Bulkhead connector

Hi there,

I have been very busy planning my loom build and are very grateful to HPA for giving me the confidence to do so.

I am wiring up a Life Racing F88rs6 ECU to an old BMW S14 engine.

I am using wideband and knock control as well as the usual sensors for N/A itb use.

I intend to run a bulkhead Connector but would like a bit of advise first.. To minimise the amount of sensor wires going through this connector I was going to splice them inside the engine bay. I intend to use 1 of the sensor ground pins for the crank and cam refs and the other sensor ground pin on the ecu for the remaining sensors. I was going to start with 20awg wire through the connector then split into 24awg to the multiple sensor grounds. Likewise for the 12v feed to the high impedance injectors 20awg splice to multiple 24awg feeds. Now when it comes to the Cops I am not quite sure. They are denso motorbike coils off a cbr600 of the 2 wire type p/n 129700-3881.

So I was going to do the same for the Cops with a 20-24 splice in the engine bay..

No with regards to the bulkhead Connector I was going to use a 32way autosport connector for this purpose or something else cheaper if I can find one suitable. I wonder though if it is a good idea to group all of the above wires together in one connector considering the the ref and knock shielded braid would also occupy a pin. Can the wires cause interference with each other? Is it best to run them seperately in 2 bulkhead plugs and if so what to group together...

Sorry this is so long

Thanks Karl

G'day Karl.

You're right to be thinking about interference, its always a concern! Your plan for splicing out the sensor wires sounds solid, and the wire sizes shouldn't give you any problems.

For the coils, 24AWG might be getting a little on the slim side... I'd be more comfortable running 22AWG shielded twisted pair for these, as this wiring can radiate out quite a bit of noise with the coil primary currents switching on an off. Running a twisted shielded pair to each coil really helps with this.

For bulkhead connectors, I've had good success with the Deutsch HDP range. They're bulkier, and nowhere near as sexy as autosport, but they take standard DT / DTM pins, so stock is cheaper, and tooling more available. They're not really suitable for a fully sealed harness however.