irocman7

I just finished the install of the Intellitronix gauge cluster on my 89 Iroc. There is a seller on Ebay now selling these refurbished for 200 bucks, I went with white. My tach died, and my other gauges were never really accurate, so I decided to go this route as it was the most cost effective.

The package came with a VSS to convert the stock cable driven 700r4 to an electric signal (8000ppm I think). I didn't use it because I swapped over to a LT1 T56. It also came with a water temp sender which has to be used. It is a similar to the one used on the LS1. I hooked up my stock one and it read about 80 degrees cold.

I decided to use blade connectors slid into the factory spots where the factory gauges went. They slide in and seem fairly sturdy. I read a post somewhere where a guy did it like this and had no problems for years after. If I do end up having problems I will take the printed board off the back, solder the wires to the holes on the back and then put the printed board back on. So far no problems.

Overall there were only about 9 connections that needed to be made. Oil, water temp, battery, fuel level all get connected with the blade connectors to the factory spots. The others (12v switch, ground, speedo, tach and dimmer swich) I used round male and female connectors so the unit can be easily removed. The tach wire probably could but I decided to use a dedicated line I had already connected to an aftermarket tach. The 12v switch power I hooked in line to a relay I mounted in front of the shifter. Also in that area was my SGI-5e box and a distribution block. I ran a ground wire from the ground area on the back of the driver's side head (9/16 bolt to remove), and through a small hole that was already in the firewall.

I pulled out all of the factory bulbs in the gauge area, but of course left in the ones on the bottom (brake, check engine, shift etc) You use the factory plastic cover but not the metal one that the went around the original gauges. They also include a good quality tinted Plexiglass piece that goes over the clear plastic piece. It was kind of a pain as there is only two mounting holes in the top middle. I put two pieces of double sided tape on the mounting spots to hold it in place while I slid the screws in.\

There was no way to keep the green poker chips (turn signal lenses) in the factory location, so I just left them out. They light up as black arrows, and look pretty cool without them.

For the relay I tapped into the switched 12v from the driver's window switch with wire taps. I already had a 12v constant that ran to the alternator for a starter switch in the dash previously installed. I used the same taps for the headlight switch (I used the brown one taillights I believe)

The speedometer was a bit of a challenge but overall really fun to figure out. The speedometer needs an OC signal from the SGI-5e box. You then manually calibrate it with the switch included in the gauge cluster (still need to figure out where to mount it) by setting it and driving four a mile then stopping the calibration. It counts the pulses as you're driving and is really cool to watch. I used my GPS app on my phone to get as close to possible to a mile. I checked with GPS speed and it was spot on.

Originally I had the 4000 ppm signal running to the speedo, and did the calibration, but it was slow to react and kind of jumped on acceleration. I hooked it up to the "calibrated OC" signal and messed with the settings until it was outputting around a 16000ppm signal (for better resolution). After the mile long recalibration the speedo is spot on and quick to react. I tried a higher setting than 16000ppm but it wouldn't calibrate.

The water temp sender that came in the package is the wrong size for my L98. I think it was a ½ npt, where I needed a 3/8. Luckily the sensor inside comes out, which I took to Ace hardware and found the right fitting, swapped it in with some thread sealant and swapped it out. Fixed with a $3.50 pipe fitting.

The oil pressure is reading way to high, but all I care about is that I have oil pressure. I will change out the sender down the road, but for now no biggie.

It really is a cool gauge cluster, and the dimness is just about perfect. There was one LED not working on the fuel, but you can only tell on certain numbers, I am still debating on contacting the seller. The fuel gauge is up pretty high and for a tall person you have to bend your head down to see it completely. The tach is difficult for me to get used to, and I might end up getting another aftermarket tach (I think they are tachy pun intended), but I will see if I get used to it. You can see some of the electronics if the sun hits it right, you really have to be looking, doesn’t really bother me.

