ELECTRIC

5/13/13 - I've discovered too much about the ISIS system (below) to prevent myself from investing in the system. The Painless wiring harness (below) will be removed and I will begin the installation of the ISIS Multiplexing system soon. (Its in the mail). I'll be going with the 3 cell system with the In Touch electric reversing system, Vintage air interface for the A/C and heating, remote control, Kenwood 990 WIFI/Blue tooth head unit w/7" touch screen (above), reverse camera etc...etc. There's simply too many options that work with the ISIS system to walk away at this point. Now, all of it can be controlled via the Kenwood touchscreen and remote key fab. So, what you see below will be removed. Glad I didn't do more with the wiring!

This is the ISIS Master Cell and Forward Power Cell. I mounted them just forward of the firewall, accessible by lifting the hood/front end and leaning in to program the system. The aft Powercell is mounted beneath the engine cover and accessible by removing the cover between the seats. In both cases, I had to build a shelf and brackets from sheet metal. I purchased the aluminum from Online metals. They sell various tempers of aircraft quality aluminum sheet and extrusion for very reasonable prices..

The Powercell is to the right. The Mater Cell is centered and the relays to the left are for the forward and aft Powercells,

There are several pictures of the ISIS Master Cell cover in this page. At different times, I worked on the box so they are not all in order. Basically the box has come out for changes. The first was a basic cover. Then I added a fan and thermo switch rated slightly below the 85C rating of the Mastercell. I painted the box with Eastwood 2K Ceramic which is HARD as HELL and I ended up a little too heavy. I pulled it out again and am about to sand and re-coat to match the other panels. When I did, I added the aluminum grill which is .063 aluminum with 3/16ths perforations. (Lower photo) There is a grounding terminal block that utilizes the sheet metal cover mount screws mounted to the right side of the box. Just to the right on the fire wall is the InMotion Megafuse. I also fabricated a filler panel for the opening that the C5 overflow reservoir would have been mounted. I closed this off to keep airflow directed up through the front end louvers in the hood. Fan wires are routed through it and re-pinned with Delphi Metri-Pak pins and new painless wiring GM connectors..

This series of photos shows the Vintage Air controller box. I unscrewed it from the Vintage Air unit, which when mounted, caused the controller to be up against the passenger foot box side panel. This would make it difficult to attach the harness plugs and could result in chafing on the small wires that are plugged into the box later. Access in the middle area under the dash will be limited due to permanent mounting of sheet metal panels and interior components. The stock harness length of the Vintage Air controller seems long enough to mount the box in a different location. In the pictures you can see that I made a formed sheet metal back panel which picks up the bottom IN Motion controller cover. This sets the height of the AC controller about 1/4" above the surface for heat dissipation. I used riv nuts and angled aluminum so that the unit (IN Motion and Vintage Air controller) can be removed with a screw driver from the passenger foot box area accessible after the car is assembled. The entire assembly remains below the sheet metal cover that installs over the top of all three under-dash locations.

The harnesses going through the tunnel. I separated the harnesses and tried to keep signal wires away from the power wires to the extent possible. All of this cleans up pretty well once the loom is lined up through the tunnel. Yes, there's a lot but it fits reasonably well. I pinned the LS stand alone harness bulkhead connector with all options and ran it forward as well. The ECU harness, ISIS cables, Traction Control wires and diagnostic connector, fuel tank wiring, gas pedal harness and other signal wires all route through the tunnel in this build.

Above and below are a few examples of Delphi Metri-Pak and GT pins, terminals, weather seals and the tools needed to remove and install them. It is well worth a minimal investment to buy the tools and pins. By using the leftover harnesses from the Corvette, you will cut down on the expense of some really good plugs. This will prevent the need to use cheap terminals and splices during the build. It takes a bit to determine the right pin sizes but basically all the Corvette stuff is Metri-Pak, Weather Seal, and GT 150's and 280's. Go online and look up Ballenger Motor Sports in Mechanicsville, VA for decent prices on pins, terminals and tools.

These are the harnesses pulled from the Corvette. I'll need to strip them, extract certain circuits and then add additional wiring to completely adapt these to the GTM. Basically the manual walks you through the basic pieces but it's still up to the builder to doublecheck and verify using the Corvette schematics, wiring diagrams, system interfaces and computer controlled circuit descriptions. With the LS7 engine and addition of a custom dash fuse box, AC system, entertainment system, instrumentation etc, there's plenty thats not explained in the GTM assembly manual. This is another area where character of the car begins in the early build stages. Be sure to plan well ahead to avoid cutting your way into the circuits later in the build.