Champagne Realities RX7

[danny33]

So looks like photobucket is now supporting third party stuff again? Must have realized what a shitstorm they created. regardless i wont be supporting them anymore and sticking with flickr which is 10X easier to use.

Found a smoking deal on this DMC crimp tool setup on ebay.




Washed up the rest of the fleet


And got my connector kit in. Now i need to order up a fuel pressure, oil pressure, and ethanol content sensor then finish up planning out the harness and get to work.

[danny33]

Didn't do much this weekend as i was helping a buddy with his half mile car. Did get a chance to use his chop saw to cut my dump tubes/ exhaust. Now i need to trim the hood a bit more to clock the exhaust to the left and then remake a shroud! Chopped the intake also to run a 7 inch by 6 inch filter as this one seemed disproportionate. intake needs a -10 bung and the IAT sensor bung too.

[hinrichs]

New exhaust/dump cuts look great flush with the hood

[danny33]

did some planning for the harness build. Whipped up an excel sheet with the connector face views and lists of all the pinouts. Need to start cross referencing my engine harness and ecu pinouts and group stuff together. Still need to get the ecu mounted but im tying to find some alumalite locally to mount the ecu and fuse box/relays. Also have to save up to order all my sensors which includes fuel pressure, oil pressure, oil temp, ethanol content, IAT, and a 5 bar MAP.

Cleared up the table to layout the harness


Current plan is to mount the ECU in the stock ecu location and run the harness behind the heater core box


I hope to be able to run it through the current hole shown below. I will likely use a 90* boot on the flange connector. Going to cut that lower HVAC case bracket and firewall stud next time i pull out the dash


engine side,


Before putting the dash back in i finished up the heater core lines


(have to cut that line flush)




and pulled the evap core then sealed up the box


Dash back in to confirm harnes routing, then had to throw all my carbon bits on :bacon:


Really wish i didnt impulse cut the dash lastime it was all together as i was able to trim the lower red trim piece and it fit pretty good




Its been too hot lately to clear coat everything but thats low priority

And one of the bay


So been trying to get another fuel line/fitting order together to finish up my system. Does anyone know of any braided line that is submersible for my pump plumbing? Everything PTFE doesn't state its submersible and i done want something ghetto with rubber line and hose clamps. Toying with the idea of doing hardlines but then i would have to buy the 37* flare tool as well which gets pretty costly.







Got a lot done today despite the heat. Pulled the engine to install a new rear main seal and then to reseal the pan as i did not replace the pickup o ring and it was worrying me. Next weekend it will go back in along with the clutch/flywheel and hopefully that will be the last time.


one expensive service cart !






This is the O ring which seals the upper pan to the block for the pickup tube.


and all back together


I need to plug a few coolant ports on the block and the second turbo oil feed before the engine can go back in. Also need to press the larger throwout bearing onto the sleeve and then slap the flywheel and clutch on. Once thats in, i need a driveshaft and clutch line/ master cylinder and drivetrain should be all squared away. going to mount the bulkhead connector sometime this week as well.

Spent some time in the garage and got a good amount accomplished lastnight and today.

Trimmed down my exhaust studs and now just need new nuts without a flange on them to mount the manifold completely




Clutch all ready to go in along with the accessories from the collins kit.


Heres the throwout bearing adapter with the ACT supplied bearing which was about 1/2" larger than the collins one.


I ordered the cast clutch fork and new clips from z1motorsports


Flywheel on and adapter plate torqued to spec


Clutch on and ready for the trans. i should have stopped here lastnight but kept going which led to alot of cursing and frustration


so this is where it went wrong. i could not get the trans to slide all the way onto the engine and was about 1/2" short. I struggled for about an hour then got it close enough to pull it on with the bolts. I then realized that there was no play in the clutch fork and it was sitting on the case yet i could engage it using a large prybar. I went to bed and realized later that night that the pivot ball is preventing the clutch from disengaging all the way.


Here is the longer pivot i got from collins with his instructions.


I ended up calling him today (saturday) to confirm that i should use the short one. After explaining my setup and telling him i had the long one installed, his response was simply "why". No complaints as this is the second time i have called him and he led me in the right direction (first one was about clutch master cylinder size which he recommended 5/8"), just was confused why the wrong one was supplied.


Anyways, after swapping the short one back in, the trans slid right on first try.


enlarged the hole in the firewall and then mocked up the connector. Might have to space the APP out a bit but it fits good.




Threw the engine back in and got everything torqued down to measure the drive shaft length


Called the driveshaftshop in NC and they told me to measure from output shaft to diff flange with the wheels on the ground and send them the measurements for a quote. I measured first with a measuring tape and got 32 3/8"- 32 1/2". Just to confirm i used this paper measuring tape and folded it on each side which yielded me 32 1/2" so thats what i will be giving them.