Install was really easy, it took me about 5 hours, cleaning the garage here and there on my frequent breaks, and running to ACE. Then about 30-40 minutes to read and understand how to calibrate the speedo. Overall a good deal for those on a budget.

Video of gauges at night.

CarLavah

cool. isnt it complicated to calibrate it?

Twin_Turbo

iTrader: (25)

Good work buit please do not use those scotch blocks. They WILL give you issues later on. Splice and solder.

KITT1983

iTrader: (3)

awesome got a link to the refurbished kit

irocman7

Sorry for the delay I have been busy.

No it was really easy. You only have one button, which you hold down for a few seconds and it starts cycling through the menu displayed on the odometer display. When it gets to Calibrate you hit the button. At this point you drive a mile and it listes the vss counts on the display. Once you get to the mile you hit the button again. Calibrated.

It's pretty easy to get the cluster apart, If I do have problems down the road I will definately solder it. I like the fact that I haven't modified the stock housing at all yet.

I don't know if I can post a link but search on ebay for Intellitronix camaro. Pretty easy, they have many different colors.

83Z28406

So are these dimmable by turning the headlight ****?

rocn7roc

I have one also when you turn on lights it dims down non adjustable

AmpleUnicorn88

I have the same gauge cluster on my 88 base camaro. I went with the blue digital ones. Installed the same way you did, using those connectors to the back of the board basically. Calibration is pretty easy after it's hooked up, you just need to know the rear gear ratio as well as the internal ratio of the transmission. I believe on mine I have the stock 3.08 gears and t5 manual so it was like 7000 was the rough estimate for calibrating it on mine.

Also, I haven't checked but based on what you said as far as price goes, I'm guessing the price went back up again. My buddy bought these for his 91 which promted me to buy them as well. He bought his like 6 or 7 months before me though, but both of us got it form that seller I think it was templartech on ebay. His is refurbished. When I went on to see what they had available, they had every color for 89 and older camaros brand new for the price they were asking for refurbished. So i bought mine immedieatly because i figured it was some sales thing they were doing. This was probably about 4-5 months ago I got them. Either way, they come with a lifetime warranty. The only issue I have is my oil pressure gauge below the rpm gauge never worked. It sometimes lights up and flahses only the first number. So I do need to send it back eventually, but it doesn't bother me too much right now. But I will have to check and see if the price went back up, because I just got another camaro and want to use these gauges and would prefer new. But with a lifetime warranty, it's not the end of the world if I have to get refurbished.

I did talk to their customer service team about the issue I had. The guy told me that as soon as I ship it and they receive it, they will diagnose it that day and try and fix it asap, and it will probably be a week to 2 weeks tops that it would go from me shipping it to me receiving it back from them. I have had super good experiences with them and so has my buddy, so these are definitely worth it in my opinion. Plus, they look awesome.

AmpleUnicorn88

Although I will say that I do have another issue with these, but I am not sure that it is these gauges. My fuel, elec and temp are all reading way off. My temp spikes at 255, and I have a temp gun and consistenly read 190-200 degrees (and occasionally when they read right it reads about 190-200), the elec reads lower, right around 11-12's which when reading right is above 13, and the fuel is reading about 20% lower than it is. I was chaulking it up to being a ground issue unrealted to this cluster, but because of the way we wired it using those connectors, maybe it's that? Sorry to step on your thread, just sort of thinking out loud.

irocman7

Did you swap out the new sender for the water temp? Did you run a fresh ground to the back of the block? My temp is extemely accurate with the new sender. With the original sender it was about 50 degrees off, 50 degrees cold though.

Also, my fuel gauge bounces around quite a bit, and need to fill up around 10 percent.

Come to find out the ebay seller is actually Intellitronix, so that is awesome.

AmpleUnicorn88

My buddy actually wired it for me because I'm still learning wiring stuff. I'm more mechanical in nature. But I believe he did not. However we did discuss that the issue I'm having is most likely a bad ground and not the cluster since some of the stuff works and some sort of works and others don't. The plan was to redo the grounds when I pulled the motor and clean it up and get head work done and do a bunch of top end work. But I just bought an iroc I'm going to fix up and I'm going to be selling the other one so I won't be pulling the motor on that one now.

