June 2006
Smog time again, so this year in order to make my car 110% legal, I bought a 1989 5.0 eec engine harness and swapped it, felt like doing the engine swap all over again!
The difference in the 1987 engine harness I was using in my 1989 car is simple really, the `87 harness has no provisions for the check engine light, so technically my car should have failed smog with it since the MIL did not function (it should be ON with the key on engine off, mine stayed off).
Also the 1989 5.0's had mass air, and the 87 was speed density, so I added another sensor into the mix (oh joy).
While I was at it I decided to trunk mount the battery properly, what a pain in the ass that was! Cost almost $100 in materials too - just the fuse holder for the 0/1awg wire from the switch in the trunk to the starter was $23 - and I got wholesale cost on all the wiring parts!
I ran the 0/1 awg through the drain holes in the trunk meant for convertables where the coupes just have rubber grommets plugging them, was nice and easy, I then zip tied the wiring up along the subframe connector on the passenger side and ran it in through the K member to the starter and alternator. I changed the entrance a bit from the one picture where it shows the wire going above the control arm, I have it now through the gap between the k member and frame rail now which is a bit higher up and out of danger of being pinched by the control arm.
I also finally figured out a safe routing for the air pump hoses to get around my headers, the stock smog tubing got melted by the header on that side so I had to get a bit creative, I'm using 2 sets of smog tubes cut down and lengthened in placed with PVC to give a minimum of 2" clearance to each primary tube...damn smog!
Here's the pics:
The last picture shows how I have the external kill switch mounted, this is wired up so it kills power from the battery and the alternator to the car to shut the engine off. Also it's a convenient anti-theft device since the key is removable when turned off. I hid it behind my license plate in the rear so nobody knows it's there, and when I'm at the track I can just pull the plate off (which I do anyways).
