hey my auto collision teacher is just about ready to fire up the lt1 in his 40,been a many year project, does anyone know if painless makes a harness for the engine itself? to hook up the computer and all the sensors. i know the body harness is universal,but it needs a harness to run the engine itself. also i'm more into carbs,but i believe this is m*** airflow, now i need to relocate the m*** airflow meter to the cowl area, going to use an AEM cone type filter to mount right on the end of the sensor, then duct the air to the plenum. it has to be moved because of clearance issues. i don't believe any of the m*** airflow wiring is shielded,so i guess i can solder in a wiring extension between the plug and the harness? any help would be appreciated,the car itself is now a rolling ch***is,almost complete except for wiring.
Painless makes a harness.They are very proud of it.1300 in a old JEGS catalog.Check with Street & Performance.
who is your teacher? and what school is this? can I see a photo of the install? Where do you have clearance issues? as for painless. your gonna need to call them..
There is no need to buy an aftermarket harness and you don't have to run the MAF. Get the factory harness and a pin out diagram from the factory shop manual and just eliminate what you don't need- cheap! You should reprogram the computer too to eliminate a couple of things like VATS, try PCM for less.
PCMforless can do all needed modifications. I also think I would just go to a wrecking yard and pull one. These are still new enough to work fine as a yard pull. Only problem is around here most pull the harness with the engine. I've seen complete cars now though for less than $1300. If you use the MAF you can locate it wherever and extend the wires if need be.
ok more info, he has been teaching at this tech school since the seventies, teaches very good old school metal working techniques,any way this was his dads car before his and he's been working on it for years, a lot of students have contributed to this project and it's about 95 percent done at this point. i may just reuse the factory harness if i can figure out everything as far as the pins. the reason for moving the maf sensor is the radiator clearance. there is a rubber duct off of the throttle body,with the maf sensor attached to the end of it. i am just making an aluminum bend out of three inch tube, cutting sections then tigging them back together. that way i can duct air with three inch hose from the cowl area,where i'm going to mount the filter and maf unit. the AEM filter is an oil free cleanable type filter, and they have a good reputation for quality stuff,plus the filter will clamp right to the maf sensor and only require me to machine one adapter for the hose. the only other choice was APC, don't make me laugh. the inside diameter of the sensor and other parts is three inches, but it's made out of plastic,so the outside diameter is bigger. also has any one found a source for silicone hose in black? i have some aircraft heat resistant 3 inch in orange , but the color just doesn't fit. it's good enough to get it running for the moment though.
You can have the computer reprogramed to eliminate that MAF if it's a problem. We used to use 3" PVC sewer pipe to fab up air cleaner ducting, you can buy that at home depot.
It would look alot better without the MAF the way you have to route it. On the other hand, if you route the plumbing to clean air, well, you will have clean air as opposed to hot underhood air. You can make the plumbing out of stuff you buy at the local Home Depot/Lowes fairly cheap.
i made it out of aircraft aluminum. my camera batteries were dead,i will get pics after it's tig welded up. looks nice.
got a couple of pics it's just taped right now for fitting,will try and get to it being tigged tomorrow. connects to the flexible intake piece and brings the tube up and over the ac compressor,i will use the unused threaded hole on the back of the compressor for the mounting bracket. lots of trial and error but it fits nice. clears the belt tensioner by about a quarter inch on the front side. it's easy to remove to gain access to it.
i will take some pics of the install next week , like the energizer commercial with the ufo my batteries went dead when i needed them
You can modify the original harness, it just takes effort. The challenge is the wire lengths for what you want vs. what it was originally. The second challenge is the the harness has some extra stuff (I.e. anti-lock brakes) that may need to be removed from the computer. VATS can be disabled in the computer software update. Street & Performance can do the re-program. You will need the HELM? manual with the full schematics
I used the painless PRF-60505 for an LT1 project and a PRF-60201 for my 1970 chev c-10 running a TBI. I don't know about jegs but the 505 extra long LT1 harness only cost me $659. Come on up and you can have this harness, this was my daily driver until a couple weeks ago. I wanted it as a daily driver more than I wanted another LT1 for a project, but I couldn't let a good donor motor get away and I bought it back from the insurance.