These third gens seem to have fuel gauges that bounce around regardless of what gauge you have. The stock one did it to me as well as this one. My buddies is the same thing. I have read countless others have it too. Something about the design of the tank and the sending unit. I plan on swapping the tanks on the iroc I got to one from 1a auto that has a baffle in it to mitigate the issue somewhat.

And I believe the templartech name is either what intellitronix refers to themselves on eBay or it's the name of the seller. Because I'm pretty sure the ones on eBay are sold straight through them.

tmork454

iTrader: (1)

I got the green set and had the issue of my fuel level almost always reading 99 and the f in fuel burnt out. Im going to send it back because they have an awesome warranty policy that no matter what even with no receipt, its a lifetime warrant from them! My car is pretty janky to say the least from the previous owner. So i might have had a grounding issue with the car. I soldered mine instead of those clips so i could get the best connection possible. Does anyone know what that little dial is in the middle of the board that can be twisted? is it a potentiometer?

tmork454

iTrader: (1)

Im also confused on the t56 part. I just picked one up and im wondering if i need a separate box to compensate for the ppm difference?

irocman7

Yes you will need the Dakota Digital box, the output from the t56 doesn't translate. Intellitronic does sell a gps module that takes place of it all, looked interesting. The Dakota box was cheaper, and I still have a pcm and cruise, so I went with the box.

irocman7

Oh one more thing I noticed after driving around with my brights for the last month, there is no provission for the high beam light indicator. Gotta figure that out.

Bstrang6

I just got mine in the mail. Anyone using these on an LS swaped car? I have all of my factory gauges in my 85 working except the speedo. I believe the VSS wire I have hanging out by my OBD2 port ( factory obd1 location ) is a 4000PPM PCM signal. I can calibrate for this I suppose by just driving the car until the gauge counts to 4000. Just wondering about coolant temp and oil pressure. I should be able to just keep with the signals I have in my dash now.

Also I have a 40-240 ohm sending unit ( ls1 car tank ) I had planned on swapping the resistors in the stock gauge to read it, now curious how to remedy this issue... Any help appreciated!

greekknight

I bought a green one for my 1982 crossfire trans am but I have problems with it. The fuel gauge always stays at 99% and the speedo while I'm driving goes to 0 miles and then starts again or speed's up slowly...They told me that they will send me a new speedo sensor, but so far they were not able to give me a solution with the fuel gauge problem...

irocman7

One of the guys in my thirdgen club figured it out. The factory bulb does shine through, and a little light is build into the circuit board, I guess I missed it.

irocman7

You are really pioneering new water I believe, there are two ls swap guys I know that are looking into this gauge cluster but are a little intimidated.

As long as its reading the counts on the VSS that method will work (sounds simpler than the steps I took),

You should start a new thread because your trial and error could be really helpful to a lot of people.

irocman7

My fuel gauge is the same, it stays at 99 percent until I get to about 40 and then drops to 40 and is fairly accurate from there down but bounces around. I also don't go bellow 10 percent. I believe it is the sender. My factory gauge had that same behavior, just didn't read as exact as the digital gauge.

I didn't use the speed sender in mine (t56 with the sgl-5 box), but Intellitronix has been very helpful with a buddy of mine that ordered one, and are also sending them out a new vss.

mrestrictrplate

iTrader: (2)

I bid on a few of those clusters on ebay and lost. I looks like a cool conversion. Good job

greekknight

Unfortunately my fuel gauge stays always at 99% all the time and with the tank almost empty. The strange thing is that the stock one is working fine...

Mick Arena

I am having exactly the same problem with my cluster....

Volts drop 20%, as does fuel and temp increases..... then i hit a bump, and they jump back to normal.....

Anyone have a solution?

Much thanks Michael.