As I talked about before I have rescued a 1980 El Camino SS from the clutches of a meth-head, I bought it cheap but it was quite butchered up electrically and the ass&#%! previous owner sold every bit of the interior...while it runs great, I will need to redo the electrical (all of it) I dumped all of the smog crap from the motor, (most had been removed already) bought a nice new non-smog Carburetor, (holly), headers, KMJ JM6500CL - High Performance 65k HEI Distributor, QuickCar 50-201 5' Ignition Wiring Harness HEI Distributor Switch panel wire, QuickCar 50-022 Ignition Control Panel 2 Switch w/ Lights Starter Button Switches...now can I just wire this in and does this eliminate the complete primary ignition system,and do I need the black box (ecu) that came with this vehicle...again I want to thank every one for the help I have been getting, I am older, and retired and all the cars I worked on were in the 60's and 70's all Chevys and it was simple then, ya threw a big motor in your 57 made sure it was attached to a 4 speed, and off you went...now it seems that these new fangled cars have tons of tangled wire in the to run stuff I don't give a damn about...so I am trying to make this a simple vehicle...(wire wise)...any help would be great...

American Auto wire make several different systems that would work with your El Camino. Believe they carry factory replacement harness ( since you're elimating ecu, probably) that may be more than you need. They also make Highway 15 & Highway 22 systems complete with fuse panel and all relays, wiring color coded and labeled (ie left front signal, horn, low beam, etc etc).

I used the Highway 15, but I don't have any real power accessories so 15 circuits was plenty.
http://www.americanautowire.com/ :nanawrench:

Hey jelarf,
You can use basic starting and primary ignition wiring to fire and run that bad boy but.... how are you going to Smog it? you will need to have the original emission control package operating for a Smog check. And that requires that ECU, among other devices. If you're going strictly off-road, then yeah definately go to American Auto Wire for your options.

Lucky for me I can reg it in AZ (an area that does not require smog certification). I have a small summer place place in Bullhead AZ, so it makes it easy to reg in AZ...but your right if I had to reg it in CA, I would be screwed...

ya threw a big motor in your 57 made sure it was attached to a 4 speed, and off you went...

i like that..:beer:
if i were going for a drag strip car id go that way,,if your going to run it on the road?
and need lights,blinkers,gauges,,the complete harnes might be a better choice,,
rewiring all that by hand is a purty big job,, ofcourse we dont really know where you are starting from..
if the steering column and dash cluster is still there,and it still starts/runs now with the key???

just replacing the distributor with the 1 wire hei disables the ecm,,by leaving off the extra 4 wire plug..
replace the carb. and theres no place to plug in the 2 3wire plugs on the front of the qjet,,
that takes it off the ecm for good,,it no longer controls any thing basicly..and its mostly a seporate harness..

as far as the new switch panel goes,,after you have power to it,,its basicly 2 wires,,
one to power the hei and one to the starter solenoid (thru the park/neutral switch)..

if you could do some pics (we like pictures) that'd give us an idea where your starting at??:texas:

I will try and figure out how to include photos, I should explain the there is no interior, except for a tore up dash I have a cluster, but it was not the same one that came with car...I did picked up one an SS Rally one with tach and gauges and spedo...the whole heater including core is out, along with air ...I mean gone.. every thing...the steering wheel is out of another vehicle, however I did find an original one (tilt) to replace this one...it does have key and it will run, (funny part is rather well)since there are no gauges, pod or anything, I can get lights and one brake light that is it...so I kind of figure it is a rewire job...