crimp or solder

[jpryorx2]

not looking to start an argument but what are some opinions? when you wired your engines did you solder your harness or use crimp connectors? fr example y ls coils have the pig tales that plug into the coils i could butt connector the wires to the wires from my ecu or i could solder them together. or my last choice is if i find the replacement pins or inside the connector could terminate my harness drectly at the coils which thin would be best but again i havent been able to ind the replacement contacts yet. but how did everyone else do it ?
jason

[Ol'fogasaurus]

"Crimp connections are preferable in high-vibration environments because the mechanical lock keeps the wire securely attached, but they don't offer the same conductivity as a soldered connection. Soldered connections offer superior conductivity but are more likely to work-harden and break."

Got this off the web.

Soldered wires aren't always easy to do because of limited access to the area or size of the end item soldered joint.

a good soldering connection is usually longer than a crimped joint or unit being a connection to something.

Lee

[jpryorx2]

i think i found the proper terminals called metrapack and the special crimper for them looks like i can get them for around 50 bucks so can ust terminate my harness at each coil then hopefully the injectors and sensors use the same ones im trying to make it as clean as possable but at this point it just seems like im throwing money at my upgrades. new engine bus trans fuel injection .i only drove my rail twice last year so now i'm trying to get a early start and finish it up before the snow melts

[Bruce.m]

I have soldered I’m the past but mostly crimp now.

For most pins, you can use the manual “universal tool” rather than a ratchet crimp tool (a cheap one of those can be worse if it’s calibrated badly or has poorly machined teeth).

I use the 1424A tool which has 5 sizes of crimp teeth (with the “W” shape). The 1424B tool has 3 “W” crimps and 2 round crimps for the insulator seal (works on the larger sizes used on GM parts but not so well on VAG connectors I believe). These tools are not expensive but quality of the teeth can vary)

However you need some good dexterity to squeeze the tool to a manually “calibrated” amount. You also need to figure out which size of crimp to use on the tool. You probably will use two sizes. A larger to get a gentle well shaped crimp and one size smaller to get a full crimp (which compresses the copper enough to be a “cold weld”).

I’d suggest spending a few hours on the Haltech YouTube channel they have some great videos on crimping using the universal tools mentioned above

[Bruce.m]

Example of a “open barrel” splice to join to wires. Using the 1424A tool.

[Bruce.m]

Example of a VAG (connector made by “te”) for the coil pack.

[Clonebug]

I have soldered many connections on my wiring harness....especially the first go around way back when. I also used Terminal strips for connecting wires.
I now have graduated to using the terminals for all the different plugs that a wiring harness uses.
EFIconnection.com is a great place to get new plugs for a lot of sensors especially for the GM brands. You can get the EV1 style for injectors with terminals, all temp, map, tps and others are available along with the IAC valve plugs and terminals.

Mario at theDubshop also has terminals and plugs if you want to order from him.

I have also switched over to Deutsch Connectors with the solid pins for most any connection I need in the middle of my harness. I love the way they fit and you can easily disassemble them if needed.
I even use the round 35 pin connector and I have a 31 pin connector on the bench ready to add.

It's taken me awhile to figure all the correct terminals to use and some of the GM plugs are a PITA because you insert the wire through the plug, crimp on the terminal then pull it back to click which means you can't disassemble it without cutting off the terminals and redoing them.

Nothing is cheap if you want it to look professional and you end up having to buy three different crimp tool to do the correct job.
I always get extra terminal so I can practice to get the correct crimp then build the harness.