That's the heater core and coolant flows through it for the heat in your HVAC system, removing AC is just removing the condenser/compressor and the lines for it. Removing that heater core and blower box is a bit more cause you won't have heat, or any air to be blown through the dash at all.

btw, this is an awesome thread, and i like the work you've done. it's exactly what i want to do, and i'm glad to see it's possible.

 

Yeah, that's the heater core and fan box. You'll need it if you keep your heater in the car. I don't have heat or A/C, so I have tons of room back there.

 

Damn I was afraid of that, thanks for the info again mark, my block is ack, I'm just waiting on the head to get back and meanwhile I'm just finishing up the wire tuck. Mark by the way like u I stripped all the electrical tape of the engine bay wires, as for the wires that will be closest to the hot engine, what would you recomend??? U know like the wires all around the cam sensors, the wires close to the fuel rail? I'm thinking these wires would need to be better protected from heat?.?.?

 

I am not worried about wires near heat. The only spot that would really get hot would be the cam sensor and around there, but the engine bay gets enough airflow, in my mind. Anything in the back of the bay, near the fuel rail should stay < 180 degrees, which is not a problem at all.

 

Ok cause when I am done with the wire tuck I plan on just rewrapping with electrical tape and maybe using smaller versions of that tubing that originally covered the electrical tape, other then that I can't think of anything else that would look good

 

I want to finish up the front of the car, so I ran the wires through the driver's side foot well today. The wires that go through here are the headlights, air intake temp sensor, driver's side fender marker, and the positive wires for the fan and electric water pump. I was able to still use the factory grommet, so that's nice. Here are some shot:






Now, I just need to finish planning out the headlights, then I can get all of that back on, and then the front of the car should be 100% done, and I can focus on the rest of the interior. The headlights are 5 wires each, so it's not too bad, I just have to mount the wiring to the tube on the front of the car, and run the new wires / connectors up to each headlight. Pretty exciting!

--mark

 

Awesome...I love updates to this thread...

 

are u going further back past the dash wiring harness?

 

Like to the back of the car? Absolutely! I just want to finish up stuff in the front for now, so that I can start re-assembling some of the car.

 

I almost have the dash harness back in. I am in the process of zip-tieing everything to the dash beam, so that all of the wire is tucked up under the dash. It's weird, it looks messy, and I feel like it's worse than before, but then I have to remind myself that no one ever sees all of the wires back there, and it's MUCH BETTER than before. Once I get the dash back on, it will be one of those "out of sight, out of mind" things.

I am just too much of a neat freak I guess!

--mark

 

I realized that I haven't updated this thread in a while. The wiring is all but done, the interior is just about back in, and it's ready for spring to get here! I ended up wiring 3 relays fir the auxiliary things. One relay for the water pump, one for the fan, and one for the coils/wideband sensor. They all turn on with key-on power, so I don't have to remember to flip a breaker anymore.

The last few things to do will happen fast, so expect some photo updates , along with a video walk through, very soon. I am very pleased :-D

-mark

 

Back to the headlights!

So, here is a photo of the stock RS headlight, notice how there is one 4 pin plug that controls the hazards, low beam, and turn signal, and then a separate connector for high beams:






I want this all one one, 5 pin removable plug, so I started out by cutting the connector, so I would have new wire to work with:



Now, I can take my new wire pigtails (already run in the car, and then cut 10" in length for color matching, and solder them on to the current harness:



Then head shrink:



Now each headlight has 5 wires coming off of it, that match the 5 wires on the body, of the same color.



So, the next step was to connect all of the wires, and test. After a successful test, I will add in the 5 pin weather pack at each headlight, so just like the removable front end of the car, the headlights can be removed with just one electrical connector each. As you can tell in the video (coming shortly), I must have flipped the hazards with the turn signal on the passenger headlight, but the more important part is that everything works, including the high beams. Previously, the car didn't even have the wiring for the high beams. Once I flip the wires around, and confirm that it all works exactly as how it should, I will solder in the connectors, and do final install. I am very happy with this

 

After looking at my '04, I realized that the hazards use the same bulb as the turn signals. So, what is the bulb for in the upper corner of the housing?

 

parking lights/marker lights which ever you want to call it

 

Forgive my ignorance, but when do parking lights turn on, on a 5 speed car?