steve7119

Ok, for those of you that have already done it! I am working on a buddy's 67 Firebird. A little background: It has a 2001 Corvette LS6 engine, Moser rear end and 5 spd manual trans from a 2006 GTO.

He sent the car to a cousin in Ohio to have work done. The 20 somethings were in over their head I think so some things weren't really thought through as well as they should have been. He got it back home 3 years after he expected it and asked me if I would help with the electrical stuff and finish the interior. What I found was that the boys had used the Corvette steering column and entire wiring harness. After a lot of work I convinced him to get an aftermarket harness for the engine, Chassis and ditch the Corvette steering column. We now have Painless Performance harnesses and an aftermarket column.

His cousin had also used the Corvette pedal assembly and either hacked holes in the firewall or just left a bunch of them open. Most of that I have fixed and am now moving forward on the engine harness. My question is this....where is the best place to mount the ECM? The OEM heater is in the car so there is limited room under the dash. This car doesn't have A/C so i don't really want to block the kick panel vents either. With the corvette harness it was mounted under the RF fender behind the battery but with the Painless harness, I don't think it will reach inside the car where it needs to go.

I am sure I am not the first one to do this so I am looking to see where others have put the ECM. Thanks for your help!

Steve

blackbyrd

iTrader: (14)

Saw a 1st gen make a dummy firewall that was smoothed and hid the coils and ECM behind it. Don't have pics of it sadly

steve7119

Thanks! Neat idea, but I don't think I have room in the engine compartment right now. With the heater in there, it crowds things a bit.....Since this was always intended as a fair weather car, maybe I should have talked to him about leaving the heater out and using that real estate.....

Any first gen Firebird or Camaro will be the same.....

blackbyrd

iTrader: (14)

mind posting a shot of the engine bay? lets see what you got and maybe i can come up with an alternative.

steve7119

Thank you! I should have thought of that when I was up there this week. I am not where the car is at the moment. He lives about 40 minutes from me. I will see if he can send me photos that i can post. May be a day or so.

steve7119

One photo for you. I will take a few when I go back up to where the car is at. Maybe Monday. I am thinking that with the best options are either here on the passenger side inner fender or under the dashboard on the passenger side. Maybe something off the heater box under the hood?

Sorry about the photo, he got the fender cover in the way

blackbyrd

iTrader: (14)

hmm are you wanting it hidden or just trying to figure out where to put it? Im assumming the heat braid is the main bulk with the red and blue connectors running back to the corner of the engine bay? Have you thought about trying place it in the front of the engine bay rather than the back?

steve7119

Thanks for your response! I appreciate the input. I am not trying to hide it. Just trying to figure out where to put it. I had planned on putting it inside the passenger compartment so i ran the harness with that in mind. Had all the connections hooked up to the engine to make sure they all got to where they were supposed to go. Now figuring that the ECM will have to go under the hood.

This has a Painless harness and the instructions said something about how far things can be from the different places the harness has to reach. Can't remember now and I don't have the instructions here. I am going to pull the harness back out and experiment some. If I can reach from the front corner that may be the best option. I know it will reach the engine, but not sure about the parts that have to go under the dash.

sprech

iTrader: (1)

I mounted the stock PCM with essentially stock harness to the core support on the drivers side with either a van or truck mounting block. Don't remember which at the moment, but it was pretty small and fit nicely.

y2k_ta

iTrader: (80)

I'm not trying to steer you out of the Firebird Forum, but have you had a chance to check out the Conversions & Hybrids Forum? Lots of great ideas in there.