A further thought just came to me regarding the confusion with the computer box wiring. I take it you have seen these?:


Notice how I used those blue connectors? Some are male and some are female and some are 1/2 of a "T" tap. Unless you actually plan on soldering all those connections up, you should consider doing this:
Sit down in advance and study the wiring diagrams that come with the manual. Do all you cutting and splicing "on paper" first. Pencil in all your splices and connectors and label them "male" or "female" or "T". Do it in such a way as to minimize making a mistake when doing the final connections under the dash. In this fashion, you will also be able to easily take the whole thing off and connect male to female to put the car back to stock. That is to say, each male connector will only hook up to it's corresponding female connector. Whenever you cut a stock wire, make sure one end is a male and the other end is a female. Then do the corresponding connector on the Vortech wire that gets connected to these.
Here is the "homework" that I did:

Then, when you are under the dash, all the connections will be more logical to follow. It's tight enough under there and poor visibility. You don't need it to be any harder than necessary.

 

Looking at those pics convinces me the one extra thing you need with a Vortech install is a plug and play harness. That way you can do all the fiddling and cutting and splicing without ever disabling the car or messing up the loom.

 

I wish there was one. I'd have bought it. Make it and they will come.

 

Eh? Don't they all connect to the ECU loom? In which case you just use a V-AFC harness.

I have the Comptech so my only connections are to the MAP sensor lead but I still used a plug and play.

 

Recently someone had the Vortech black box up for sale here. I guess they'd gone AEM or other standalone. I wonder what benefit the Vortech black box gives you if you have a Comptech SC? I assume it handles ignition timing.

At the price they were asking it would make more sense to go the E-manage.

 

I've never had a VAFC harness up close to look at. I suppose it could be used. Never thought of it at the time.

As for what the large black Vortech box does, one would have to look at the wiring diagram, find out what all those wires are for that are tapped.

 

How's this:



It has an extra wire (tap) off the +ve, -ve, throttle position and a few other leads and fly wires off the VTEC and pressure lead ins and outs (splice). Everything else is direct pass through. You can reconnect the splices if not required and tap extra wires where required. Definitely the way to work.

 

That would certainly make putting back to stock much easier however, I'm not sure if you could get that bulky thing tucked under the kick panel with any ease. Just tapping and splicing those connectors was tough enough to squeeze it all in without making too big a bulge in the panel.

 

AusS2000, the only concern I have with "plug and play" harnesses is the additional risk of a loose connection. I mean you're talking about 32+25+31=88 stock connections to the ECU. When you add a harness you're tripling the chances of a bad connection, and depending on which one it could cause significant damage to the engine. I learned this myself, luckily I noticed it and returned the harness to the vendor and it didn't cause any engine damage.

Just something to consider.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xviper
That would certainly make putting back to stock much easier however, I'm not sure if you could get that bulky thing tucked under the kick panel with any ease.