Hi,

I've started the process of converting my 1993 FD to single turbo. My car currently uses a PFC, but I'm afraid to use it with the new setup due to the lack of safety features, and like what I have seen and read about the Elite 1500. My next area of concern is the harness. I've already ruled out reusing the stock harness and removing all the unused wires because its old, and I don't want to have problems with the car because of the wiring.

The two options I see right now are:
1) Haltech Elite 1500 with pnp adapter, Rywire harness.
2) Haltech Elite 1500 ECU only, custom harness from someone like Lms-efi. (found on this forum, seems to be reputable)

The custom harness route will be a few hundred dollars more I think. The Lms-efi harness starts at 1200, but I'm not sure how much more it will be to add a few things. I have not contacted him yet. My setup should be relatively simple though, so I'm not really sure if I need a custom harness. I'm not running dbw, or any excessive sensors. Aside from what the Rywire harness already includes, Id want to add a wideband, maybe egt and fuel pressure, and water injection if the 1500 can control it.

Setup will be:
streetport
EFR 7670
I plan to use the EFR's bcs for boost control
walbro 450
id1050x/id1700x (2x2)
turbosmart fpr
stock coils (plans to upgrade to ign1a later, money is tight after all this)

What would you more experienced guys do?

 

Personally, if you think you'll end up needing another harness for any other project or you happen to like having neat wiring instead of plastic butt connectors everywhere, I would recommend investing in yourself and getting the tools to build your own harness. It really isn't that difficult and that way you know how to work on a harness. It's a daunting task, but is manageable with proper organization and notes. Horsepower academy has some good videos on how to make a harness and Haltech sells an excellent flying lead harness so you don't have to buy different colored wires.
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PnP is nice, but that generally means more connections and failure points. I wouldn't settle for any harness that doesn't use Raychem DR-25 or an equivalent as well.

That's just my 2 cents on the topic. I'm sure you can't go wrong with either harness brand.

 

I've looked into the haltech harness as well, but noticed it doesn't have anything setup for the transmission connectors, unless I understand incorrectly. I'll be completely honest, I am not at all confident with wiring right now. Mostly due to lack of experience and knowledge, though I'm not opposed to learning. I am going to get a membership on HPA pretty soon, but for EFI Tuning. I'm not sure If I will gain access to the wiring courses with this, but that would be nice.

I mostly just want to ensure this car runs properly, as soon as possible. I bought this car two years ago, and its been sitting for about a year with a screwed up rats nest. I just want to enjoy driving it again asap.

Edit: Also, I plan on leaving the car alone after all this, so I probably wont need another harness.

 

I would (and did) go with LMS-EFI. His harness is top notch and he is incredibly helpful. Building your own harness is awesome too. However, its quite a tedious process, expect to spend quite a bit of time on it. I'm at the point now that I could build a harness, and have the tooling to do so. That said, I'm still glad I went with LMS. Do you really want the harness in your project to be the first one somebody ever did? lol

 

I think that's the way i'm leaning right now. I definitely do not want this project to fail because I made a stupid mistake on an injector plug or something like that.

 

100% agree with the LMS-EFI harness route. Chris is insanely knowledgeable and when buying an ECU/harness from him you'll also be buying into his general support, which is unmatched.

Skeese

 

I contacted Chris at LMS-EFI. I'd really like to go that route after hearing lots of good things around here. Unfortunately (for me) he is booked into 2021.

Does anyone have experience with custom harnesses from Wiring Specialties or Rywire?

 

+ following

I have heard pretty good review on RyWire. I was contemplating a 1500 + LMS-EFI custom harness but your news that he's booked until 2021 def is putting a wrench in my thought process too...

On a side note, where do you plug all there other harnesses with a PnP Unit? The Haltech only controls everything on the engine harness right? So what about the other connectors? Do you plug them into an OEM ECU, keep the PFC, etc.?

 

quality workmanship s always booked months in advance.
Never hire the guy that can start tomorrow