i have been working on my wiring quite a bit the last couple days, it took me a day or two just to figure out exactly how i wanted to do it all.

i stripped the 12a engine harness of all unneeded wiring and im planning on using it to connect the megasquirt harness to the chassis harness.


here i picture i took yesterday of my engine wiring, this pic doesn't include the idle valve wiring but i did get it done. still need to figure out how i want to ground this thing.



basically all i have to do wiring wise for now is get power into my megasquirt harness and i can start testing all my sensors.

 

Looking good. Where did you get the shielded wires for the CAS? I got mine (along with all the plugs etc) from a JDM S5 harness that I stripped apart. Still haven't actually gotton around to installing my MS3 yet though. Looks like you'll beat me lol

 

theres two shielded wires going to the cas. i used the one that was in the ms3 harness and i added usb wire into the ms3x harness for the 2nd vr.

 

great work!
This is definitely one of the build threads i will be looking at alot when my gsl-se's engine goes bang.
Id love to see the car once you're finished. I work in Beaverton and goto PDX often to work on an s-55 that's parked near jet center

 

hey man, your welcome to stop by my shop anytime, the car is pretty close to the portland airport. its always good to meet other local rx7 owners.

 

Wouldn't have thought to use a USB cable, good idea.

 

and it has 4 wires inside, so if you have a megassquirt with the zeal board you can do both vr pickups through the same shielded cable.

 

Hmm what you just said is making me wonder if what I'm doing is ok. I'm using the CAS plug and wiring out of a FC harness and was just going to run one pair of wires to the main board and the other two to the MS3X and ground the shielding on the main board. Wonder if that will cause problems for me with the second VR circuit.....
Guess I'll have to wait and find out

 

Yeah cool, i look forward to seeing it. I'll have to come around some time with my rx-7 when i get my license here soon. I'll send you a PM when i've got my 7 on the road

 

sounds good man, if need a hand turning wrenches or something let me know.

 

i would cut the wires off close to the plug ~1" and solder in 2 shielded wires (1 ms3 db37, 1 ms3x db37) then solder those to the plug. you want as little unshielded cps wire as possible, and as few of solder joints. i grounded the main vr on the main plug (pin 1 or 2 i think) and the 2nd vr with an ms3x board ground.

 

Thanks heaps for the offer, same to you too! I should be all good for now though, i've just got to sell a lot of the spare parts i have accumulated recently, that's the main problem.

 

Not a bad idea. I have a bunch of USB extensions etc from work, might be worth my time to just use them instead of the old FC stuff I was going to, and just run them separate like you are...

 

You've done a great job with this build so far, keep it up! I'm planning on putting a different engine into my 7. I wanted to keep it Carb'd just because I'm not to sure about wiring but seems like you've got it down pretty well!

 

thanks for the kind words! carb'd is always a good route to go, you can always change to efi later if need be. wiring isnt really as intense as it seems, but it does require a bit of understanding which can take hrs of research.

with any project, its not what you know that will get it done, but what your willing to learn along the way.

 

I like that quote, I might have to steal it

 

i just made it up lol. go ahead tho.

 

You put that very well actually and make a great point about always being able to change to efi later on, thanks man!

 

Lol yeah you did put it very well, I liked it.

One question - did you get the DIYautotune harness for both the MS3 and MS3X? And if so, do you feel it was worth it? They are kinda pricy and it looks like many of the wires aren't even used in our application. I was planning to just make my harness from scratch using the solder cup connector. Just wondering what you thoughts are.

 

i did buy the diy harness's for both, and i was debating it at first cause of the cost, but when i started making the harness it made it so much easier to use. theres about 20 wires i dont need but im gunna snip them at different lengths and hide them in the loom in case i need them later for various things.

i do think making them with the solder cup connector would suck, but can be done with patience. plus the diy harness have all the wires labeled every foot with what pin and function.

 

That engine looks familiar! Good progress dude your moving way faster than me.

 

Yeah I'm starting to think it might be worth it as well. I'll have to give it some thought I guess...

 

thanks! once you get all the parts together yours will move fast too.

honestly, i think it would take more time to make them, then it would cost to buy. they are a work of art in a way.

 

Planning and collecting all the parts defiantly takes more time than actually swapping it doesn't it?

Yeah you might be right. Guess I'll have to add that to my "save for" list lol

 

planning and collecting does take way too damn long, but i know everything is done right and should be reliable. i started planning jan 2011 and didnt buy my engine core til november. ive pretty much spent every spare cent on it since then.