Part 2: GM Wiring

The OEM GM harness is fairly modular - the engine harness has 3 connectors for the
ECM and 2 interconnects that connect it to the rest of the car. X50 connects to the
fuse box, X102 connects to the body. In general - all Pink/Black wires are fused
and switched. There's a single Red/White wire that acts as the ECM battery backup
(Circuit 400) that needs to run to a fused connection that's always hot. The
easiest way to make this connection is to tap into the stock miata fusebox that
I'll cover in the next section tentatively titled "Miata Wiring"

X50

This is where your labelmaker comes in since most of your wires here are
pink/black. I labelled the wires six-ish inches from the end of the connector, then
cut the wire flush with the X50 connector trying to retain as much length as
possible. On the LS3 I ended up extending these wires out three-ish feet to open up
some mounting options for the fusebox. Whenever you do a bunch of wire splices,
it's good to stagger the splice placement so you don't have a bunch of splices in
one spot that you can't get your split loom over. If you do lose a label it's not
difficult to figure out what it connects to - find the pink/black wire on the
connector for the description and check continuity. Once you have your fusebox
position and your wires cut to length, it's time to make some decisions - Combining
wires will lower the number of fuses necessary, but make it more difficult to
troubleshoot and possibly less reliable. In the Bussmann fusebox, you have 10 fuse
and 5 relay positions. Manual transmission is going to use 8 fuses - with 2
additional fuses needed for the fans which'll fill up the box. An auto will need a
few extra fuses for the TCM. If you combine F14UA with F8UA, you can drop it down
to 7. You can further simplify by combining F5UA and F20UA - generally, anything
that has a low fuse value. In our setup we ditched the post-cat O2 sensors. The
brake vacuum pump is ditched - it's controlled by the Camaro's brake control
module, so the ECM doesn't have any control of it anyway. Furthermore, the Camaro
uses a push-button start that's controlled by the ECM to engage and disengage the
starter motor - since we're using the Mazda key, that can be ditched as well.

On the bussmann "bussed" fusebox, there are 2 studs - one for the fuses and one for
the relay coils. For this I used the 8ga wire from the "powertrain relay" to the
fuse side of the fuse box, then jumped that wire with a 20ga to the "relay side" of
the fusebox. The relay side is only feeding the positive side of the relay coil (86
terminal) - so not much draw. A better, safer method would be to use one of the
fuses to feed the relays. (1) in the image below.

Wiring the fans is probably the most involved bit. The GM ECM has a fairly complex
method of fan control that I'll probably need to cover in a 4th HPTuners part - but
the short of it is there's a high fan and a low fan relay. In the LFX the High
speed setting grounds both the low and hi speed fan relays, in the LS3 they're
triggered individually (IE, high speed doesn't turn on the low speed relay). In
addition, some planning is needed to run this for the A/C so turning on the fan
doesn't engage the A/C Compressor. This is done with diodes - either soldered in
line (ew) or snagged from the junkyard in handy mini fuse form.
Fans in the easiest form - low relay turns on one fan, high relay turns on the
other. Simple. Downside - airflow reversion - hot air is sucked back through the
non-running (assuming common shroud) fan instead of across the heat exchanger. Two
speed fans are accomplished one of two ways in OEM forms - either a gigantic
resistor, or running the fans in series/parallel. Series/parallel require a 3-relay
setup. To further complicate things, I decided to add another feature to help cut
down on inductive kickback in the form of a reverse bias'd diode. Not 100%
necessary at all - but I figured I had the extra spots in the auxiliary box - so
why not? Here's the basic 2-speed fan setup with a handy graphic from Automotive
Electric Fans | GTSparkplugs

That said - here's the schematic I drew up for how I wired up the fans in the LS3
and LFX. I know ya'll probably aren't EE's, but this is the best way to show the
information (Please don't make me bust out MSPaint). For absolute clarity - if you
see a line cross over each other but there isn't a dot, THE WIRES ARE NOT CONNECTED
TO EACH OTHER. I included the extra fanciness of the snubber diode - this prevents
a high voltage spike from occurring when the fans are turned off. NOTE THAT THEY
ARE PUT IN BACKWARDS of convention - if you orient them in like you would a normal
diode (with the banded end to ground) they'll short to ground and burn in no time
flat. To learn more about it, google "inductive kickback".

You can also see the "AC_FAN_INPUT". So I guess now is a good as time as any to
talk about air conditioning. Here's your basic circuit -

You push the A/C button, it completes the circuit from the 12v on the relay through
the pressure and thermoswitch. I hacked in an extra wire onto the thermoswitch -
this basically means even if the A/C pressure/temperature conditions aren't met, it
will turn the fans on high (good for an emergency overheating situation, as long as
you pull the AC Clutch fuse so that doesn't warm up the condenser as well). This is
a dumb system - most ECM's like to know if there's additional load on the system so
it can compensate at idle, and also turn off the a/c compressor while you've got
your flooring it to give you that extra little oomph to the back wheels. So far
I've only had it stall on me once when the A/C cycled at a stop light. Optimal? no
- but you know what's awesome? Cold air. The diode on this circuit is absolutely
critical (in the fan wiring schematic) - otherwise, when the ECM commands the hi
fan relay, it will also engage the A/C compressor. The diode on the A/C button in
the above schematic that goes to ground is built in to the HVAC panel.
Tips for wiring this mess: For the GM pink power wires that you're going to be
combining, strip excessive length, twist together, cut to length, and then go up a
terminal size and crimp (ie, if you're putting 2 14awg wires together, use a 12awg
terminal). For the fans - use at least 12ga wires to the fans - but don't fall into
the trap of overengineering and think that 8ga gains you anything.. For the snubber
diode I crimped a 20awg wire along with the 12awg relay output (3). For the
gndsw_relay and the hi_relay - just join the wires together 6-ish inches from the
terminals with a heatshrink yellow butt splice and then run the 12awg wire to the
radiator fan (2). Relay coil wires, diode pigtails, data wires - they're not
carrying much current, and 20-ish ga wire is fine to the aux box (4). On the LS3 I
did fuse the relays with a 10a fuse (1).

