I'm doing my rebuild so my wiring harness is all out. It looks like crap so I was thinking of re-wrapping it with new tape, or whatever they use.

So I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions about what I should use. Some sort of tape that will withstand high temps I guess... any ideas???

I got to be sure that it will not melt... the last thing I want is to have to take the manifold off a week after the engine is put in to take out a melted harness.

 

If you want to spend a lot of coin, then I would recommend using the DEI (or Thermo Tec) heat sleeving. It's good for up to 2000F.

It's not cheap to do the whole harness...I'd say I have about 200 bucks in heat sleeving on my Haltech wiring.

 

buy some loom at crappy tire or princess auto. Probably cost about 10 bucks to do the entire harness. Just use the high temp stuff where necessary.

 

You'll regret doing that.

It's not just high temps that you have to worry about. The engine bay is a harsh environment, and regular tape wont cut it - that's why manufacturers have specific wrap for the job. It has to resist high and low temps, as well as be water/oil/gas/fluid resistant. There is actually a product for wrapping harnesses - I used it when I redid my FC. (I got mine through a company that sold aircraft parts!) Regular tape will degrade over a short period of time and look like ***.

 

DEI and Taylor both make prducts that will suit your needs very well.

 

Whatever. Not everyone has the cash for all that stuff. I've had 4 rx7's over the last 12 yrs not one has had problems with decent electrical tape and loom. The only area of concern is near the exhaust manifold and where the harness lays on the engine.

 

The way I traditionally wrap a harness is to first wrap in PVC electical tape (several layers), then in split loom, then again in another layer of PVC tape. The PVC tape is much stronger and more tolerant of temperatures then the vynal stuff.

I've been debating going a little farther with Tina's wiring since I have access to a huge amount of specialized wraps designed for harsh environments but it's a hard decision to make since it means that making any minor changes to the harness becomes a major pain. Electrical tape is far easier to cut/peel off then harness wrap and a lot cheaper. Now if I was building a harness that I knew I wouldn't be modifying there are several products that are much better suited...lots of nice self-adhesive silicone wraps available, as well as cloth braided covers that work wonders.

There's a school of thought that says if you are running your own harness and it goes near a heat source, then that's the wrong way to run it. I try to keep harnesses away from heat as much as possible but of course in the RX-7 the engine harness needs to run over the exhaust area if using the factory holes. That being the case it's easy to put the harness on the lip of the firewall (2nd gen anyway...) with a little heat tape.

 

Hummm... thanks for the info. I love that DEI stuff, but I'm speding soooo much on everything else I just don't have the cash to buy it. So I guess my best bet is just the PVC electrical tape and loom.

Are there better ways to run the harness that I should be looking into since everything is apart. Obviously I want to do this thing right.

 

If you can, run the harness away from the exhaust area. You will either need to put it through the bodyharness grommit (good luck unless the dash is removed) or cut another opening nearby. Or for the super-sealth look, run it through the transmission tunnel.