Engine Dyno Wiring Questions

Hello! I am a member of the Formula SAE team for my university and I've been tasked with reconstructing the engine dyno harness to run our new R7 motor. I have watched the entirety of the wiring fundamentals course and have designed my new harness following the course material, but there are a few deviations that differ my harness from a typical vehicle wiring harness.

We are constructing a panel that will house terminal blocks, with each individual terminal connected to every necessary pin on our MoTeC M800 ECU. A good example of a terminal setup would be found by searching for "Terminal Block Control Panel" on Google.

Ideally this allows us to connect and disconnect wires from the panel whenever we need to add/remove something like a sensor, injectors, ignition wires, etc. We would like to pursue this route as we expect future teams to make changes to the motor, sensors, anything, and we would like it to be as plug-and-play as possible.

The only issue I think I might face is the length all of the sensor wires, ignition and injector wires, etc. that will be coming from the panel and to the engine on the dyno. For each wire there is about 2 feet routed within the panel and about 10 feet routed above the panel, along the ceiling, and to the engine (so we can walk around and not duck through wires).

I understand that voltage drop is a concern but I am more concerned about noise interference due to the long lengths of wire. An alumni of the team told me that I should route the ignition and injector cables a few inches away from everything else and shield them as well. I was under the impression that although the ignition (coil on plug) and injectors themselves emit RFI, it should be low enough to be ignored by everything not within its immediate vicinity, and the wiring is relatively unaffected. Is this a correct statement? Would the longer length of wire require it to be shielded?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Without knowing the actual wiring paths, it's difficult to comment.

In theory, longer wires will pass through more of the magnetic fields around the HT wiring, but in practice not only will it be almost entirely well away from the HT leads, probably be angled, and any induced voltage be negligible, the electronics shouldn't be anywhere near sensitive enough to be affected. The tutor may be more used to very sensitive electronics.

That said, shielding of the HT and/or sensor wiring wouldn't hurt, and I expect there are many options open to you - weight and packaging may be more of a concern then. On the subject of weight and packaging, the pro's and cons may need to be considered. I like the idea for testing and optimising the electronic componentry, but it may be adding complexity and weight you don't need, and could be a potential failure point. Depending on time and other resources, and packaing/weight limitations, might be worth it to make a dedicated loom once the final, competion, setup is finalised.