Mom's '66 Chevelle Malibu

[andrewb70]

Wow what a fantastic, detailed write-up! Thank you!! I am starting with a new American Autowire Classic Update wiring kit, with both of their crimpers and their all-copper grounding kit. This will be my first car wiring project, so I am grateful for the support by posting tips like this!

The EFI needs a little thought. What I wrote up will easily integrate with your AWW harness.



If you have questions, please let me know. When you're ready for a tune, please keep me in mind.

Andrew

[WildCherry66]

The EFI needs a little thought. What I wrote up will easily integrate with your AWW harness.

If you have questions, please let me know. When you're ready for a tune, please keep me in mind.

Andrew

Will do! Any tips on how to wire those fans using the temp sensor as the signal to turn on in order to prevent the voltage drop issue that you witnessed since I don't have the pwm output with my Sniper? These brushless fans I have will soft-start, which might help? Here is the wiring diagram for the SPAL fan harnesses that I bought from Wizard: https://wizardcooling.com/product_im...fan-wiring.png

[andrewb70]

Will do! Any tips on how to wire those fans using the temp sensor as the signal to turn on in order to prevent the voltage drop issue that you witnessed since I don't have the pwm output with my Sniper? These brushless fans I have will soft-start, which might help? Here is the wiring diagram for the SPAL fan harnesses that I bought from Wizard: https://wizardcooling.com/product_im...fan-wiring.png

Chris,

I am going to assume that these are the 300 watt 12" fans, please let me know if they are something else.

I would follow the diagram in the link, but to keep the power side cleaner, I would add a power distribution bar. Even if you use a dual post battery (which I suggest you do), you are quickly going to have a stack of ring terminals hanging off the battery side posts. For this reason, in addition to the Bussman box under the hood, I would recommend adding both a power and ground busbar. There are many options available, here are just a few from Waytek:

https://catalog.waytekwire.com/Wayte...talog-232/192/

I would run a 6 gauge lead to the positive busbar and a 6 gauge lead to the negative side of the battery. These can serve as easy power sources for high demand devices, like your fans. I would also not use a fuse for the fans, but a circuit braker. If your fans are 300w, I would use a 30 amp breaker for each fan.

Lastly, I would wire the blue wire to your AC system trinary switch, and make sure that the one side of the trinary is switched positive signal. This will make the trinary switch a positive signal and thus turn your fans to 50% when the AC pressure reaches 265psi.

All of this is done external to the Sniper...Lastly, I would use the Sniper distributor and the Sniper CDI box, like we did in the Chevelle in my write up.

Andrew

[WildCherry66]

Chris,

I am going to assume that these are the 300 watt 12" fans, please let me know if they are something else.

I would follow the diagram in the link, but to keep the power side cleaner, I would add a power distribution bar. Even if you use a dual post battery (which I suggest you do), you are quickly going to have a stack of ring terminals hanging off the battery side posts. For this reason, in addition to the Bussman box under the hood, I would recommend adding both a power and ground busbar. There are many options available, here are just a few from Waytek:

https://catalog.waytekwire.com/Wayte...talog-232/192/

I would run a 6 gauge lead to the positive busbar and a 6 gauge lead to the negative side of the battery. These can serve as easy power sources for high demand devices, like your fans. I would also not use a fuse for the fans, but a circuit braker. If your fans are 300w, I would use a 30 amp breaker for each fan.

Lastly, I would wire the blue wire to your AC system trinary switch, and make sure that the one side of the trinary is switched positive signal. This will make the trinary switch a positive signal and thus turn your fans to 50% when the AC pressure reaches 265psi.

All of this is done external to the Sniper...Lastly, I would use the Sniper distributor and the Sniper CDI box, like we did in the Chevelle in my write up.

Andrew

Yes they are 300W fans. SPAL model ABL320P. I am not running AC in the car so won’t have to do anything for that. I will have to look at getting a new 4 post battery. Have a nice big 1000 CA/800CCA Interstate MT7 AGM, but it’s just a 2 top post. It is about 6 years old now though and even though it’s spent most of its life on the bench on a Battery Tender, I think you are right that it’s going to save me problems to get a new one better suited for this setup.

