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I'm getting ready to swap carbed '88 LX to FI. I'm wondering if anyone knows of any 'snags' that I may encounter - or as we say here 'watch out for'-s.
I think Karl's thread was the most recent thread on this, but I didn't want to hijack it -
I also went thru the old board for some info - there is some (of the stuff that still works) - but not everything I was looking for..
I already got a whole wiring harness out of a '90 with a MTX (engine, dash, whole harness from front to rear basically). I got all the relays and everything with it - inertia switch, etc. I also got the gas tank w/ fuel pump (actually there was a Capri in there with a B6D, so I took the fuel pump out of that and put it in the Festiva tank - I'm assuming it flows more - figured it couldn't hurt - but I could also be wrong!). Of course I got the whole intake with everything attached (TB, injectors, sensors), distributor, VAF with the hoses and all, char canister, throttle cable, the coolant (bypass?) tube that goes around the motor, ECU. I still need to get the fuel lines - I was going to get them off of the same car - but I couldn't get them off before the j/y closed - I already spent most of the day stripping the car of it's harness. I'm gonna get some lines before I start - I don't want to have to take anything back apart and do it twice (plus as has been stated the FI ones are bigger for a reason). I also need the brackets that hold the fuel filter, char canister, and the coil and module. I did pull them off of the same car I got the harness - but they wanted to charge me too much for them, so I figured I'd wait until a 1/2 price day and get them (along with the lines).
Now as far as 'snags': I know the alt's are different, that's not a prob - I'll take care of that.
The one main thing I'm concerned about is the difference in the headlight system between my car ('88) and the donor car ('90) and the combination switch (CS). Being the '88 doesn't use relays for the headlights and switches the + side of the circuit to the headlights - and the '90 uses relays and the CS switches the ground (-) to activate the relays. I really don't want to have to change my CS (since mine's orange and the newer one's are white). I noticed there was something about this on the old board in Rich's articles:
But - all of the links for the diagrams don't work anymore (anyone have those diagrams saved? Simon?). I do have an EVTM for the '88, and I have one for a '92 as well (I got it before I got the harness, got a good deal on the EVTM and whole shop manual for a '92)- I'm assuming there's no changes in the wiring from '90 to '92 - correct? Since I do have the EVTM's, I know I could probably solve this if I sit down and look at the two diagrams - but in a way I was curious why nobody had never mentioned this in any carb to FI swap threads? Is there any easy solution (most likely not? besides using the newer CS?)
Also, being I have manual seatbelts and don't need the PRS (Passive Restraint Sys) - can I just take the wiring for that out of the harness without consequence? Or am I better off just leaving it in there (probably for the effort of unwrapping!) and not plugging any of the stuff in for it.
Thanks for any insight guys, I'm just trying to get everything ready so I can down the car for just a few days and swap everything out (but we all know how a few days turns into a week or two! Or how something that supposed to take 15mins turns into a 2 or 3 hour event!)
I think Karl's thread was the most recent thread on this, but I didn't want to hijack it -
I also went thru the old board for some info - there is some (of the stuff that still works) - but not everything I was looking for..
I already got a whole wiring harness out of a '90 with a MTX (engine, dash, whole harness from front to rear basically). I got all the relays and everything with it - inertia switch, etc. I also got the gas tank w/ fuel pump (actually there was a Capri in there with a B6D, so I took the fuel pump out of that and put it in the Festiva tank - I'm assuming it flows more - figured it couldn't hurt - but I could also be wrong!). Of course I got the whole intake with everything attached (TB, injectors, sensors), distributor, VAF with the hoses and all, char canister, throttle cable, the coolant (bypass?) tube that goes around the motor, ECU. I still need to get the fuel lines - I was going to get them off of the same car - but I couldn't get them off before the j/y closed - I already spent most of the day stripping the car of it's harness. I'm gonna get some lines before I start - I don't want to have to take anything back apart and do it twice (plus as has been stated the FI ones are bigger for a reason). I also need the brackets that hold the fuel filter, char canister, and the coil and module. I did pull them off of the same car I got the harness - but they wanted to charge me too much for them, so I figured I'd wait until a 1/2 price day and get them (along with the lines).
Now as far as 'snags': I know the alt's are different, that's not a prob - I'll take care of that.
The one main thing I'm concerned about is the difference in the headlight system between my car ('88) and the donor car ('90) and the combination switch (CS). Being the '88 doesn't use relays for the headlights and switches the + side of the circuit to the headlights - and the '90 uses relays and the CS switches the ground (-) to activate the relays. I really don't want to have to change my CS (since mine's orange and the newer one's are white). I noticed there was something about this on the old board in Rich's articles:
But - all of the links for the diagrams don't work anymore (anyone have those diagrams saved? Simon?). I do have an EVTM for the '88, and I have one for a '92 as well (I got it before I got the harness, got a good deal on the EVTM and whole shop manual for a '92)- I'm assuming there's no changes in the wiring from '90 to '92 - correct? Since I do have the EVTM's, I know I could probably solve this if I sit down and look at the two diagrams - but in a way I was curious why nobody had never mentioned this in any carb to FI swap threads? Is there any easy solution (most likely not? besides using the newer CS?)
Also, being I have manual seatbelts and don't need the PRS (Passive Restraint Sys) - can I just take the wiring for that out of the harness without consequence? Or am I better off just leaving it in there (probably for the effort of unwrapping!) and not plugging any of the stuff in for it.
Thanks for any insight guys, I'm just trying to get everything ready so I can down the car for just a few days and swap everything out (but we all know how a few days turns into a week or two! Or how something that supposed to take 15mins turns into a 2 or 3 hour event!)