ramius665

HAS ANYONE EVER REPLACED THE ENGINE BAY (NOT DME) WIRING HARNESS IN THEIR 951?

A little background: Engine suffered minor fire, only damage was to the DME harness and engine bay harness, plus a few sensors/fuel injectors. I have the replacement DME harness already labeled for installation. Purchased a "new" engine bay wiring harness.

Just finished cleaning the engine bay after engine removal, noticed that the engine bay wiring harness goes through the firewall into the passenger compartment. Will replacing this harness require complete dash removal? Where does this harness go to in the passenger compartment? Can I just remove the central electric board to have access from above?

Thanks in advance, I had no idea before starting this project that this wiring harness would be so tough!!

Lorax

It's not NEARLY as bad as it sounds! There are several threads of me bitching and moaning about the job here, but when it came down to it it took me about an hour.

The wires got up to the fuse box.

You do not need to remove the dash.

ramius665

Lorax:

You don't even know how much better I feel after reading your post. Thank God that my "Project 951 rebuild" isn't quite the nightmare that I thought it was turning in to. I'll look up your posts to see what all replacing the wiring harness entails.

BTW, PM sent about your flywheel for sale. Thanks a bunch.

Aaron

JimO

I purchased several 'pieces' of the harness from Lindsey Racing. i.e. one set of wires for fuel injectors, set for several sensors.. i.e. heat, oil pressure, etc. and speed and reference sensors. Directions were pretty good from LR.

It's not bad.. just a Pain in the butt.... to do re-wire. TAKE YOUR TIME... get everthing in the right pins in the DME/KLR plug .. trust me you don't want to track down the mistake later.

Here were a few places I got hung up...
- Oil pressure sensor... use the old wire and tape it to the new wire and thread it thru using the old wire and around the front of the engine/power steering pump.. you'll need to fiddle with going thru a few plastic retaining clips .. if they weren't burnt off in the fire.
- Getting the wires thru the firewall... arggg.... at the back of the cam housing there is a metal lifting loop that stands up a few inches. I had to take that off (you'll likely need to replace the associated gasket). You'll need to take that off to get enough room to wiggle the rubber covering that holds all the wires in a bundle. on the rubber covering i used some silicon lubricant to help snap into place in the firewall... none of this is really hard or complicated... it's the typical difficulty of working in small places with big hands.. I'm beginning to think that women may make good porsche mechanics because their hands are smaller.

You may consider putting a touch of silican lubricant on the wires so when you pull them back in the cabin it makes it easier.

I also goofed a little as my fuel injector injector wires weren't as long as I'd hoped so I actuall bring them in from the side of the fuel rail rather than at the back end ... where there is a space in the plastic fuel rail cover.... if that doesn't make sense just make sure you lay them out for fit before you tighten everything down. If you have any other questions.. or if i can help let me know..

JimO

second it... as one of the post says.. no need to remove dash....

ramius665

Don't think I was clear in my first post. This has nothing to do with the DME harness, which is very straight forward. I was referring to the Engine Bay wiring harness which goes to everything else under the hood, i.e. fans, lights, ac, etc.

That being said, how did you determine which wires go to which relay/fuse at the central electric board? I've got a brand new harness that is not labeled at all. I've got the factory wiring diagrams, do you think it will help?

ramius665

Finally got the time to lay the new wiring harness out flat, and MAN is it long. About 20 feet or so. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that I'll have to take off the bumper to have access to where some of these connectors go. But I'm freaking EXCITED about having a rolling chassis!! I found a great shop out here that will hot tank everything I need them to for a fair price. God I love my 951...

ramius665

Got the wiring harness removed from the Central Electric Board... That job goes on my list of "Things I never want to do again." Everything was in surprisingly good condition at the CEB, but is a burned up tangle of wires farther down.