How many wires to run from the engine bay to cockpit?

[Payne]

I'm hoping to get my Atom in a month or so now, and I'm starting to think about the little things like gauges.

Before I drop my motor in, and while I have the coolant pipes out, I'd like to run some extra wires from the engine bay up to the dash area for things like oil pressue, oil temp, nitrous solenoids, fuel pressue, racelogic, etc...

Do you serious tinkerers/modders think 20 wires is enough to do everything I could possibly want to do in the next few years? Or is 20 too many?

Thanks,
Jason

[bolus]

never enough! seriously, though 20 should be more than enough. You will need + and - wires for almost everything so color coding them would be very helpful. Running 10 grounds and 10 hot wires and wrapping them in some quality sleeving would be the way to go while you have everything open. Lots of options here
https://www.wirecare.com/land_SleevingMain.asp

Lets see, Im running 3 gauges, boost controller, paddle shifter, intercom, GPS, video recorder, radar detector, switch for oil accumulator, crankcase vacuum pump, water injection kit.... probably a few others I forgot about.

[Terry Kennedy]

Do you serious tinkerers/modders think 20 wires is enough to do everything I could possibly want to do in the next few years? Or is 20 too many?

I think the issue may be guessing the correct types of wires for your future applications. Sensors can use thin wires (#22, perhaps) while control functions that may need to provide more power will need to be heavier (#18 or even #16).

If you're going to run a camera back there, or on the rollbar, you may also need some shielded cable for the video.

I've only actually run 2 wires back to the engine compartment, for the CAN bus (which isn't present on the Brammo OBDII connector by default). They're not on the underside of the car - instead, they run along the 2 small frame tubes on either side of the shifter and then turn left behind the driver's seat and come out by the PCM. I have a bunch of wires going to the center console (I have the individual Recaro seats with a carbon fiber center console). There's 2 to power the Autocom control unit which is located in the "glove box", and another 2 for the UGDO (Universal Garage Door Opener):



Then I have a video cable for the rollbar camera along the same path. These are all in expandable sleeve tubing (that nylon mesh stuff) for neatness.

At some point I'm going to get irked enough at the Brammo wiring foibles that I'll pull the entire wiring harness out and build a new one. Mine is early enough that it had a bunch of wires stolen by Brammo for other things (as an example, they cannibalized the CAN bus wires for the Masterlube solenoid), and being the first Microdash car Brammo built (one of only 5 overall) stuff that wasn't in the standard harness like oil temp/pressure were sort of strung haphazardly. (Oil pressure is an actual analog sensor, in addition to the "idiot light" which runs on a different wire).

When the car gets very wet, the dash freaks out. It normally takes 4+ hours of driving in intense rain to get it to act up, but then it's out of commission until the car fully dries out a day or two later:



I know exactly what is causing it (a short in the reference voltage for the analog sensors) but I don't know where it is. Somewhere under the car, I guess.