Electrical: Holley Box
Shawn and Dave, in the early stages of the rebuild, talked about where the Holley Dominator EFI box might fit best. Tim joined the discussion, and through committee, they decided that it would fit best tucked up in the passenger footwell. After the body came back from being media blasted, Dave
welded in upper mounting tabs and fabricated an anchored bar with tabs. All four tabs are have Dzus fasteners to hold a mounting plate for serviceability.
The new engine recess in the firewall already was impeding on foot space, but it wasn’t really an issue because there’s rarely ever a passenger in Big Red. The Holley box was mounted upright on the aluminum plate. This positions the connectors upward and out of the way, where it would be difficult to kick them by accident.
What’s nice about switching from a carburetor to the Holley Dominator EFI system is that the old carburetor can be finicky, while the EFI works as well as the tuner sets it. EFI delivers fuel to the engine in a much more precise manner, which is controlled by how it’s tuned, which in Big Red’s case was done by Brian Macy of the EFI Store and Eric Rhee from Westech Performance Group. Both are talented guys in their field, and configured the Holley Dominator system to control just about every accessory in the car.
Jack wired the ECU leads through a mil-spec bulkhead connector on the firewall to
make the engine wiring harness easy to remove. With the ECU installed on the bracket, the wires point up and out of view when the dash was completely assembled. Even with the electrical system partially installed, and with more components than Big Red had before, it’s a much cleaner installation that’s more serviceable and reliable than before; all part of knowledge and careful planning on Jack’s part.
