Wiring/Ecm question

Ajp1024

New Member
Oct 9, 2022
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Ohio
Hey guys. New member here! I just bought an 89 Lx v8 car and it’s missing a bunch of stuff. My main question right now is I noticed ecm is missing. I don’t really care because I’m either gonna build a carb motor or use a fitech. I’m trying to make sure that everything else in the car will work without it…lights gauges etc. also do I need all this wiring under the hood? I’m thinking I should probably just pull the whole harness and put something like a painless one in it. Any help would be appreciated
 
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Hey guys. New member here! I just bought an 89 Lx v8 car and it’s missing a bunch of stuff. My main question right now is I noticed ecm is missing. I don’t really care because I’m either gonna build a carb motor or use a fitech. I’m trying to make sure that everything else in the car will work without it…lights gauges etc. also do I need all this wiring under the hood? I’m thinking I should probably just pull the whole harness and put something like a painless one in it. Any help would be appreciated
You can run everything in the car without the engine harness. Just with the Body harness on the drive side .

I wouldn’t put fitech on a lawn mower .
 
What about the ECM?
If you plan on going carb you dont need an ECM....ECM means Engine control module......When you go carb youll have tons of questions of how to adapt the ECU harness to work or what wires to pin out for the coil and how to wire in an ignition system...

Like said above I wouldnt put Fitech on a lawnmower either....Holleys Terminator X or Sniper systems either.....

Alls youll need is a magnetic pickup distributor with vacuum advance,,carb and an MSD ignition system to run a carb....you can also use a Chevy 1 wire HEI distributor adapted for a Ford too....

89 eng.jpg


Good Luck
 
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Hey guys. New member here! I just bought an 89 Lx v8 car and it’s missing a bunch of stuff. My main question right now is I noticed ecm is missing. I don’t really care because I’m either gonna build a carb motor or use a fitech. I’m trying to make sure that everything else in the car will work without it…lights gauges etc. also do I need all this wiring under the hood? I’m thinking I should probably just pull the whole harness and put something like a painless one in it. Any help would be appreciated
As has already been posted, why not just sort the factory injection system out?
 
If you plan on going carb you dont need an ECM....ECM means Engine control module......When you go carb youll have tons of questions of how to adapt the ECU harness to work or what wires to pin out for the coil and how to wire in an ignition system...

Like said above I wouldnt put Fitech on a lawnmower either....Holleys Terminator X or Sniper systems either.....

Alls youll need is a magnetic pickup distributor with vacuum advance,,carb and an MSD ignition system to run a carb....you can also use a Chevy 1 wire HEI distributor adapted for a Ford too....

89 eng.jpg


Good Luck
Sniper I agree is a no go

Hp , dominator , or term x work just fine if you understand a wizard isn’t going to tune your car .
 
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If the only thing for the factory injection missing is the ECU then keeping it injected is going to be the cheaper route. If you are dead set on running a carb then about all you need to get spark is an ignition box and compatible distributor. You can use the existing coil with zero issues. If the stock fuel pump works then you will need a regulator that can take the high pressure down to the 7 psi range for the carb. Something like this would work but its not cheap but then again it works:


You can pull the pump hanger out of the tank and install something like this or modify the stock hanger:


Then you will need a pump, filter, possibly a regulator (some pumps internally regulate but I don't trust them), and possibly a return line back to the tank (good idea so you do not get carb heat soak if you are worried about that), and then there is wiring up the pump and plumbing from the tank to the filter to the pump and to the carb and then back to the tank if you run a return.

You could also run a mechanical fuel pump at the timing chain cover which means new timing chain cover, eccentric for the pump, pump, and figure out what to do with the timing chain cover as the one you have is does not have the provision for a mechanical pump so you will need on from '85 and down as well as that era water pump. Not sure if the mechanical pump will clear the power steering but I think it did on the '85 GT's which were serpentine.

With all of that I would just pursue the injection if it's all there but the ECU.
 
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