That's X50 and the fusebox mostly out of the way. Now on to..

X102 "Forward Lamp Connector"

This is most of what you need to integrate into the body - and most of it can be
removed. None of these wires are really high-current carrying, so 20-ish awg wire
is fine. This should be pretty self evident, but I'll add in some notes to address
any questions.

Wires you'll be keeping:

440 - this is your battery backup for your ECM. Ideally this should be fused - but
it's really easy to tap off of the stock miata fusebox (next chapter).
419 - MIL Lamp. Goes to ground when "on" - so you put a bulb with switched 12v+ on
the other side of it. Illuminated with key on engine off and when you've got a code
thrown. Can also be manipulated with HP Tuners for testing purposes.
2500 & 2501 - Needs to be run to an OBDII connector. CANbus wires are often twisted
together - they don't *need* to be. There's a much longer conversation on the
advantages of twisted pair in an automotive environment - but canbus is incredibly
resistant to noise and for the length of the wires being run, you don't need to
twist them.
Pedal wires - next section.

Wires you're removing:

380 - A/C refrigerant signal - instead of the 3-way switch that the miata uses, the
Camaro uses a fancier 0-5v signal that the ECM monitors. The ECM takes this data
along with a signal from the now-removed BCM in order to control the compressor
clutch. Either way, out it goes.
5985 - Serial Wake Up. This is part of the can bus system used for the Camaro
security system and a few other things - but it's not needed for
OBDII/HPTuners/Torque.
5380 - Clutch Pedal position sensor. The Miata uses a clutch switch for stuff like
disabling cruise control - the Camaro uses a 0-5v sensor. I did run this wire out
to the interconnect to add in a sensor - but the car runs fine without it.
465 - I originally wired this up to the miata's fuel pump relay - and it didn't do
anything. I did roughly the same thing with my LS3 - and it didn't do anything.
Then I learned that on the LS3 this wire actually provides +12v instead of ground
to the relay - so I modified my miata's FP relay to make it work. I still have this
wire in the harness on the LFX and will hopefully get around to investigating if
this can be run like the LS3.
The metripack kit I linked earlier annoying doesn't come with any 6 pin single row
shells. Furthermore, they sell on ebay for $20(!) a pop. Run to the junkyard and
snip one off of virtually any GM car with an electronic throttle. One of the
easiest mistakes to make when wiring this is putting the pins in mirrored! On the
connector shell itself there's often an "A" or "F" molded into the black plastic -
use that to make sure you're in the right pin. The crimps need to be absolutely
perfect - take your time with them, redo them if they don't feel right. The ECM is
real sensitive about the pedal inputs, considering the liability of a runaway car -
so it will disable the throttle if it detects any fuckery.

Using the Torque app for android and a cheap ELM327-based bluetooth canbus reader
has been awesome to help diagnose without needing to drag the laptop out. The
downside of the standard OBDII port is that it's run straight to battery - so your
bluetooth radio is running whenever it's plugged in.. In the LS3 I changed pin16 to
connect to a switched power source, so it's not draining the battery and I can
leave the OBDII dongle plugged in. The other GMLAN stuff listed here are for "extra
components" that we're not using. In theory, you can grab and OBDII connector out
of any car and make it work if you repin it. Just make sure it has both grounds, a
power, and the 2 can bus wires.

To convert an automatic harness into a manual harness - you need to add in the VSS
connector and Reverse Lamp connector, and remove everything else. I ordered "Bosch
1 928 402 868 3 Way Connector Kit" from ebay for the VSS connector. The reverse
connector is your standard weatherpack 2 pin connector and will be wired directly
into the miata's harness to power the reverse lights (I don't know why the ECM
wants to know if you're in reverse). Once you've got those added into the harness,
all you have to do is to depin and remove everything on the round Q8 ATX connector.
Pretty simple to do.

For completeness - the K20 ECM connectors. mt resized them, so here's the fullres.
http://www.demoncleaner.net/mtnet/lf...20_x1_blue.png
http://www.demoncleaner.net/mtnet/lf...0_x2_black.png
http://www.demoncleaner.net/mtnet/lf...20_x3_gray.png

The K20 connectors are pretty easy to work with. To repin/depin one, first thing
thing is to pry off the TPA (Terminal Pin Assurance) with a small screwdriver.

Then remove the backshell by prying the 2 tabs out of the way.
Then pry the locking tab out of the way while pulling on the wire from the back.
It's hard to get a picture - but should be obvious once you're there.

There are a few more details to sweat - the starter solenoid, powering the fusebox,
the master powertrain relay - I'll get to those in the next section. I should also
mention LT1 Swap - they have a few guides for the ls swap crowd that influenced how
I ultimately wired up the LFX/LS3.

And now that I've taken some more photos - just to show what the benefit of
experience is in wiring.

LFX individual inputted fusebox with no auxiliary box.

LS3's bussed. Much less chaotic.