Project 4-Link gets new wiring and more

Words and photos by Jok Nicholson

It has been eight years since we wired “Project 4-Link”. My, how things have changed! Now there are pre-wired kits that include everything you need to do it right the first time. With quality components comes reliability and that can add up to winning rounds, not searching for wiring gremlins in late rounds of competition.

We chose to go with the new Digital Delay Elite 500 Delay Box, Mega Switch Panel and installation kit. We also got the Mega-Dial option that puts getting your dial-in to the tower as easy as touching a button. I have to admit, it is pretty darn cool!

To rewire a car that has had the same wiring in it for eight years I have one suggestion: REMOVE ALL OF THE OLD WIRING! Leave nothing and start fresh; it is something you will not regret. We ended up with a big box of old wiring that was about two feet square and weighed about 25 pounds. I had no idea I had that much wiring in the Project 4-Link dragster!

Once we had it all removed it became a “planning party”. What wires will I need, where will I run them to get them there, where can I mount the new Mega Switch Panel and Power/Circuit Board? The instructions are excellent and the drawing that comes with it is even better! I do much better with pictures, and the drawing made sense of it all.

We mounted the Power/Circuit Board on a panel that is above my knees and we attached the Mega Switch panel to the left lower side of the dash. The Mega-Dial-in Board was fastened to the existing scoop-mounted bracket and the LED lighting makes it easy to read in the sunlight or at night. Once we had the mounting locations figured out the next thing we had to determine was where we would run the wires to get to our water pump, trans-brake, tail lamp, ignition, etc.

The Digital Delay wiring kit comes with a wide selection of quality wire in correct size, length and colors as well as the connectors you will need.

We started off getting everything mounted and then proceded to hook up the battery cables to supply the Power/Circuit board with power, starter cables. We ran 4-gauge cable for the ground circuits to the frame, the Digital Delay Circuit board, each cylinder head and the starter mounting bolts. That will give is plenty of quality places to get our other power items correctly grounded.

We used 1/0-gauge cable for the power side of the battery to our remote starter solenoid and to the starter. We used the supplied 2/0-gauge cable to power the Digital Delay Power/Circuit board. All the other wires are the sizes that Digital Delay supplied.

The Digital Delay Elite 500 Delay Box has all the bells and whistles the racers need and want. Separate screens for Bracket Racing and Pro-light racing. Settings within those screens stay with those screens. This makes it easy to switch from Index racing (like S/Gas or S/Comp) to bracket racing as you do not have to reset all the timers or delay settings. The Elite 500 also features a built-in Practice Tree with LED bulb. You can use your regular trans-brake button while sitting in the car and practice with the same switch you race with and it does not activate anything but the practice tree. It records your instant reaction time and even averages it out for you to look at. Are you getting “slower” as the race day turns to night? Now you can tell quickly and accurately.

The Mega-Switch panel and Power Board can handle up to 100 amps with no voltage drop. This is due to superior circuit board design and the use of the best relays available. Indicator lights on the fuses let you know if the circuit is active or if there is a blown fuse. No guessing, no testing, just take a look and you know if there is a problem or not. No longer do you have to worry if your circuit/power board can handle the water pump, fan, trans-cooler fan, electric fuel pump, tail lamp, electric shifter, throttle controls and nitrous controls without a voltage drop. This panel is designed to perform under the most severe racing conditions.

The Mega-Switch Panel comes with six switches to operate your accessories. Three of them have dual-position switches. This means if you want to run just the water pump you just push the switch up and if you want to run both the fan and the water pump you just push the switch down and it runs both circuits.

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