Thanks again so much for the advice! I really appreciate it. I am trying to do everything abou this project the right way even though it is taking longer and costing more. Final product will be something I can depend on for long trips.

I just got the radiator fitted to the core support and put the hood on to check for clearance and all is looking good! I’ll post photos later and will keep adding updates on here as I go.

[WildCherry66]

Chris,

I am going to assume that these are the 300 watt 12" fans, please let me know if they are something else.

I would follow the diagram in the link, but to keep the power side cleaner, I would add a power distribution bar. Even if you use a dual post battery (which I suggest you do), you are quickly going to have a stack of ring terminals hanging off the battery side posts. For this reason, in addition to the Bussman box under the hood, I would recommend adding both a power and ground busbar. There are many options available, here are just a few from Waytek:

https://catalog.waytekwire.com/Wayte...talog-232/192/

I would run a 6 gauge lead to the positive busbar and a 6 gauge lead to the negative side of the battery. These can serve as easy power sources for high demand devices, like your fans. I would also not use a fuse for the fans, but a circuit braker. If your fans are 300w, I would use a 30 amp breaker for each fan.

Lastly, I would wire the blue wire to your AC system trinary switch, and make sure that the one side of the trinary is switched positive signal. This will make the trinary switch a positive signal and thus turn your fans to 50% when the AC pressure reaches 265psi.



All of this is done external to the Sniper...Lastly, I would use the Sniper distributor and the Sniper CDI box, like we did in the Chevelle in my write up.

Andrew

While doing some more research, I stumbled across this article which had some input from SPAL on wiring practices for their brushless fans. Interesting points if you want to take a look. Especially around not using relays and using fuses over circuit breakers.
https://www.fordmuscle.com/tech-stor...with-spal-usa/

[andrewb70]

Their only point regarding circuit breakers vs. fuses is they claim fuses are safely, because there are no moving parts. In my experience, good quality circuit breakers are very reliable. They have the added benefit of resetting and not requiring spares to be carried. I guess it's dealers choice. My Cougar has been together for 5 years and has over 30k miles.

Andrew

[CSG]

I question their comment about there not being a correct way to run a relay with a brushless fan. As we know a relay is nothing but an isolating switch.

[Vimes]

In the case of the more than two wire Spal fans, it looks like a relay is not needed.

"Furthermore, SPAL has gone a step further and improved upon a great design with the 500W 14-inch and 16-inch drop-in mount fan assemblies they offer. Not only are these fans sealed to IP68 and IP6K9K standards fo their waterproof, dustproof, and waterjet capabilities, but they also possess, “Soft Start,” technology. This means that SPAL has found a way to mitigate electrical in-rush spikes. You know, that drop in voltage you see when your fans kick on, or to put it less plainly, the, “switch-on” surge from the maximum instantaneous current draw you feel when a device is first turned on. They have also included a digital controller for smooth and reliable operation, and built in temperature sensor options for variable speed control. All of this tied into a light-weight and highly efficient package."
- https://www.streetmusclemag.com/news...s-series-fans/

According to this, the Spal fan has a built-in control unit that soft starts the motor. I'd be willing to bet that the control line can easily handle a pwm signal to allow the fans to be run at whatever speed is wanted. In this case, I can see why a relay is not recommended. If a relay is in line blocking main power to the fan, the controller won't see what it expects. No idea what effect there would be on the fan's controller system if control power is there but main is not, but I can see the on-board controller interpreting this as a fault condition and shutting down which would keep the fan from working. Someone who's better versed on the theory side would need to answer that though, I'm decent enough at figuring out the physical side for my own needs but theory is beyond me.

