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    IC Pump Hotwire

This article is now being maintained on HowTune.com: Hot wiring the intercooler pump on a GMC Syclone

The ecu controls the IC pump on our trucks. The stock ecm turns the pump on based on engine coolant temperatures. To aid in cooling and prevent the IC from heating up during warm up, we hard wire the IC pump on.
So with this mod, when the truck is in the on position, the pump runs. This is ideal for stock chipped trucks, and essential for stock chipped trucks with a lower temperature thermostat.


Hot wiring the pump

First step is to orient yourself with what controls the pump. There is a fuse in a fuse holder behind the alternator that is for the IC.
The pump is powered by one of the relays on the fire wall. The two closest to the power block(passenger side) are the fuel pump relay and the IC pump relay.
The right most of the two is the IC pump. Its the only one with a yellow wire.

There are two methods to hot wiring the pump. You can splice/tap the yellow wire, and run to a ground.
The other option is to dismantle the relay, and wind a wire around the relay tab to avoid any permanent cuts to the harness.


Non Intrusive
The relay is easily removable, remove the two bolts holding the metal bracket to the firewall.
On the back, the metal bracket has a clip you need to pry up, and slide the relay off the top of the bracket.
The relay then can be separated easily from the bottom plug.
If you fold the new wire to be grounded over the "tab" on the relay itself (corresponding to the yellow wire).



Intrusive (cut cut)
Removing the bracket will aid in installing a tap, sometimes it is difficult with the space limitations.
You can use a "scotch lock" or wire tap to simply piggy back into the wire and run to ground.

The grounded wire can be simply connected to one of the screws holding various things onto the firewall (except of course the power block).
Or, you can run the wire to a switch with 2 polls, one going to the yellow wire, the other going to a ground.
Test your work, and if you have problems, look for the article about diagnosing IC pump problems.