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View Full Version : *HOW TO* Wire a 2ltr Into A Nova



The Simps
14-05-08, 10:14 PM
Depending on what nova model you start with will depend on how easy this will be. Vauxhalls normal setup is to have 2 main looms. One for all the lights, interior, radiator, fans etc and one for the engine. These 2 looms are then connected by a few plugs. Some nova models are like this and some aren't like the SRi & SPi where these 2 looms are integral. If you have an integral loom it is worth spending the time cutting it all out. It will leave you with half dozen permanent & ignition lives and earths but this is not a bad thing as they can be used for guages etc later on.

Once you've removed your loom, whether integral or not, you should only be left with but a few wires:-

black,
red,
large red/blue,
green.

You will also need a blue wire which is the coolant temp sensor. This will be in with lights and runs along the front panel. Bring it in back thru the car and up to the dash. You are now ready to get soldering!


XE/LET Loom

Your Engine loom will have 3 little plugs near the ECU - 2 black and a green if its come from a mk3 astra, cavalier or calibra. If its from a mk2 astra I'll deal with this later. Hopefully, whereever you have got the loom from will have also given you the connectors they go into and a length of wire so you can make a plug and play loom. If not, rather than cutting up the engine loom I suggest you go to a scrappy and find any mk3 astra/cav/calibra and cut the plugs out the car loom. By wiring in on this basis whenever you change the engine whether its to an XE or LET it will be a simple plug n play.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Nova%20LET%20Build/3Plugs.jpg


All you need to connect up is:-

Large Red/blue - Large Red/blue (for the fuel pump)

Blue - Blue (coolant sender wire. On your loom it will run across the front member with the lights and to the back of the dash. Pull this back thru into the car and connect up to the plug. The engine loom has its own connection to the sender within its loom)

Brown/blue - Brown/blue (this is for the engine warning light. Depending on what dash display you use you take this wire from the back of the dash and connect up to the plug)

Green - Green (rev counter. Take from back of dash.)

Black - Black (the ignition live connect up on the XE/LET loom you will find is a single wire around the gearbox area of the loom. It should be in its own little single plug but these tend to get cut so you may find you have just a single black wire somewhere between the end of the loom and the end of the fuel rail. You can either feed an ignition live from the nova loom into the bay and connect it up there, tap into a feed near the ECU (you will need to suitably seal off the wire in the bay and tape up in the loom) or run the wire back down the loom (you'll need to solder and extend it) into the car so you keep all your connections in the footwell.

The engine loom has its own wire that goes to the battery terminal for permanet live so thats sorted.


Diagnostic Plug

If you can it is better to connect this up as you WILL be needing it to fault find at some point in your LET lifetime. If you havn't got one already, get one from someone else or a scrap vehicle. It has 5 wires - red, brown, brown/blue, brown/white & brown/yellow. It looks like this:-

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Nova%20LET%20Build/P2180071.jpg

You can use one of your spare red & brown wires that you have behind the dash to connect up to it, or run a new wire straight to the battery and one to a good earth or just tap into existing wires. The other 3 wires connect up to there corresponding colours in the green small plug (the brown/blue for ECU light will obviously have to have 2 wires joined into it so you can still run the dash light).

And you are all wired up! Wasn't that suprisingly easy? There are more wires within the 3 plugs but they aren't needed on a nova. The diagram below shows there purpose and also a pin layout reference.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Nova%20LET%20Build/letwiringdiagram3plugskd4.jpg


Wiring up Starter, Alternator etc

This is very easy as you just use the wires that are already there in the mini loom on the nova. YOU DO NOT NEED THE BIG ROUND PLUG FROM THE DONOR CAR!!


If Converting From a mk2 Astra GTE 16v

The mk2 astra didn't use the 3 plugs as above instead its main connections are in one plug in the engine bay:-

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Mechanical/ConnectorXE-Starter.jpg

You've got 2 choices here.

1. Run your wires thru and connect them up in the plug. Connections are the same as above if you get the other half of the plug if not and you cut off the engine loom plug the large [color="Blue"]blue is for the fuel pump and ignition live is black/Yellow.

2. Get the male part of the GTE plug (car loom part), male part of the 3 loom plug and the female part from an old engine loom. You can then leave your main connections on the nova loom by the footwell to the 3 little plugs then make up a mini loom to go into those 3 plugs and run thru to the engine bay. Sounds like a lot of hardwork but will mean if you have to got another XE or LET chances are it will have the 3 plug system (mk2 astra's are getting rarer) so will be easier to fit rather than pulling all the dash apart again. Do things right the 1st time!


Any Other Issues

If you are planning on using an ignition live in the engine bay rather than behind the dash to connect up to the single round ignition plug, on the 1.0ltr loom the black wire that goes to the coil isnt useable. It has a resistor inline and stops the wire giving 12v so you need to use a different one. You can use the black/purple from the wiper motor plug.



Simps.
:thumb:

chimp007_uk
14-05-08, 10:35 PM
Good guide, Mine was already done (yes i know thats a cop out, but i hate electrics) will definately come in handy!

