Recently I finished up the engine swap in my '91 RS. I have seen aftermarket gauges put in these cars, and was wondering how big of a pain it really is to put gauges in these cars. The main reason for wanting to swap them is the cluster in my car started giving issues prior to the swap. I'm trying to get some ideas of what to expect before I dive into this.

 

90-92 camaros require more work to put gauges in than 82-89 simply because the dash is different. if you have the funds, you can get a gauge cluster pre made. the blank panels are about $150 from classicdash.com gauge panels filled with autometer gauges run about $900.

if you have little fabbing skilll, i highly advise getting the premade panel. i made my own and it took some work and some skill with fiberglass.

 

Thanks. I've got decent fabricating skills so I figured I'd fab my own to meet my taste. My biggest concerns is with the wiring, and if I need to run all electronic gauges or is it possible to run possibly a mixture of electronic and mechanical.

 

cars dont come with mechanical gauges anymore for a reason. if you spring a leak, you wind up with hot oil or hot coolant inside the cabin of the car. all your gauges are electric already and its easy to tap into the wires already there to run the new gauges. wiring gauges is cake.

easiest way to make a gauge cluster is to take the stock surround peice and box in the open back part and then mount the gauges in that. basically the same concept as the classic dash piece.

 

That was my biggest worry about doing the electrical gauges is getting all of the gauges wired up right. The reason I ask about the mechanical gauges was because I wasn't sure what most people did when they changed the gauges. Also I wasn't sure how aftermarket gauges would affect sensors and such, but since they wire in from the ECM, that shouldn't be a problem, I guess.

 

you just need to make sure the gauges you get will work with the stock sensors, or replace the stock sensors. all my gauges run off stock (well stock replacement) sensors.

 

I redid mine in my 89 and it was pretty easy. All you need is the pin outs for the cluster so you know what wire is what and its just a matter of wiring the guage to that wire. Granted some will need to be changed as a autometer coolant temp would be more reliable than a 20 year old stock one. Mechanical oil pressure for me is a must as I fine it way more acurate than the stock one. Other than that all you need to find is the right wires to go to the gauges. I have pin outs for the 82 to 89 cars but not the 90 to 92 ones. Found a link to a pinout guide

http://www.chevythunder.com/fuel%20i...%20pinouts.htm

Heres a few pics of what I did

Wiring for the dash



My gauges

 

http://www.austinthirdgen.org/mkport...ter_pinout.jpg
pin out for 90-92

 

This helps out A LOT. I think I've got a print out of the wiring in my tech manual, if I can't find everything I need I will definitely be checking these out in the near future. Also what type of light did you use for your turn signals, SES light, high beam lights, etc...?

 

i just grabbed some off the shelf universal bulbs from auto zone

 

now that i look harder, the look like the same bulbs 6 used.

 

That looks great. The Auto Meter gauges are definitely the way to go on this from what I've seen. I like the aftermarket steering wheel as well, that is a nice touch.

 

it originally came chromed, but im not a fan of chrome, so i painted it with a flat silver.. this is what it looked like with the stock cluster with overlays.

 

Yeah chrome on a 3rd Gen just doesn't fit on certain things. I think the silver does fit what you did better than the chrome.

 

the color actually matches the silver trim rings of the ultra light gauges.

 

I hadn't noticed that. That was a good move for sure.