I bought a 1990 Camaro rs with a carbed 350 swapped in. The fuel gauge and speedo do not work. They are computer controlled, correct? Is there any way to manipulate the computer to make them work? Any other options? I also need help finding an alternator bracket and power steering bracket that do not mount to the head. The PO made some ghetto brackets due to there being no bolt holes in the Fuelie heads. The oil had a small amount of milk to it so we replaced the head gaskets. We are pretty sure the leak was at the passenger - front intake, but might as well do the heads while it's apart.

Here are a few pics:

.060 over
Scat crank
Not sure what cam, but it is on the big side
Fuelie heads / Moroso roller rockers
Built 350 trans w/ 3500 stall
Locked rear end

 

The fuel level gauge gets its reference from the fuel pickup assembly. It was probably changed from the EFI pickup to the carb pickup. He might have screwed up the wiring or just outright disconnected it.

The Speedometer gets its reference from the VSS buffer which is integrated into the TPI ecm. On TBI cars its a seperate box in the dash somewhere. The buffer (or ECM depending on which car you have) gets the signal from the actual VSS sensor in the tail housing of the transmission. You will need to get a wiring diagram and chase the wire from the transmission to the buffer/ECM and to the gauge cluster.

 

Welcome aboard thirdgen.org.

As stated, gauges don't go through the ECM.

Since this is an RS, it should have the VSS buffer.

Bottom line - neither gauge should have been disabled just from the process of switching from EFI to carb.

 

If it was a V6, then the switch will kill the speedo. V6's were wired almost identical to TPIs so they didnt get the buffer box

The rest are either broken or were skipped

I hate halfassed carb swaps. What a mess

 

I have been rewiring a few things... The PO wired the electric fuel pump so that it turns on when ever the key is on.. So if you want to have the CD player ,etc on with the car off, the fuel pump has to be pumping. That, and the only way to kill the car is to turn the fuel pump off. It takes like 5minutes for it to burn the rest of the fuel and die.

I peeked under the car, and saw a plug for the fuel sending unit. He must have just unplugged it. Should I just search a JY for the wiring?


Thanks for the help guys!

-Dallas

 

How does he have the ignition circuit wired? The key should kill the voltage to the distributor when its turned off. If your key's switched ignition is powering the alternator and the distributor on the same circuit, the alternator will keep the distributor energized so long as the engine is turning. I learned that one the hard way.

 

I believe he did have it wired that way. I just found the power wire to the dist. and ran it to a toggle. Now I have the fuel pump and ignition ran to the same toggle. We fired it up the other day... It still needs to be timed and I need to tune the carb. I put a new,smaller carb. on it and it seems to be just right. We noticed there was no T-stat in it, so I need to toss one in.. And it runs a little warm. I did have a poor mix of coolant in it though, so I flushed it with some fresh coolant. It will definitely take a few days to get use to the tranny shifting at like 4500. I'm planning on making it my daily driver. It sure does gulp down gas..

 

Sounds like the TV cable isn't attached and/or adjusted properly. Keep running it that way, you'll be looking at a transmission rebuild soon.

 

TV cable? It has a 3500 stall.

 

I also forgot to mention that it is a turbo 350. Does that make a difference?