FoxBody Red Fox Build Thread Profile - Fox Body Mustangs

[Fabman]

Small update on the car. I got a good portion of the wiring to the bulkhead done this weekend. I finished pinning the rest of the Holley connectors and got them ready to sleeve in DR25.

View attachment 91849

I was able to turn it into this.

View attachment 91850

View attachment 91851

I still need to wire the WBO2 sensors and the bulkhead. The WBO2 will be easy the bulkhead is going to take a lot of work. I'm hoping to have them both wired by Wednesday so I can start wiring the engine.

Jesus, much respect to anyone that takes on a wiring project like this....extra props if it works!

 

[Peter92lx]

Jesus, much respect to anyone that takes on a wiring project like this....extra props if it works!

Here's to hoping it works because I don't want to spend a lot of time figuring out why it doesn't. I did make more progress on the car last night. I finished up wiring for the widebands and started the bulkhead connector.



My service loop technique could use some work but alright for my first time. I originally thought I cut the wires to long but found with the service loop and everything it will be the perfect length. I should have this finished up tonight so I can start on the engine bay tomorrow.

 

[Peter92lx]

Making progress on the car each day. I'm still a day behind schedule right now but trying to get caught up today. I got the injector harness completed before Christmas. It came out pretty good there's a couple things I would change but I'm happy with it. Here's how it looked when I started.



Here's it finished and installed in the car.







I started building the main engine harness yesterday. I'm hoping to have it completed tomorrow night but we will see. It turns out building a concentric twist wiring harness isn't easy.





The birds nest coming off the connector is the next layer should be fun. Then I have one more layer to build then another test fit in the car. Before I try and seal up the harness I will do a pin test then it's sheathing, labeling and booting the connectors. Hopefully Friday I will have some pictures of the completed main harness.

 

[Peter92lx]

i got the main section of the harness twisted yesterday,. I'm happy with how it came out but I do see how better planning in the beginning would have saved me time and probably cut one layer out of the concentric. The last layer was mostly filler wire.



You can see in the final layer all the green wire is filler.



I had sheath the main section before continuing since it probably wouldn't fit later.



I will say even with how much of a pain it was to build it does make for a very flexible harness section. The section covered in DR-25 bends around really easy even with it being around 1/2 inch thick. I need to twist two of the branches of the off the main section then test fit it to the car. I should be able to get that done tonight. If all goes well finalize the harness on Saturday. Then move onto the next phase setting everything up in the PMU and Holley software.

 

[TMSBOSS]

Nice work.

For those of us who are ignorant regarding wiring. Why the twist in the bundle?

 

[Peter92lx]

Nice work.

For those of us who are ignorant regarding wiring. Why the twist in the bundle?

It does a few things it makes the bundle really flexible. You can bend it around in a loop and the wires on either end won't change length. If you bend a normal harness around a corner the inside wires will be longer then the outside wires causing strain on the outside wires. It also gives the bundle a circular cross section which looks nicer when you cover it with DR-25. It also makes it easier to completely seal the harness. The picture below is the main section of my engine harness with DR-25 and you can see the nice clean and circular. Then the section I just finished which going to bend 180 and around a corner.





Honestly was this over kill for my car probably but I've never tried it before and this was a good opportunity to try it. Here's a link to HP Academy youtube video about concentric twisting a a wiring harness.

 

[Peter92lx]

After a ton of work building and testing here's the finished main engine harness.



By some miracle all the pins tested fine from the Dominator connectors all the way to each connector. I finished it up on Sunday but wasn't able to install it until yesterday. I had to let all the sealing resin dry before I could install it. I started working on programing the PMU-16's yesterday and have most of that finished. I still have a few more thing to program but I have the AEM CD-7L talking with the Dominator and the Dominator talking with the PMU-16's. I'm hoping to start it Wednesday but the way thing have been going my guess is Friday. Then it's off to get tuned on Jan 8 if all is working properly.

 

[Bill Pemberton]

Impressive job and do let us know how things turn out the 8th!

 

[Peter92lx]

Well after not running since the beginning of June she is finally alive.

It still needs some work but it will idle and it looks like my wiring job has worked so far. Now it's time to get it dialed in. Unfortunately that is pushed back until probably Wednesday. Then I need to get it back home and get the interior reinstalled to make it look good inside again. I'll post an update once the tuning is done.

 

[TMSBOSS]

Sweet noise!!

 

[TYancy]

Awesome job!

 

[Peter92lx]

Thanks guys I'm really happy to have it at least running. I can't wait for the Jan 21 event to finally get back behind the wheel of the car.

