Is there any way to look at a 88 and 89 engine harness and tell them apart? I have a 88 TBI Camaro I'm trying to get running and got the engine harness from another 88camaro that had no drivetrain. So I need to make sure it was a 88 harness. What should the proper ECM and chip be for the 88 vs. 89?

 

I think you'd be getting deep into the obscure. I'd look at the firewall mounted relays. 89 should use the later round relays, I'd spect. 88 would still use the older square variety. Also the main bundle by the firewall may have a tag, but I can't say I've seen many still there and legible.

 

88 was a one year only 1228063 and does not have vats.
89-92 is a 1228746 and has vats enabled.
The ecms are interchangeable but not the prom.

 

Reason I ask is because I have a 88 formula and a 88 base Camaro. Camaro is TBI. Formula is 5.7. I got a motor for the formula from a 88 GTA. With the ECM. The guy said it was a vats car but hasn't got a chip in the key anymore. I'm wondering if his engine harness and ECM would work with my dash and steering column. I have a 89 base firebird dash wiring and column I can swap out and make it all vats. But I don't know why his key doesn't have a chip. Neither does he.

 

I think only late model 88 year got vats and tpi only.
In tbi I think it started in 89

 

Ok. Just bought a 88 GTA engine harness and ECM that had vats and digital gauges. The ECM is a delco 16198259. I will get the prom numbers when I get home. His dash harness had a security on off switch in it. I guess I will have to install the 89 dash harness and steering column to get this bird running again.

 

The 259 is the same as a 1227165 for tpi.

 

Good!☺️ I hope the prom for digital and standard gauges is the same.

 

The prom/memcal has no effect on if it has a digital dash or not.

 

Glad to hear that. here is the prom akxz3294

 

The akxz is from a 88 5.7l automatic transmission.
3.27 rear axle ratio
This is a early release tune 5/19/87
I don’t have that file but I don’t think it has vats enabled.
If the harness has a blue wire in pin b6 at the ecm it has vats.

 

Ok. I saw the vats pass key decode box in the dash harness. Should I try the engine harness and ECM first. Once again.my formula is a 88 non vats 5.7 with 3.27 gears.. I bought his engine and harness ECM. I keep wondering if his engine harness is vats.

 

You’ve lost me, first your talking about 88/89 tbi and now we’re onto tpi.
Are you trying to identify a harness ?
Or identify if the prom has vats ?
If your formula is tpi non vats use the memcal in it.

 

I don't get what is different from the 88 engine harness and the 89 engine harness. Is the ECM that disables the system? If the ECM doesn't shut down the fuel pump or injectors and starter. Would it run?

 

The 88 harness has wiring for the ninth injector if we’re talking tpi.
If you try the ecm and it doesn’t have injector pulse vats is enabled.
The ecm has to see a signal from the passkey module to enable the injectors.
The vats is in the proms programming. If you want to know for sure if it has vats or not. Pay shipping and mail it to me and I’ll do a read on the memcal.

 

Thank you very much for your help. I do have a 88 Camaro with 305 TBI auto I'm trying to figure out also. I suspect that the engine harness and ECM I tried to get it running with may have been 89 or newer. The 88 formula is a tpi 5.7. the engine harness came out of a 88 GTA so should have 9th injector. Are the few 88 model cars with vatts setup identical to the rest? Just wondering.

 

I don’t know what determines if a 88 got vats or not.
im sure it must have been based on the date of production.

 

Ok. I went and looked. Fuel pump relay is square. The other is rounded. That's on the TBI Camaro. Two of the computer have 1228063. Now I also have a computer with 1227165/acxs and 16070791. 1227165 was the service.no. I think. I will get all the numbers tomorrow..

 

I have a good amount of ECM laying around if you need any. Lol.

 

It sounds like you have a lot of thirdgens too

165 is tpi and 8063 is 88 tbi
you sure do have a lot of ecms
the acxs is from a 87 5.0l automatic tpi
And does not have vats.

 

I missed the info about the blue wire in pin B 6. The Camaro TBI has no wire at all in b6. The formula harness dose have a blue in b6.☺️ Now I know where I stand. I have a 87 tpi engine harness and ECM but that doesn't work with my dash harness. Can't win! Thanks again for all your help.

 

I'm trying to redo a 89 camaro iroc-z z28 305 tpi interior dash wiring harness and made a nice mess for myself does anyone have a detailed pin out diagram for the dash wiring harness?