut them both.

I have talked to a guy who has a wiring harness from a non-TPI car. I can buy it from him but I dont know if it will work or not. I have no idea if one harness is for the ECM and one is for the lighting/etc or what.

I have found the wire which will turn on all the power windiows, dash lights, hatch switch, etc. It is on the drivers side. Im wondering if that harness if for everything but the computer stuff for the TPI engine.

Considering that all I need up front are the tach, lights, starter, etc....I dont need all that other junk....Im wondering if all the wiring is the same for my needed components in a non TPI car. My guess is yes, but Im not sure.

Theres no way Ill buy a Painless kit though...$300+ for the harness....heck no!

Im pretty sure I can get the wiring under control....Im more worried about the fan/belt setup than anything.

 

Patience is the key here. I went through a similar process when I swapped engines. The previous owner had scrapped all the polution controls and cut a lot of the wires out of the engine compartment. If you don't have one yet, get a GM service manual for your car. You will only have one year of wiring diagrams to contend with. I started with a Chiltons manual and had to learn all the differences between all the various engine and wiring combinations before figuring out what applied to my car.

I bought a box of colored pencils, sat down and traced every wire on the diagram in diferrent colors. I made frequent trips to the garage to verify which wires and terminal blocks were intact and which weren't. (I had the luxury of taking my time.) By the time I was done, I could tell what every wire was suppose to do and what color it originally was. I did 90% of the rewiring with the engine out of the car and the other 10% after the engine was back in. Fired up the first try.

I also went through the cooling and air conditioning issue.

All this was 6 years ago and the memory is a bit foggy, but still have my notes and diagrams. Will assist if I can.

By the way, if some think my method extreme, it certainly helped out when I bought the IROC. It was dead on the dealers lot. Cranked fine but wouldn't start. Bought it for 2 grand, tweaked under the dash, swapped in the radio fuse for a missing engine control fuse and drove it home. The salesman had to scrape his jaw off the parking lot.

 

For you cooling and fan question, here is what I ended up doing.

The 305 originally had a single large cooling fan. I scrapped it and installed a dual Flexlite fan setup with optional adjustable thermostat. The fan is mounted directly to the stock radiator. The thermostat uses a capillary tube mounted inside the upper radiator hose at the radiator. Thermostat housing has its own relay and wiring instructions are included. I also placed a Hypertech temperature sensor in the block right above one and three spark plugs. The Hypertech comes on at 176 degrees and off at 160 degrees. I set the second fan to come on around 180 degrees.

The Hypertech sensor relay is mounted on the firewall relay mounting bracket where some non-essentials used to be. I also wired in manual on/off switches.

I've had no overheating issues with this setup. In fact, when winter comes, I disconnect the wire to the low temp sensor, drop in a 195 degrees stat, adjust the temperature on the adjustable to come on just as the engine thermostat opens and engine temp stays about 195-205.