this is not a LT-1, this is TBI. I used an original harness from donor car ( 89 camaro 5.0 TBI ) I had to get rid of so many wires ( didn't need more than 1/2 of this) I got rid of VATS, EGR, EVAP, air pump, speed limiter etc.. and I had some guy made a custom chip ( about $100) for the ECM. this is easiest injection system so I didnt get painlesswire kit . LT-1 has more wires ( 8 injectors . (TBI sytem has only 2 injectors) more O2 sensors) so takes more time if you wanna use original harness.. maybe painless is the way to go.. street & performance has some good stuff for LT-1 too .
Call Mark Campbell at Street and Performance. (479-394-5711) I just finished a 40 Ford with LT1, and they sold me the wiring harness and reprogramed the computer so that I would not have to use the MAF. They have all the parts you need to get it running. www.hotrodlane.cc
all right i'm going to forward this to him. using the maf is really not the problem,as i have room for it on the cowl,it was getting air to the throttle body in such a tight area. loading pics of the finished intake tube piece now as a matter of fact. thanks for the info. main thing is getting it running. the mechanical work is all finished.
pictures of the finished intake tube,fits into the throttle body in place of the maf sensor and brings air in from over the ac compressor. it will connect to the ducting there. thanks a million to my buddy clarence thomas 35 years of mig welding,for the welds. something nice about well done mig welds on a custom piece. i am working on a trick mount for the tube off of the unused threaded hole on the back of the ac compressor. using a spherical ball end that i can adjust in place. hopefully monday i can get some pics. i am using a bolt i found that screws into that hole,then i drilled the center of it out,and tapped it at 10-32 for the rod end.
Sounds like you're getting some good advice and making progress on the LT1 install. I'm glad you didn't get pounded by the self-proclaimed "traditional" thinkers for converting to a modern drivetrain. EFI is an excellent addition to long-haul cruisers and provides at least these 4 benefits--power, fuel economy, parts availability and reliability. Have fun!
well he's getting older and i think he just wants to enjoy driving it. being able to get in it and it starts every time is a big plus. he's had the car personally since he was a teenager so he had his fun. he is keeping it looking pretty much stock on the outside, other then the wheels of course,since the undercarriage is different,but trying to keep a lot of it original. installed saturn seats,they look really nice and the gear shift for the auto out of the same,as well as the steering coloum but he's going to use an older style wheel. this is pretty much his project,i happen to be good at wiring,so thats going to be my major contribution. once he gets the stuff he needs to get it wired,i'll put in all the harnesses and get the computer mounted and hooked up. there have been a lot of students that have worked on this car for many years, i'll be glad to see it running. too bad he is retiring, it's hard to find teachers that grew up doing old school work anymore. there seem to be fewer and fewer of them. anything i can help with on this project i will do,not every day you get to work on something that is this long term,and has had so many people work on it. i think with the quality of work in this car,and with that LT1 motor in there,it's going to be a bad *** car. nothing wrong with adding as much horsepower as you can to a '40, it's been done since the moonshine days. i'm sure if they had had this kind of tech to use back then, it would have been used. cl***ic car,lots of horsepower, now thats a hot rod.
Probably not something you'll want to use but the TBI air cleaner on the older TBI p***enger cars is ABS and can be turned backwards and looks pretty good. Had one on my 72 P/U with TBI. IMHO
ok a pic,he has a lot of parts removed again,you know how that goes,but pretty much everything is actually done. i've p***ed along a lot of the info on here to him,and he's looking into it now. also looking into the vintage air units at the moment. def need to use the stock ac compressor,it's a really close fit. oh the intake tube will be black when done. if he uses the m*** air sensor,it will mount to the cowl with a cone filter,if not just the filter will go there.
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