Still in the middle of a nightmare swap. Thought I did all my homework but didnt. Glad Im not in School woulda made an F!!!

Got 87 GTA w/ LB9. Its knocking.
Swaped in 88 L98 from Formula with all accesories and harness.

Found out after the swap that the wiring harness pinning is diff from 87 to 88. Was told to switch 87 V-belt stuff onto 88 engine (meaning pull off serpentine setup on 88) so that I can use my 87 harness off of the LB9. This way no pinning issues and I will not fry my wiring under the dash etc.

I have got a stock PROM for the 88 L98 that will be installed before cranking. That should be it right?

I know someone here has done this swap before and can advise me.

1. How long does it take to swap from serpentine to V-belt?
2. What little things should I be aware of.
3. Are there any other surprises I should be aware of with an 87 to 88 swap?
4. Re: Wiring Harness A) pull 87 and 88 harnesses off L98 and LB9, then, B) install 87 LB9 harness onto L98

 

I'd be surprised if it took an hour, including the time to drain and refill the coolant.

You need to change your waterpump to go from V belt to serpentine.

 

Apeiron is quicker than I am!

JamesC

 

James how long did it take you. Did you run into any issues? How does the crankshaft pully come off. Am I going to need a puller to get that off?

 

3 bolts hold the crank pulley to the balancer. You don't need a puller.

 

I told you Aperion was quicker than I am

JamesC

 

James thanks for the link you sent me regarding the conversion kit. But I must say guys I am b'fuddled here.

I noticed everyone is going from V-belt to serpentine. Here I am going from serpentine to V-belt. Now I understand that the reasons are diff from their changover but as I read this stuff I see folks with 85s, 86s, and 87s doing this and they are handling this air cond wiring diff by splicing in a pigtail from a conversion kit.

Can someone tell me if this is indeed the only diff from 87 to 88 (air cond wiring). If this is the case why cant I just put the 87 harness on the car use the pigtail in the kit and leave the serpentine setup on the 88 L98? The L98 is in the car waiting for my next move.

Why do I need to put the V-belt setup onto this car if so many are succesfully converting their pre 88 cars to serpentine while at the same time changing the alternator, air cond compress, etc to the 88 style stuff.

Need some major knowledge dropped on me please!!!

 

There was no significant wiring changes when I swapped to serp on my 85. I wired in the AC pigtail and alternator (per instructions in the link I provided), and that was that. I suggest/guess that you need do no more. You might check out the following for more info about wiring:

http://www.austinthirdgen.org/index.php?pid=19

JamesC

 

Im studying here and I hope it pays off. It looks like if I buy

http://paceperformance.com/index.asp...D&ProdID=40219 for the air cond

and

http://paceperformance.com/index.asp...D&ProdID=96134 for the alternator

and install them I should be good to go. This would allow me to keep the serp pulley and just install the 87 harness on my 88 engine that I swapped into the car.

In the end I will have basically done the same thing as someone that originally had an 87 GTA w/L98 and swapped in a serp pulley setup.

Does this logic make sense? If not let me know.

 

If that logic is indeed correct the only other thing to confirm is if all the other sensors, relays, etc will all hook right up to the 87 harness. I saw in some other post somewhere that the egr valve? was diff on a 5.7?

Is everything the same on the 5.7 and 5.0 engines?

 

Well I confirmed this for myself. This logic will indeed not work. The alternator and air cond compress that comes in the kit is not the same as that on my 88 L98.

Both of those are from a 90-92 Firebirds. If anyone out there knows of anyone selling those let me know.