making an engine harness

[240sxrb25]

so I would like to make an all new harness for my engine this winter to get rid of my current shopped up harness that is 5 ft too long.does anyone know where to get a kit wth all the wires and a ring style plug that can be mounted at the firewall?I know megasquirt but anything else? and possibly where to get new ecu pins?thanks

[riptor]

milspec wiring is the term...i think and they ahve a web site...google it...good luck man.

[500Coupe]

ChaseBays has a DIY kit

[ReLiC]

ChaseBays has a DIY kit

$350 :eek2:

[500Coupe]

$350 :eek2:

Then use your existing harness if money is an issue. I'm in the process of doing both my engine and main harnesses too. Granted I have a WS harness as my base. My old engine harness was all hacked up too and had been through god knows how many hands. Unless you want to tuck stuff, just go with a Wiring Specialties harness.

[Frank_Jaeger]

What's to stop someone from buying insulated wire, clips and plugs, and making their own harness? What's this talk of $350 kits? I don't understand.

[500Coupe]

It was simply posted as an alternative option..

[s13 loverr]

$350 :eek2:

You get what you pay for, keep that in mind. I personally don't have their harness, but I have lots of other stuff from them and I plan to buy a harness as well. It is all very high quality and their harnesses look to be no exception.

[ReLiC]

$350 is still way overpriced. If they were including a set of plugs for you to repin, it would be reasonable. But not even the mil spec is included in the $350. Mil spec is an extra $290!!

All they give you is the quantity of wires you need and the coloring i'm guessing. In that case i would buy myself a roll of wire for each color. I would have a shitload of extra wiring and i bet it wouldn't even add up to $100.

[nightsauce]

$350 is still way overpriced. If they were including a set of plugs for you to repin, it would be reasonable. But not even the mil spec is included in the $350. Mil spec is an extra $290!!

All they give you is the quantity of wires you need and the coloring i'm guessing. In that case i would buy myself a roll of wire for each color. I would have a shitload of extra wiring and i bet it wouldn't even add up to $100.

You must have never purchased wiring or made a harness ever lol. Rolls of wiring are expensive. Crimping tools to get your terminals on the wiring are expensive. The terminals and the connectors usually have to be purchased in bulk, which can be expensive.

A milspec setup is more money because the connectors and terminals are of better quality and the actual wiring has a better heat resistant insulation and depending on the application, a fuel/oil resistant insulation is used.

Also, a lot of time goes into making harnesses. If you start from scratch, you have to measure each wire point to point, cut, crimp, solder, and make sure you put it into the correct location. Sounds simple, but when you have a ton of wires it takes time.

It is a very time consuming process, so paying good money for a quality harness is well worth it.

[180wanabe1]

also there diy harnesses come with correct wiring diagrams which otherwise take alot of wadding through the shit that is average peoples wiring skills to find out what actually works

[Darren]

Then use your existing harness if money is an issue. I'm in the process of doing both my engine and main harnesses too. Granted I have a WS harness as my base. My old engine harness was all hacked up too and had been through god knows how many hands. Unless you want to tuck stuff, just go with a Wiring Specialties harness.

+1 on the Wiring Specialties Harness, i have one in my SR20DET S13 and it's beautiful.

The best feature is the pigtails for the MAFS, allowing easily changing the MAFS sensors so you don't have to mess with the wiring....

[ManoNegra]

$350 :eek2:

you kids nowadays are spoiled
used to be over $500 to have a shop chop up your SR and KA wire harness to work

nowadays you get a completely new harness for less. Quit whining.

[500Coupe]

You must have never purchased wiring or made a harness ever lol. Rolls of wiring are expensive. Crimping tools to get your terminals on the wiring are expensive. The terminals and the connectors usually have to be purchased in bulk, which can be expensive.

A milspec setup is more money because the connectors and terminals are of better quality and the actual wiring has a better heat resistant insulation and depending on the application, a fuel/oil resistant insulation is used.

Also, a lot of time goes into making harnesses. If you start from scratch, you have to measure each wire point to point, cut, crimp, solder, and make sure you put it into the correct location. Sounds simple, but when you have a ton of wires it takes time.

It is a very time consuming process, so paying good money for a quality harness is well worth it.


This is so true.

And is this something you really need to be doing completely from scratch (because race car)...especially if a few hundred bucks is an issue? Maybe your best bet is to source another used harness and fix what needs to be fixed.

[240sxrb25]

chase bays rb25 diy kit is $450 and the mil spec connector is another 200 ontop if you read far enough.

looks like ill be using the original harness and just redoing it. $10-$15 sound better than $600 and still having to wire stuff.

[R33E8]

Well damn.. People sure like to scare others away from doing harnesses..

[myfuzzybutt]

Wiring specialties FTW!!!

Made my- S13 SR20 into S14 chassis w/auto to manual included for $450ish
Made my- RB25DET into S13 chassis. It is tucked and hardly seen. It was a one of job but well worth it.

[ReLiC]

You must have never purchased wiring or made a harness ever lol. Rolls of wiring are expensive. Crimping tools to get your terminals on the wiring are expensive. The terminals and the connectors usually have to be purchased in bulk, which can be expensive.

A milspec setup is more money because the connectors and terminals are of better quality and the actual wiring has a better heat resistant insulation and depending on the application, a fuel/oil resistant insulation is used.

Also, a lot of time goes into making harnesses. If you start from scratch, you have to measure each wire point to point, cut, crimp, solder, and make sure you put it into the correct location. Sounds simple, but when you have a ton of wires it takes time.

It is a very time consuming process, so paying good money for a quality harness is well worth it.

Fine, not rolls of wire. Just what's necessary for 1 harness. You're forgetting that i'm criticizing the DIY kit. In the DIY kit wires aren't measured point to point. You still have to put lots of work for it to function.


you kids nowadays are spoiled
used to be over $500 to have a shop chop up your SR and KA wire harness to work

nowadays you get a completely new harness for less. Quit whining.

Right, so i'll go pay over $500 since that's how much it used to cost. ok.

[nightsauce]

Fine, not rolls of wire. Just what's necessary for 1 harness. You're forgetting that i'm criticizing the DIY kit. In the DIY kit wires aren't measured point to point. You still have to put lots of work for it to function.


I believe the DIY kit is for those who wanna tuck their harnesses or if they have some other custom setup. Yea the DIY kit might not seem like it's worth it but there are reasons its the price it is.

1. The crimping tool itself is not cheap. In the DIY kit it even says that if you get the Milspec connection, its pre-crimped, which saves $350+ on a crimper, but you pay extra for the labor to crimp and the milspec connector.

2. They have multicolored wiring. Yea this may sound stupid, but i dont believe anyone will go out and buy the range of colors provided when making your own harness. I've seen a guy buy a spool of red wiring and make an entire red harness. I'd kill myself.

3. It comes with OEM pins. I've looked for those pins to possibly make my own harnesses, and they were pretty hard to come by.

[wiring specialties]

+1 on the Wiring Specialties Harness, i have one in my SR20DET S13 and it's beautiful.

The best feature is the pigtails for the MAFS, allowing easily changing the MAFS sensors so you don't have to mess with the wiring....

Appreciate the plug :D