Help! Digifant wiring into Aircooled Vanagon??

[The_Zodiac_11030]

Still stumped, unless I have a bad ECU, but I have to admit, wiring is not my strong suit.

[Vanagon Nut]

Do you have a Vanagon Bentley manual or Vanagon Haynes manual?
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1981 Westy DIY 15º ABA

1988 West DIY 50º ABA

VE7TBN

[MarkWard]

If wiring is not your strong suit, you have a huge learning curve ahead. Others have tried to point out that the digifant harness and ECU for the most part are plug and play to the engine. As mentioned all you need to connect to the vanagon electrical system is minimal.

Your pictures show a pretty hacked up harness. It’s unlikely the ECU unless you accidentally smoked it by connecting it up wrong. I’d try reaching out to FAS and see what they can provide, harness, ECU, support.

I did one of these conversions and am fluent in VW wiring. I had to search the internet to find a wiring diagram that matched my ECU. It was not from a car sold in the US. Without the internet, I would have been SOL.

If this van is for you, another option would be to look at DIY Auto Tune/ Megasquirt. Build your own custom system. Would be a better outcome vs the ancient Digifant system. You likely don’t have the skill set yet to do that. Either way it’s solvable, but probably more than us internet mechanics can get you going. I’d be surprised if you could find an import shop that would take it on.

If FAS can help, they likely would have documentation of how to connect their harness. Sorry I’m not more positive.
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[The_Zodiac_11030]

[MarkWard]

You would need a factory manual for the donor your engine came from. That is the more important part of the picture. You should be able to find the engine number top center of the block where the cylinder head attaches. Goggle the engine number and see what comes back. That should get you in the ball park.


The ECU number can also be searched online to determine the vehicle if its the correct ECU. But as I said with the exception of just a few wires, the ECU and harness should completely plug into your engine.
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[The_Zodiac_11030]

[MarkWard]

So you are not doing the conversion? You ended up with this van as a non runner. There is no way I can tell what the PO had in mind.

The Vanagon double relay powered the fuel pump and the fuel injection. To make it more troublesome is the white wires after all these years are unmarked.

To do a proper install at this point, I’d recommend making a new power harness with 2 relays. One to power the ignition and ECU and one to power the original fuel pump. For safety though you need the fuel pump to run only while cranking and once the engine is running. It should be designed so that if the engine quits on its own, the fuel pump must shutoff. It’s possible that the ECU has a provision for powering a fuel pump relay that would use an rpm signal to energize the fuel pump relay. To me it’s quite simple. I’d still need an accurate wiring diagram from the donor.

You can’t go by the head casting number. You need the stamped number off the block.

Assuming the correct ECU in hand did you google it to see what model VW it fits? I would not attempt to reuse the double relay. I believe they are NLA and expensive. I’d try to use 40 amp fog light relays instead. Another member posted a pin out, but you’d have to verify each pin wire with an ohm meter to be sure the pinout diagram matched your harness.

The likelihood you will figure this out is low. I hope you can prove me wrong. I’d expect to spend 16 hours to figure out what you have and it still may not start, run, and drive. That’s like $2400 so plan accordingly. Because I don’t know you or the van, if you called the shop, we’d likely pass. From the mess I see, there’s likely another 3 days of work. And that would be spread out over a month or two. So, I’ve given you some ideas, but unable to give you specifics because no one but the person that did the conversion originally would have any idea what they were thinking. Hope you got it for a song. Good luck.
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[Californio]

Agree, there is just too much here to be a lot of help. It's like asking How do I build a house? Try getting down to How do I mortise a hinge? and you'll have better luck.
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1987 Syncro Westy/2.0L Tiico

[Vanagon Nut]

[The_Zodiac_11030]

[crazyvwvanman]

The box with the 2 relays are part of the fuel injection harness so I would get them working as they are.

Mark

[MarkWard]

I’m just giving you an idea of what you are saving. $ The person that pulled it should have marked and labeled everything including photos. A video of it running a plus. They did you a disservice. Its solvable, but going to take some time. As I said, hope you prove me wrong.
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[Vanagon Nut]

[The_Zodiac_11030]

[The_Zodiac_11030]

[Vanagon Nut]

[The_Zodiac_11030]

[Vanagon Nut]

[markswagen]

circled in red, is that connected to something, or is that just a mess of wires connected together.
and circled in green, are they joined together, where does the other end go ?

personally l would pull out anything that is clearly not factory wiring, you can easily get very confused looking at bad previous owners wiring.
once you only have factory wiring in there, it might make more sense.
they yellow plug, that's the remaining half that was plugged into the double relay.

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markswagen {mobile mechanic} san diego area all early VW's cared for.

619 201 0310

[The_Zodiac_11030]