well I blew the engine in my car on new year's day so I'm having to rip it out so I decided to do a wire tuck and bay shave while I'm at it, I'm already a bit of the way into the project and it will probably be a slow process but I wanted to post pics here so people can see what I'm doing.

most of the wiring will be routed through the area that the winshield wiper assembly fits and the hollow passage in the fender frame. Note: I am paying close attention to fitment of the wiper assembly and wiring most of what I've done so far is test fit/mock-up so final fitment and wire grommets/protection & water proofing will come later for this project I ordered 500ft of 18gauge TXL automotive wire 100ft of 16 50ft of 14 and 50ft of 12






first hole, I already enlarged this hole I made since taking this picture but I have not taken a new one yet

this is where im passing the wires from the main cabin to bay harness through


drill a hole here

MADE LABELS FOR EACH AND EVERY WIRE



test fit of the wiring, might enlarge the hole a bit before the end



drilled another hole for the main battery cable and power stearing wires


beginning of the fuse box relocation BEFORE ANYONE ASKES SPLASH GUADS WILL BE INSTALLED TO KEEP EXCESS WATER FROM THE FUES BOX

engine computers new location mock up


and that's where I am at currently

 

Why the fuse box there not in trunk?

 

Subbed. Always like this stuff

 

to keep the length of wire added to a minimum, I don't want a ton of long wire powering high current objects a great distance longer than the original design. plus I want to do a show piece for my stereo to show at car shows and so the trunk is being saved for audio equipment and maybe a nitrous tank sometime in the future

 

This is why I'm here, I'm curious to see if you see any loss in resistance that you would then notice in the readouts of all the sensors. Thought about doing this myself while I have the car apart but that exact aspect of doing it and the possibility of ruining the harness is why I didn't.

 

Interesting, definitely interested in the final shots

Mark for most of the sensors you should be fine, as long as you're not adding a lot of wire. There is an equation around somewhere the gives you an idea of the additional resistance added. Ruining the harness, just label everything correctly or buy a spare

 

Yeah meant change, not loss lol. I'm just interested in seeing how it looks. I'd like to add a little show to this go.

 

Yes! So glad to see somebody trying this on for size! Someone did mention ince that adding or taking wire away from any sensor could cause different readouts but who knows to what extent thats true.

Anyway awesome to see this, the wire mess under the hood always killed me and i tucked away what i could but that only went so far.

 

the physics equation is as follows (R=pL/A) where R is resistance L is length and A is the cross-sectional area of the wire and I won't get into p to keep it simple but for the engine itself I'm only really adding about 7in in to the harness that goes to the engine. plus most sensors don't use a lot of current and that makes it possible. also if you are worried about the resistance you can change the entire wire length to a larger gauge so that the overall resistance of the wire is less than the original or at least kept to a minimal. The harness that goes to the cabin I'm adding about 3-4 feet but I'm not particularly worried about adding resistance to those wires and here is why
resistances at 7in are as follows
18gauge +0.004 ohms
16gauge +0.003 ohms
14gauge +0.002 ohms
12gauge +0.001 ohms
resistances at 3ft are as follows
18gauge +0.019 ohms
16gauge +0.012 ohms
14gauge +0.008 ohms
12gauge +0.005 ohms
so even at 3ft of additional wire, resistance increases less than a tenth of one ohm that is not something that is going to be noticeable to the computer
V=IR
say a sensor at has a maximum readout at 5V and the resistance of the wire is .2ohms at factory length and the sensors output is 500ma (.5A) that makes the voltage drop .1volt which is designed into the system of the car V=IR .1v=(.5A)(.200ohms) now add in the highest resistance I will be seeing which will be in the 18 gauge sensor wires which will be an added resistance of .004ohms. this makes the total resistance .204 ohms now doing the equation in reverse V=IR V?=(.5A)(.204) and you get an added voltage drop of .002volts for a total of .102drop in volts that .002v it 2 one-thousandths of one volt and isn't going to play any noticeable part by the A/D converters in the cobalt engine computer

 

Subd can't wait to see progress. Awesome work so far

 

subd. good lawd that a lot of work.

 

Nice, in for progress updates and finished result. Tucked bays look so clean but man, you need some time and dedication. Also, that's good to know about the physics behind increased resistance vs. length. As you mentioned, if it were a concern the way to go would be to up the gauge to compensate. Learn something new every day, and that makes perfect sense just never thought of it that way.

 

Props! I wanna see it finished.

 

Good luck man. Can't wait to see the finished product

 

in for final results

 

Can't wait to see the finish

 

In.

Has anyone done a true wire tuck on a Cobalt before?

 

not a full wire tuck

 

i would make a shield for that fuse box..... believe it or not the fog light hole(even with thefog light in) is one of the highest pressure points in the car. even under normal driving the water gets blasted back there. even though its primarily covered with plastic i would still build something around it to be safe.

 

He said he was making one, just didnt have it done for the pic

 

ok a little update, here is a pic of the hole I made after I decided on final size and re-drilled it, I also sprayed a temporary layer of paint down as a short term rust inhibitor


I decided the bracket I made for the fuse box wasn't as sturdy as I wanted it to be so I added a bracket to reinforce it



I'm just about done with the fusebox mounting then I can start to add wire

 

Alright now I'm in

 

 

I can appreciate something like that, but it gives me nightmares thinking about what happens when you get electrical gremlins afterwards.

 

click, interesting project.