[danny33]

update time. Been trying to use up all this resin ive had for 4 years so started off with a sheet, 1 layer of woven fiberglass mat then a layer of carbon. didn't care too much about looks here just strength and function in this case.





Proceeded to turn it into this..










Got my fuel pressure sensor, ethanol content sensor, and MAP sensor installed. Need one more 45* fitting to finish up my return line.






Got wastegate vacuum line routing all planned out.


Then got started on wiring after figuring out my harness length. Ended up making this depinning tool for $2 as opposed to the $50+ dollar molex one.


this allowed me to move some circuits around to add my inputs.


Shortened the o2 sensor harness and ready for some heatshrink


then got to work indexing the engine side and figuring out some 5V and signal ground routing.


using the wilbo666 wiring pinouts i was able to identify everything i will need.





then rolled her out of the garage and washed all the junk off


Got the power/ground and relay control side of my harness separated from the engine control side and now waiting on some shielding splices so i can finish the ecu connector side up then start twisting and terminating the bulkhead connector.





Getting my fuse box started once they ship me the correct one. have all the wiring for that and ordered two more crimp tools for the metripack stuff. does anyone know what this harness is for? i had it separated with the HVAC stuff but dont remember where it came from.


Once i get the cabin side of the harness terminated i will start with adding the wiring for all my new sensors on the engine side. Still have to get the IAT bung welded in at the charge pipe, -10 AN bung for the breather system, and the second o2 sensor welded up. I also will be running an IGN1A ignition setup which i have to order up along with my driveshaft.

[danny33]

Big wiring update! i have been planning everything out and making sure i have the majority of what i need before starting with this. First needed the shielded cable solder splices to properly ground my shielded cable. I am using the AEM supplied 4 core cables, two circuits for CKP and CMP each, then 2 more for both knock sensors. This leaves me with 2 extra circuits for use in the future. These splices are lined up with the shielded cable so it can be grounded properly.



With that being the last piece of the puzzle on the ECU side i zip tied that up.


Now i have the harness separated into a power/ground/ 12V switched loom, a wideband/ boost control solenoid loom, a CAN/ 2 step switch/ shield ground/tach loom, and an engine input/output loom. Twisted up the power/ground side which will run to my fuse box/battery


Ready for heatshrink and a deutsch connector


Started the main engine harness with twisting the shielded cables which will be my core here


Now typically you want to wrap layers of 6 at a time and because i have 26 total circuits after the shielded wires i wrapped 2 with the core.




First layer of 6




Second layer of 6


Third layer of 2 filler wires (someone didnt plan correctly)


Third layer of 6 going the other direction now




Fourth layer of 6




So the industry correct way to concentric twist a harness is to cut all your wire to length (+20%) and then start in the middle and work your way out. It should be done one layer clock wise, then one layer counter clock wise and repeat. Since i have my ECU side terminated already this method cannot be used so i had to do two layers clock wise then 2 counter, and so on. I also had an odd number of total circuits due to the core being large with 8 circuits total (from shielded cable). This left me with needing to use filler wires so after this last orange layer i needed to add an additional layer of 4 more circuits (yellow) to fully fill it out. I do not personally think this is a big deal as i now have 6 extra circuits that i can terminate on both ends without cutting open the harness for future expansion.

I did not take many pictures as it got very difficult to keep the end wound tight while taping and wrapping the last layer. I also cheaped out on spending $30 on a 1500 yard roll of lacing cord so i pulled threads out of the rolls of raw carbon fiber i have.












6 filler circuits pinned on the ECU side and wrapped in kapton tape


All done and perfect length now awaiting heatshrink. This is a 40 circuit total with two 4 conductor shielded wire bundles core measuring .55" in total diameter. I am pretty happy with how this came out for it being my first time. I will be running the modified OEM harness on the engine side but now want to badly build a harness from scratch with new toyota connectors over the winter. This should only cost me a few hundred dollars since i am now tooled to do this.

I was also itching to use my DMC crimper so i terminated this 6 pin DTM which will be used for my CAN, shielding ground, tach output, 2 step switch, and 12V switched power for the AEM UEGO.







Now i have to order my heatshrink and boot before terminating the bulk head. I am also ordering my ING1A ignition system before starting on the engine side. Still need to route and terminate new wires for my EOT, IAT, EOP, FRP, ECS, and MAP sensors. Also ran into an issue with the swirl pot setup the shop made me. There is just not enough room to plug the ECT connector in so after talking to the shop they want to pot the ECT sensor which i thought was a great idea. Basically they will remove the pins from the connector, plug them in on the sensor, then fill the sensor socket with epoxy. A DTM connector will then be added a few inches further down the circuit. Something i can do but will let them handle it since its kinda their fault. They need to weld on an IAT bung, -10 bung, and second UEGO bung anyways for me. Waiting on the correct fuse box to arrive and then i can start on terminating that.

