LS1 into VN - turning 2 looms into 1

[savage1987]

How much work is involved / how straightforward is it? I've been quoted $600 and a 2 week turnaround time if I send off my two engine looms. That means a minimum 2 week down time for the car, which is less than ideal.

Is it that much work to DIY? I'll spend as much time as I need to if it's all straightforward stuff, just worried if it's complex I may end up causing myself issues since I know almost nothing about diagnosing electrical problems.


Any info appreciated, this is $600 that could be very well spent elsewhere, on brakes for example!!
Sam

 

[combatantsomeone]

I had mine done by a shop
cost me $500 including modding the comp to remove VATS
Having looked at it if you knew what you were doing I reckon you could mod it yourself depending on whether you were going auto or manual as i would imagine auto would be more difficult
Personally i would just suck it up and pay up haha

 

[danja]

Lol $600, guess that's the 2nd budget blowout then

Seriously, how hard could it be? (famous last words). Wiring diagrams ain't hard to get hold of for the LS1 looms, and I'm sure someone has one for the VN.

 

[savage1987]

I had mine done by a shop
cost me $500 including modding the comp to remove VATS
Having looked at it if you knew what you were doing I reckon you could mod it yourself depending on whether you were going auto or manual as i would imagine auto would be more difficult
Personally i would just suck it up and pay up haha

Yeah, I duno. Mine's manual, much easier since no Powertrain Interface Module or whatever it's called and no BCM required.. Removing VATS is another cost on top of the $600. There's also a loom on ebay for $450 exchange.. he can remove VATS also, might be worth me looking into.

Lol $600, guess that's the 2nd budget blowout then

Seriously, how hard could it be? (famous last words). Wiring diagrams ain't hard to get hold of for the LS1 looms, and I'm sure someone has one for the VN.

Yeah overall the budget is still on track before this wiring debarcle, as the motor was well under budget AND came with a free automatic! Picking up the 6spd this Saturday, that was about exactly how much I budgeted for it, AND comes with p/p, fly', and clutch.

The trouble with me and wiring diagrams is that even with them I am useless.. I wouldn't know what to do with one if my life depended on it!

 

[VN_Luke]

it depends how motivated you are mate.

Remember that wiring is a cruicial make/break a conversion such as this. voltage drop issues, incorrectly sized wiring and bad joining techniques can cause *endless* issues when you start asking a bit of the motor (i.e. big revs, lots going on, lots of current draw for ignition, potential interference with CAS sensor, etc etc) - it can be the cause of many dramas, misfires and potentially (bit extreme, I know - but more common than you think in turbo cars running on-edge with shonky wiring!) - a blown engine.

In the big scheme of things, $600 will be forgotten about pretty quick when you're putting around in a smooth running nicely wired car....

Having said all that - I can't imagine it would be too hard to DIY, but you'd want to make sure you can read/understand a wiring diagram first (remember if you have to learn lots it might take you way more than 2 weeks of night work to get it done - but the upside is that you learn!)

you can get the genuine holden wiring diagrams off ebay every now and then, which help a whole heap.

I'd be asking the $600 guys how the looms interface etc. Whether they modify your VN body/engine loom so that the LS1 loom just plugs in with a nice plug? or whether they solder it all as one unit etc?

Ultimately you would want to be able to get a stock ls1 engine loom, and plug it into your VN.

This way if you ever change motors etc, it's easy, and you can pull a motor out with loom attached!

What about if you ever need to go back to a stock motor for any reason will you be able to re-plug a v6 loom in?

Another thing worth noting is that just because someone is charging you money, doesn't mean they'll do any better-a job than you could do!

If the $600 covers plugs and modifying of the VN loom so it's all 'plug and play' for an LS1 loom, I reckon it's a pretty good price! - 2 weeks is not unreasonable for turn around for this kind of work as well.

Does it include any kind of warranty? i.e. if you end up having a wiring issue down the track on the dyno, causing a misfire, or a voltage drop issue when starting or something, will they fix it all up for free?

 

[savage1987]

Thanks for the info Luke!

Here's the word from the company rep:

Hi sam
We charge 600 to strip yr loom and run the extra wires and the relays and fusebox

For a manual or 650 if its an auto

We will fit an obd2 plug so u can tune the ecu

I suppose u have the software to turn of the security

We run wires thru the loom so you can fit water temp senders and oil pressure senders

If you let us know what car its going into maybe we can make it plug in and only have afew lesser wires to connect

Anyway if u give us details fo what car we can give u more info back so we can make the loom suit yr application


..to which I replied:

Thanks for the info Jim, the particular car is a series 1 VN V6 Commodore sedan (Lexcen but that makes no difference to wiring I'm fairly sure.) The engine is from a VX V8 wagon and the loom I have is VX SS manual. It's going in with a T56.

What do I actually need to send you, just the wiring loom itself? I have no fuse box etc with it, just the bare loom. I don't have the software to disable VATS but I know I will need to get that done.

Honestly, $600 is a huge hit to my budget, I don't really know what work is involved but I didn't expect that much. (Not meaning to be rude)

I'll grab final details on what you're able to make up for me please and I'll go from there. Means the swap will take a little longer but I guess I've no option really.

Thanks
Sam


.. and their final reply was this:

That’s ok

Just search on the net and some info is out there if you plan to do it yourself

The main thing we find is if there is any problems most people do not know how to diagnose stuff

It takes a full day to strip down the ls1 loom and strip down the vn loom so we can make it nearly all plug and play with afew wires left over for you to connect for thermo fans etc

We supply diagrams for the left over wires to assist you and we can help over the phone only if we mod your loom

If you want us to do the job send us the ls1 loom and the vn v6 engine loom and we will send back one loom

Will take about a week or 2 as we are pretty busy at the moment with 3 ls1 looms and 2 major rewires on

Thanks
jim

I may just get them to do the loom.. I'll have to play it smartly though as the swap will be done during time off work (casual work = very very flexible but I may run out of parts money if I'm off for too long ) but I'm sure I'll work out a way. Having the OBD2 plug I can imagine will make life a lot easier down the track... along with assurance of no stuff ups. I must ask them about warranty on the job.

Sam