 

[Peter92lx]

The car made it to JBA for tuning yesterday barely. It's funny it will start and idle but man when you tried to gas it to move then let off it would just fumble and die. They said it should take a couple days if all goes well.

 

[Peter92lx]

I picked the car up from JBA yesterday. It was finished on Friday but I didn't feel like driving it home in traffic. The car runs great has really good cold start and warm starts on E85 which is nice. We are still dealing with a bit of an idle hunt when it's cold but goes away when the car warms up. It was fight to get it to idle we think the fact it has a light weight flywheel and crank. The motor accelerates and decelerates so fast the the IAC is having a hard time controlling it. We put a bit of a restrictor on one of the ports of the IAC to test and seems to help control the motor better. I'm taking it back next week so we can make a permanent solution. I just need the car back so I could start on getting the interior back in the car. I made good progress yesterday on it.



Then I started work on the dash. I still have to work out what I'm going to do around the gauge cluster. I've considered one of these dashes for my car but not sure just yet.

http://www.schoneckcomposites.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=61



I picked up some factory vents since I don't have any of the gauges in the dash anymore. Next is the carpet which is going to be a pain. When I removed the old carpet it had melted a little bit to the floor of the car and ripped when I pulled it out. It happened around the area the cats were kind of close to the floor of the car. I should have put heat shielding in that area. Looking forward to get behind the wheel next weekend. It will be the first time racing my car in 7 months. Once this event is done I'm going to install the G-Force Outlaw axles I have for the car and the new brakes. Then the car is going to stay the same for the rest of the season. But I also tell myself that at the beginning of every season.

 

[blacksheep-1]

Very nice

 

[Peter92lx]

The interior is back in the car. I have a few things to finish up but for the most part it's done.



I need to work on the bezel around the dash. I didn't want to rush it so I didn't try and mess with it. Also where the heat and air controls normally go I'm going to mount USB ports so you can plug into the Dash, Holley and PMU-16's. I'm just waiting for the stuff to come from amazon. The car is going back to JBA for a day then load it up and off to the first event of the season.

 

[Peter92lx]

The first event out had some good and bad. The good I won the bad the car is loosing oil pressure. I only got one timed run but it was good enough for the win. I was bummed I knew the car was much faster with the mistakes I made on my run. The course was damp but drying and getting better. I know I could have put down a better time. Here's my fastest and only run of the day.

Now I have to figure out what is going on with the car. It started to struggle to start and not run right once the oil pressure went low. No weird sounds from the motor but the oil pressure was running between 10-12psi and sometimes up yo 17psi. It could be a sensor problem but didn't want to take a chance. I was trying to keep my gauges to just the dash but I'm going to add a mechanical oil pressure gauge to the car so I have something to verify the pressure the dash is telling me. The car wasn't overheating but I'm going to check to see if the radiator is full and I'm not loosing coolant into the oil causing it to thin out. I'm running Evans water less coolant and they say if you have a leak Evans will find it.

 

[TYancy]

The first event out had some good and bad. The good I won the bad the car is loosing oil pressure. I only got one timed run but it was good enough for the win. I was bummed I knew the car was much faster with the mistakes I made on my run. The course was damp but drying and getting better. I know I could have put down a better time. Here's my fastest and only run of the day.

Now I have to figure out what is going on with the car. It started to struggle to start and not run right once the oil pressure went low. No weird sounds from the motor but the oil pressure was running between 10-12psi and sometimes up yo 17psi. It could be a sensor problem but didn't want to take a chance. I was trying to keep my gauges to just the dash but I'm going to add a mechanical oil pressure gauge to the car so I have something to verify the pressure the dash is telling me. The car wasn't overheating but I'm going to check to see if the radiator is full and I'm not loosing coolant into the oil causing it to thin out. I'm running Evans water less coolant and they say if you have a leak Evans will find it.

Hopefully you just have a bad sensor or a grounding issue. I had an oil pressure sensor nearly give me a $15k stroke once not long after my engine was in the car. Also, I've got one small ground wire when loose drives my gauges crazy. That hasn't happened in years, but when it does happen, I know what it is.

 

[Peter92lx]

That's what I'm hoping the car didn't have this problem before the rewire so I'm hoping it's just a sensor issue. I'm going to get the mechanical gauge hooked up and see what happens. If I still have low oil pressure my guess is I will find something in the oil and filter. Maybe I will be building a 363 this year.

 

[Peter92lx]

I got the mechanical gauge installed in the car. It reads the same as the dash and Holley gauges. We think the pressure bypass in the pump might be stuck open or part way open. Unfortunately you won't know until we dig into the engine. Instead of pulling the engine I'm thinking drop the kmember to remove the oil pan to check the pump and replace it. I think it will be easier then pulling the engine out of the car.