MONTE CARLO My first LS build, first project car, wallet emptying extravaganza

[BuckeyeNewYorker]

Harness Part 2

Going off of what LT1swap.com says to do, pretty much step by step. Pruned some unnecessary connectors that I know I don't need, and marked some stuff to external / relays. It's a start.

Here's what my ECU looks like.. Not sure what the blue tape means, gonna do some research on what the serial means.

edit: I mean I don't know how ACCURATE the blue tape is

 

[BuckeyeNewYorker]

I'm not an expert at this, but have a friend that does several of these a month. IIRC, you need to determine what ECM you have and what it's capable of before you start building your harness. You mentioned your harness has a DBW connector and IAC and TPS plugs? I don't think that is possible if it's unmolested, but I could be mistaken. Either way, you have to an ECM that uses one or the other. Some ECM's cannot be converted and others can. From what I gather, once you know what you want to do, then it's much more of a downhill battle. But at this point I would recommend modifying the harness until your 100% sure of DBW vs cable and transmission choice/control.

Just read this. Now I wish I would have done this before I started pulling everything apart, because now I probably won't even be able to get 50$ for this pile of wires... haha. Hopefully it'll be alright.

 

[64nailhead]

Do you know about color matching the harness ECU plugs to the ECU? The 411 ECU is, as far as I know, the preferred DBC ECU. It should be able to handle any 4L__E trans and all of the truck motors - 4.8, 5.3, 6.0 that are non VVT or cylinder cutting out turds.

 

[BuckeyeNewYorker]

Do you know about color matching the harness ECU plugs to the ECU? The 411 ECU is, as far as I know, the preferred DBC ECU. It should be able to handle any 4L__E trans and all of the truck motors - 4.8, 5.3, 6.0 that are non VVT or cylinder cutting out turds.

I have blue and red connectors, and the ECU has blue and red stamped on it, so I was assuming I was good to go

 

[Northernregal]

I'm not an expert at this, but have a friend that does several of these a month. IIRC, you need to determine what ECM you have and what it's capable of before you start building your harness. You mentioned your harness has a DBW connector and IAC and TPS plugs? I don't think that is possible if it's unmolested, but I could be mistaken. Either way, you have to an ECM that uses one or the other. Some ECM's cannot be converted and others can. From what I gather, once you know what you want to do, then it's much more of a downhill battle. But at this point I would recommend modifying the harness until your 100% sure of DBW vs cable and transmission choice/control.

This is 100% true. Two choices here, pull the software version off the ECU and the corresponding model off ECU and get a wiring diagram from the vehicle it's from to make sure you cut the right stuff out and know where the 5v, 12v, sensor ground splices and unused misc crap is. Do not just cut stuff out either. Release the pins from the connector, it will prevent shorts and ground faults later, also thins out the harness a ton!

Option 2. Cut what you want, power up and chase down (or deactivate) the DTC codes you come across.

I have blue and red connectors, and the ECU has blue and red stamped on it, so I was assuming I was good to go

Red/Blue is 1024k 0411 ecu. It "might" have the IAC driver but probably doesnt. It might have the DBW driver and probably does. It might have both (if I recall, it's been a long time since I played with them)

The golden goose is the 2004-2005 blazer,S10 4.3 ecu. It has the IAC driver and can run the early DBW with the external driver box, I'm pretty sure itll also do DBW, but not 100% sure. Any 2005 to 2007 truck will have a DBW ECU on a red/blue ecu. 2003-2004 is mixed for DBW or IAC driver and it's easier to look for the driver chip by splitting the ECU case open.

 

[motorheadmike]

Nope. Not even going to touch this one. But before I go:

Anything but DBC is a nightmare for a novice.

 

[BuckeyeNewYorker]

Harness Part 3

Hey everybody, tiny update today.

I have the harness completely trimmed down to standalone. Have all my external connections labelled and identified. I accidently cut off my A/C connectors... but my A/C box doesn't work anyway. Will likely fix it in the future, maybe with different/later iterations of the car. Waiting for parts to come in for the relays & relay socket connectors, and the Dorman 85668 bladed fuse block.

Going off of this diagram that I found for the external power & relays, credit to UCanDoIt2 on youtube.

After doing another weeks worth of research on this, and spending maybe 20 hours playing with the continuity tester on my multimeter........ The holley terminator harness started to look REALLY nice to have. But god damnit, I came here to learn about cars and doing your own harness is one hell of a way to learn about automotive circuits. All I really did was remove wires from connector plugs.

Thank you for following along! Starting to feel like I'm making progress!

 

[BuckeyeNewYorker]

Swap Part 1

Hello again everyone; dropping off some pictures today.

Got the small block out (first engine swap in my life), no turning back now!!

 

[fleming442]

Must be a good neighborhood if the dog is wearing a flak jacket in the shop.

 

[mclellan83]

Hello again everyone; dropping off some pictures today.

Got the small block out (first engine swap in my life), no turning back now!!
View attachment 153621

Now I feel like that is meme worthy!!!!!!!!!!