Electrical rework....

[BAR-AIR]

HERE IS A QUESTION FOR THE GROUP....
Ideally I would love to run a stand alone electrical system for the engine and then just a simple electrical system for the miscellaneous systems for the car (lights, horn etc...). First is that possible with an Ecotec running a throttle by wire system? There are stand alone systems available but only with throttle by cable. The next question, is if a stand alone system is not able to work is there a way to eliminate both the BCM and the main fuse block. It's aggravating to me to have them in the car when a good portion of each of them is not being used. Ideally I would like to make up a smaller fuse panel that would replace the two. Possible???

 

[Briann1177]

It looks like most of the fuel delivery system is controlled by the ECM. The BCM also has logic in it to control things such as your instrument cluster and lighting. I'm not sure how you could eliminate that. What is this stand alone system you mentioned?

Anything is possible I guess. That would be a major undertaking. I guess it's just a matter of how much time/money you would want to sink into it.

 

[Andy]

Yeah I think it would be possible to downsize all of the electronics on the car, but it would be a major undertaking and I am afraid you would be doing most of the work yourself. I like the idea from a waterproofing perspective. If you had a full set of wiring diagrams it would be a good start. If I were going to undertake something like that i would get a spare wiring harness, fuse box, and BCM to mess with. Build the goblin with the original then rework it and swap it with the spare to see if it would work. That way if you fried something or couldn't get it to run you were not SOL.

 

[BAR-AIR]

Custom Built Motors in California has a stand alone wiring harness for the Ecotec generally they are using them on sand rails (up to just recently they had only been used with cable driven throttle bodies). Yes you would have to retain the ECM and TCM on the earlier cars. There is just a lot of extra fuses and such that is unnecessary for the Goblin in the main fuse block and in the BCM. I guess the question is both the main fuse block and the BCM have circuit boards inside them. Are the circuit boards just to route power through the fuses or is there more to them?

 

[Briann1177]

I looked at the various BCM schematics, and there is quite a bit to it. There were several areas labeled "logic" and lots of little components such as pull up/down resistors.

I noticed that too when it comes to the number of fuses. Even a factory Cobalt has a lot of unused space. I guess GM uses the same box on different models and uses the space as necessary.

I have the service manual for an '09 SS so if you need pics of anything, let me know.