China this, China that. In a world filled with cheaply made goods targeting the lower price point customer, you would be hard-pressed to find a version of something that’s not made in China these days. This of course isn’t limited to white goods, clothes or home electronics, either. Namely, performance parts, and even LS swap harness for your hot rod, muscle car or truck.
Obviously, there are plenty of stateside designed, and manufactured, offerings available for your application, but to some, they can appear to be a rather costly “luxury” — at least on the face of it. We get it, most of us are still living paycheck to paycheck, and the cheapest alternatives for something we need is a route we would typically rather take. Again, this is OK if you’re just looking for disposable goods or commodities.
However, if it’s something you’re relying on for you engine, that’s in your car, that more often than not holds you, your friends, family, kids and your buddy that you work with inside the cockpit, you might want to reconsider. Especially if it’s a vehicle that you plan on doing any serious racing with.
We see it all of the time; guys will build a killer engine using some respectable hardware, have a Stage 3 transmission built, an aftermarket rear end, upgraded suspension, etc…. but then cheap out on their fuel system, engine electronics, wiring harnesses and so forth. As they say, the devil is in the details.
Our friend Bill Hillock, of BP Automotive, sits down to elaborate what it’s like to purchase a Chinese knockoff wiring harness for an LS-series engine. While he doesn’t even advocate for someone to buy his own harness, he does point out what you would typically expect to find from one of those “eBay specials.” Things such as poor-fitting connectors, ill-equipped grade wires, overtaxed ground connectors, incorrect length ECU connector wires, and so forth, are all present. There’s much more, too, but we’ll let Bill take it away in the video above.
Rick Seitz is the owner and founder of AutoCentric Media, and has a true love and passion for all vehicles; GM, Ford, Dodge, imports, trucks — you name it! When he isn’t clacking away on his keyboard, he’s building, tuning, driving or testing his current crop of personal projects!