How do you wire in the oil pressure guage from a XE block to digi dash? I'd love to know that my engine is ok :)

The Simps
14-05-08, 11:15 PM
How do you wire in the oil pressure guage from a XE block to digi dash? I'd love to know that my engine is ok :)


You will need to fit a fuel pressure sender from a car that had one!

The standard nova sender is at the back of the block and goes into the oil pump and has just the one wire for warning light. The 2 pin sender is much larger and is a large cylinder. You just run the 2nd wire up to your dash.

paulnova
15-05-08, 01:29 AM
brilliant guide mate, this should clear a few things up for many people!

chimp007_uk
15-05-08, 12:54 PM
Hi,
I'll have a look later! But its probably the standard XE oil pressure switch fitted. What colour wires go where? is it fitted at the rear of the block on the driver's side?

The Simps
15-05-08, 01:23 PM
rear of block on drivers side yeah, can't think of colours off top of my head mate sorry. blue/yellow springs to mind tho. blue/green is warning light iirc.

napalm_27
12-01-09, 07:29 PM
would this be the same for the c20ne/seh?

The Simps
12-01-09, 08:02 PM
Should be very similar. Vauxhall used pretty much the same colours on a lot of the cars around that time.

napalm_27
12-01-09, 08:37 PM
ok cheers mate
another quick question
could i jus use the
astra loom in the nova
there pretty simular arnt they?

loggyboy
12-01-09, 09:18 PM
No, lengths and alot of connectors would ne different, you could mod it, but it would be LOADS of arrseing around

napalm_27
12-01-09, 09:21 PM
okie poke cheers for the info mate

Rich
02-05-09, 01:22 AM
Looks like a top guide. Im putting a gte astra loom in,car was origionally a gsi. According to your guide it will just be simply wired up in the bay, to the plug by the brake servo? No need to get under the dash/ behind clocks?

The Simps
02-05-09, 10:35 AM
Should be mate, thats how I done mine. I "think" the plug might even fit the GSi one but could be wrong so could be a case of just swapping around a few wires.

Rich
04-05-09, 08:34 PM
Knew it wouldnt go to plan lol. Please see my thread if you cant help

http://www.pngclub.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1192044#post1192044

Mazz
04-06-09, 03:03 PM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v310/TheSimps/Nova/Nova%20LET%20Build/letwiringdiagram3plugskd4.jpg


Just finishing my loom, but do i need to use wires out of the black connection?

Sloth
04-06-09, 05:23 PM
how to convert a spi nova loom:

get the glove box out, undo the ecu, and cut ALL the wires to the 2 ecu plugs. unwrap the loom that goes through the bulkhead ( remove the tape) and do the same in the bay. pull the wires INDIVIDUALLY (one at a time) until no more come out. you will be left with the dash feeds and the fule pump wire, and a few permanent lives and switched lives. now drill a hole at the top of the bulkhead at the drivers side, feed your new engine loom through. pull the spare wires through from the bay under the glove box and back across the dash to the fuse box. connect em to the 3 small plugs and make sure to connect the fuel pump also. if the wires dont reach extend them, or, take the dash out, untape the dash loom, pull the wire across and retape it all. use the switcheds and permanents to feed the new loom. easy peasy. remember to tape it ALL up!
if this seems a bit complex then id stay with a 1.2 tbh, and build your skills, as the spi's are harder to do, and for a novice impossible....... its the ONLY way to do it. i did mine in car took 20 mins but i knew what i was doing, if ya aint got a haynes, get it and read it. otherwise you will fook it up! if ya put the starting and charging loom on the lump when its out its easier.
hope this helps.

Sloth

The Simps
04-06-09, 06:43 PM
Just finishing my loom, but do i need to use wires out of the black connection?


Only the temp guage wire potentially depending on whether you use the one on the engine loom or the existing nova one.

Mazz
04-06-09, 10:27 PM
Cheers Simps. I think i'll use the blue out of the original loom and join it to the black connector..

The Simps
04-06-09, 10:52 PM
The blue in the car loom already goes to the dash board so you won't need to touch the black plug as long as you use the blue thats in with your light loom to connect to the stat.

Mazz
04-06-09, 11:09 PM
oh righty. ta :)

jackhines15
14-06-10, 05:38 AM
how do i know what to remove from the nova loom? i am trying to put a 2ltr from a mk2 astra in a 1.2 carb model. also will i need to use the whole of the astra loom or just the Ecu loom which connects to engine?

mowgli
17-06-10, 08:26 AM
how do i know what to remove from the nova loom? i am trying to put a 2ltr from a mk2 astra in a 1.2 carb model. also will i need to use the whole of the astra loom or just the Ecu loom which connects to engine?

you can reuse the starter, and alternator wiring, and also the wires for the oil & temp gauges, and the rad fan stuff from the 1.2

basically, you need to use the whole ecu loom from the astra, then make connections for battery live, ign live, rev counter, ecu light (to the old choke light) and the fuel pump relay.

eddgsiturbo
22-07-10, 05:45 PM
were do i find each of the wires on a nova gsi? i have them on my let loom but cant find them on the car itself. its frustrating me now as only have wirein and boost pipes left to do. :thumb: