hi guys, been a while since i've dropped in here but anyhow i have my old 84 that is all swapped auto to manual, but the car has been wrecked before i got it, and well the quality of the repair is beginning to show bondo popping, its getting some cancer, needs paint weather strip basically the whole bit, the best stuff is drivetrain i also have an 88 formula t tops ws6 etc, this car is tbi so performance isnt that great 25+mpg highway is great but thats why i bought an intrepid to hual the family with cuz lets face it f body+carseat = PITA anyways the point is i only need 1 toy and given the condition and options on the cars the 88 is the way to go BUT i dont want to give up having a stick shift vehicle and since i no longer need the 88 for great gas mileage i am thinking of beginning its transformation to TOY status. Of course parts collection is step 1...... i have all the proper v8 parts trans wise that will come from my 84 my big issue is will i need an ecm for a manual trans car? if i decide to go manual trans and pep up the tbi 305? i realize that if i do much as far as pepping it up i will need a new chip anyways but to start with its just going to be a trans swap help me out guys

NO, the auto ECM will run the car fine. My 92 was an auto swapped to a WC T5. I'm still using the auto ECM. Just pop in all of your obvious manual parts and the stuff like the NSS (Neatral Safety Switch) & it's "patch cable" in and you'll be good to go. I went ahead and changed the ignition switch over to a manula car version but, I don't think that's requred. All you would need to splice is the back up light switch wires. I haven't seen a connection spot for a plugnplay aspect like the NSS was.

Back to the ECM, the only thing the manual ECM does with the transmission is light up a "shift" light to try and help your MPG. Your auto ECM won't care that it doesn't have a torque convertor to lock-up anymore.

Don't forget that you'll need a different flywheel. Your old LG4 uses the old style flywheel and your TBI engine uses the weighted flywheel for 87 and up engines that are balanced differently.

thanks guys, i knew about the flywheel already.. my biggest concern was the ECM getting confused i have a manual column that i swapped into the 84 which i will move as well the only things i dont have would be flywheel and the manual console top which from what i have seen could be a rather expensive item

but hey fun isn't cheap