For what it's worth, I'm attaching the wiring for a Chevy truck fan. It requires a low temp input and a high temp input. The low temp runs the fans in series which runs them at half speed, and in parallel on high speed. The triggers could be temp sending units screwed into the block with different triggering temps, but if you had AC you'd need a way to trigger in the AC system. Someone could probably build an Arduino control board that could take in the low, high and AC inputs and trigger the fans appropriately. This diagram definitely works though, I've wired a couple of Silverados using it and both worked. Notice that this diagram shows two separate relays, two 4-pin relays and one 5-pin relay. You could use 5-pin relays on all three so long as the 5-pin relays were wired in on the normally open terminals.

[andrewb70]

Yes...no relay needed with the pwm brushless fans, but the power side still needs to be thoughtfully planned out to avoid issues. A 600 watt load at full speed is no joke.

Andrew

[CSG]

I was not taking pwm into account as I have yet to wire one that way.

[WildCherry66]

Long overdue on some updates again. How time flies!

Picking up where my last pictures left off when the radiator and fan combo arrived July 2020, here are some pictures of it test fit in the car. Nice size and position and clearance with those brushless fans!













New front inner fenders primed, painted, and undercoating sprayed on bottom side



Customized dash all painted and assembly with Dakota Digital 66 Chevelle RTX gauges, Holley Sniper EFI controller hidden and velcro'd in my custom, ashtray-turned-magnetic latch door, new trim, Retrosound Long Beach radio with bluetooth and hands free phone.

[David Sloan]

Nice project ! Coming along good! I'm in for updates.

[WildCherry66]

Mounting and mockup of Holley components and harness. Hyperspark ignition box and coil mounted on firewall, Hyperspark distributor, Holley Sniper EFI



Decided to weld bolts to be used as studs onto inside of firewall to mount aluminum stand-off panels for mounting components like the Dakota Digital gauge control box and Holley EFI interface module (and future heater) inside the car without having to drill holes through the firewall to keep it looking clean and also allowed the ignition components to be bolted right on the backside of them on engine side of firewall with no interference issues.







I wanted the top and bottom of the floor/new trans tunnel to look a lot nicer than it had ended up as after fully welding the seams, so I spent a lot of time sanding welds as flat as I could, smoothing with thin coat of Bondo on top and bottom and lots and lots of sanding. You guys are probably the only people besides us that will ever see this but I'm happy that I did it because it looks a lot nicer.









I also wanted to upgrade the throttle assembly to a more modern one that is cable operated instead of linkage and hanging instead of floor-mounted so I planned on getting the nice Lokar parts and since that pedal is cantilevered off of the firewall I wanted to make sure there was no flex so reinforced this section with a doubler plate to make it very solid.







Primer and paint after smoothing everything inside and out.

[WildCherry66]

Nice project ! Coming along good! I'm in for updates.

Thanks! More updates coming!

[WildCherry66]

Dad and I got some time to work together on the car over Christmas break. We worked on getting the spark plug wires built and mounted on the engine. Started with a universal MSD Superconductor 8.5 mm kit and I wanted a cleaner look by mounting them under the headers so also added Design Engineering Inc. heat sleeve and MSD wire separator mounts. Had to make some tabs that would hold everything tight and neat against the block so nothing got to close to the headers and they all stayed separated from each other. Turned out really nice. Again, another detail that will probably only be seen by looking at these photos being hidden on the backside of the engine.

[WildCherry66]

Here's a before and after picture of the dash:

[WildCherry66]

Interior paint and start of assembly. For now, using the carpeting we had, but plan to get some new stuff that can be better fit to the new tunnel sections that were changed.

[WildCherry66]

Some photos underneath after the body and frame are back together after paint. All-new muscle car hiding underneath that old body! She's a super sleeper now! :-)

[Motown 454]

Everything looks great! You guys did a lot of nice work on this car. I like the ash tray mount for your controller. Under the car and the engine bay are looking good, nice and clean.

[WildCherry66]

Everything looks great! You guys did a lot of nice work on this car. I like the ash tray mount for your controller. Under the car and the engine bay are looking good, nice and clean.

Thanks! Yeah enjoying making some trick little things in there to make it my own.