[Skervey]

Oh man that is some proper wiring!

Would love to go back through my car and get the wiring looking better but I will never be on the same level!

Love watching this build!

[I_Haz.:R32]

OMG this wiring stuff should be moved to the pron section. It's just so beautiful.

[190Evan]

Your wiring is my goalz, you using Kapton tape to seal the connectors and protect them or epoxy with shrink?

[danny33]

Your wiring is my goalz, you using Kapton tape to seal the connectors and protect them or epoxy with shrink?

thank you guys! Not really, the main purpose of the kapton tape it to seal the circuits from the epoxy when sealing the heat shrink boot. I have also used it here to secure the harness during the process as opposed to using a zip tie. The tape has very low adhesion and sticks to itself the best. See pictures below

Finished up the harness and got some other things checked off the never ending list. We will start off with a big order from prowire with everything else i need to wrap up the chassis harness.


Most importantly this back shell, the heat shrink, and heat shrink boot.






Started off sliding on the heatshrink and shrinking 90%.


Then brought my vice inside and got ready to party


So right as i am getting ready to crimp the first pin i realize that the pins for the milspec connector will not slide into my crimp tool however the pins from the Deutsch connectors slide in with some resistance. Now this is what i get for buying tools this critical used, however i ponied up, found a drill bit barely larger, coated it in grease and drilled (more like honed) the bore on the crimp tool. after this all the pins slid in like butter and i got back to work.



Was really in the zone so forgot to take pictures but started with this. I am using 3mm knitting needles which i got at Michaels for the service loops.






And ended up here. I will say that this is an area i wish looked better but it functions so thats all that matters. Staggering the service loops to look pretty was very hard mainly due to me not leaving enough wire free length. Biggest take away for me here is to leave much more wire length next time.


wrapped in kapton tape ready to be booted




This was fast paced, throw a bead of epoxy on the backshell, heat boot evenly,wipe excess, then throw a bead on the harness side, then heat evenly until we got this




Finished product. At some point i slid on the raychem for my power loom then added a 12 point Deutsch which will be mated to my fuse box.








This was a 55 pin and i only used 38 total pins with 2 shielded circuits dead ended at the connector. I chose to pin it like this due to the injector circuits being too short for other locations. Lesson definitely learned.




Also swung by my fab shop earlier in the week and got the IAT, breather bung, and second O2 bung welded on while i waited.








ordered my IGN1A kit from induction performance. Very pleased with this kit as it included everything down to connectors and pins.








Now i was pretty happy with being able to run the stock hood to fit the engine since it was apparently unheard of, but after much consideration i decided to go with this kit so that i will never have to upgrade again. The other option was OEM USDM coils but the used price of those was about the same as this proven kit. I saw the majority of crazy supras at TX2K running this same setup. I will be running a URAS style vent to clear the front two coils which should help with underhood temps drastically.

Next up is installing the engine side harness to verify wire lengths for my additional circuits/sensors and then splice in my 5V and 12V along with pinning out the connector. I will also run an ignition sub harness with new tefzel wiring, raychem, etc. My current plan is to get the car running on the stripped and modified OEM harness (verified through load testing to be functional) and then build a mil spec style harness in the near future using new OEM connectors and tefzel wiring. This will be easy due to the detailed documentation i have been making along the way. I need to order a driveshaft, power steering lines/ reservoir, and plug a few coolant ports before we can add fluids, load a base tune, and fire her up!!!!!!

[danny33]

Pulled the dash this morning and installed the harness. Very happy with how it fits. The extra bundled wire is for the boost control solenoid, and ignition switch 12V. I will go through the oem ECU harness sitting on the bottom and steal some switched 12V for use in this case.








With that done i terminated my fuse box and verified the wire lengths. I have terminated this with 4 total relays (2 extra) and wired the fuses on the outside so i can add additional circuits for whatever. This is being used for the ECU power circuits, cooling fan relay, and fuel pump relay which are both controlled by the infinity. Extra wire on top is for the cooling fan and fuel pump output. The extra 18 gauge circuits are the ECU grounds which will be ran to a bus bar then battery ground.

[kofi]

Deng man, that wiring is top notch

[jotemha]

This whole build thread is just beautiful!

Keep on going!

[Hayce]

Holy shit that work is amazing!

[hinrichs]

Killing it on the wiring, looks so good.