Someone asked, so here it is.

My project is a 2000 LS1/T56 in an ’82 Berlinetta. Details may vary depending upon your project car, the engine/trans you’re swapping in, and the specific gauges your aftermarket panel uses. I identified the factory cluster wires by a combination of tracing the flexible printed wiring board on the back of the factory cluster and reading schematics.

I routed the LS1 PCM harness into the passenger compartment along with the C105, C220, and C230 connectors. All of the required wires were long enough to reach the instrument panel except one, which was simple enough to extend. If you mount the PCM in the engine compartment, you will have to route these other wires into the passenger compartment somehow, and will probably have to extend them.

I recommend using male/female mating terminals (available from auto parts stores) or a chassis-side connector from a donor car rather than hard splicing wires from the engine/PCM harness in order to ease removal should you need to pull the engine/transmission in the future.

I recommend using high quality crimp or solder terminals, 18-20 gauge. The female terminals I used to connect to the instruments did not crimp well on the smallish wires, so I took the extra time to solder each of these and shrink sleeve to replace the plastic insulation that came on the connectors. Much more time consuming, but should be worth it in long-term reliability. I’ve had mixed results using the heat gun solder type terminals (usually better results with large wires), but I would not recommend using them for this application.

Study wire soldering methods available from other sources. You will be splicing several wires. You can use crimp splicers, but they tend to be bulky, and will not be as reliable as soldered splices especially with smaller gauge wires. Rather than grouping several wires together in one big splice (such as six 12 volt leads), consider using additional leads to the vehicle harness. Heat shrink sleeve is a handy way to insulate these splice joints after soldering, and tends to be cleaner and more durable than electrical tape. A cheap heat gun from Harbor Freight makes that heat shrinking easy to do.

To ease instrument panel removal should it be required in the future, I recommend using male/female mating terminals between the end of the leads on the panel to the vehicle wires. I do NOT recommend using tap splices into the factory wires – just cut the wires from the factory connector and put a new terminal on the wire.

 

Grounds: The stock instrument cluster has at least 3 ground leads (mine had 4). Interestingly, they are all spliced together in the dash harness. Up to you how many grounds you want to use (I am using 3).

Lights: You can tie the backlights and/or bulbs together with one power and ground (these aftermarket light leads tend to be smaller gauge, so splicing more than two or three together works out fine). The factory dash illumination power wires are gray and come from the head light switch, so you will have bright/dim control.

Switched 12 volts: If you are installing a volt meter, brake warning light, and MIL/SES/check engine light, all of these can be tied to the same switched 12 volt source. In the stock instrument cluster, these wires are pink with black strip. There are at least 3 of these wires, but like the grounds, they are all tied together back in the dash harness. I chose to tie the volt meter and warning lights together on one factory wire, and another for the tach, speedometer and fuel gauge (the factory cluster did something similar).

Fuel gauge: The fuel gauge will require switched 12 volts as mentioned above, ground, and a sensor lead (along with the separate light). You can use the factory sensor wire, assuming you used it for whatever fuel system you have installed.

Water temp: My gauge is electric, and required an aftermarket sender and adapter (which I installed in the passenger side head). The factory temp sender lead reached over to the passenger side of the engine. It is green both under the hood and at the instrument cluster connector. If you’re starting with a factory V6 car, you may need to extend this wire under the hood. (Note: Do not confuse this with the coolant temperature sensor, which ties to the ECM.)

Tach: Along with the switched 12 volts, ground, and light, there should be a signal wire (typically green, check your particular gauge installation instructions). From the LS1 harness, this is a white wire in the C105 connector that goes to the red PCM connector terminal #10. Disconnect (cut) from C105 and route this wire to the instrument panel and connect to the signal lead on your tach.

Speedometer signal: Like the tach, the speedometer will have a signal wire. From the PCM, this is a dark green & white wire in connector C220, which goes to the PCM red connector terminal #50. Remove it from C220 and run it to the instrument panel.

Turn signal and high beam indicators: If you have lights in your dash for these, it’s a simple matter of connecting one lead on each to the appropriate factory lead (left turn = light blue, right turn = dark blue, high beam = light green), and the other leads to ground.

MIL/SES/check engine light: One side has switched 12 volts as indicated above, the other lead is attached to the dark green/white wire in the C230 connector that goes to the red PCM connector terminal #46.

Brake warning light: One side has switched 12 volts as indicated above, the other lead is attached to a tan/black wire in the factory cluster connector.

Oil pressure: My gauge is mechanical, but for an electric gauge, it's wired 12 volt/ground like the water temp. The oil pressure signal is a tan wire in the C220 connector. I believe the oil pressure wire is white in the factory cluster connector.

 

Bundle it together:

The MIL, brake, right turn indicator, tach and speedometer signals will be coming from the right side of the panel, so bundle those wires together on the right side. The rest will be on the left side, so route them to that side. Leave enough length on each wire so that you have room to connect the wires with the panel pulled back several inches.

I also took the time to label each wire on both the panel and vehicle side to make it all easier to connect (and reconnect if you take the panel out for some reason in the future). I cut a piece of white paper about 3/8" x 3/4", wrote with a Sharpie what a wire was for (like "Left Turn", "Water Temp"), took a piece of 3" wide clear packing tape about 3/4" long, stuck the paper to it, wrapped the tape around the wire and back around and over the label. You can see clearly through the tape, and the writing will be protected from fading, moisture, etc.

 

My (almost) finished product:





I'll post pics of it installed when I get it back together and checked out.

 

whered u buy the gauges from?

 

I bought the panel with gauges from a tech member. I changed the speedometer and fuel gauge to better fit my combo, with pieces from Summit.

 

GREAT Post Five7Kid! I have a question though.

If using an LSX Fuel tank, the fuel level is sent to the PCM, and then from the PCM to the gauges. Do the after-market gauges read the signal from the PCM for fuel level properly? I've read some of the other threads about the Fuel tank and fuel gauge issues, but I have not been able to find a definitive answer on this.

Right now I am considering just using the LSX Instrument cluster, which would work for this configuration just fine, but I am also considering doing an autometer Elite Gauge cluster in the stock 4th Gen gauge enclosure, as I am more partial to round-faced gauges, which is why I'm curious.

 

I didn't send the fuel level signal to the PCM (programmed out). I used the stock signal wire spliced into the tank sending unit in the back, and gauge in the front.

 

Dude I wish you could sell those guages for my 90camaro ls1 swap its a pain in butt trying to guess the levels on my guages especially the fuel

 

There are ready-to-go choices. Not much more (if any) expensive than putting one together with the Covan panel.

http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.c...rod/prd781.htm

 

well those say for 89 camaro my is 90 would that make any diffrence

 

I don't have any personal experience beyond '86 model years, but I would imagine it would make a difference.

On the other hand, why would you be considering it?

 

The simple explanation is the 90-92 cluster was a different design. The bezel is completely different. Not sure if the mounting points of the cluster is the same for the earlier years.

 

Five7 I like your cluster. I was actually just researching here yesterday to see if anyone was using those Dakota Gauges you linked and couldn't find anything until I stumbled across this. I am doing an LS1 swap and I thought these looked like a nice product. Pretty cool unit.

So anyone using this VHX cluster from Dakota?

 

I'm planning on getting one for the other Camaro, but haven't scared up the $800 for it yet.

 

Not yet, but right now my baseline plan includes a set of those for my car. I like those better than any of the DIY options that I had been considering.

 

One nit is it doesn't have brake or SES lights. You'll have to fab those yourself. Since you use your existing bezel, shouldn't be too much trouble.

Just proof once again that "there ain't no such thing as a bolt-in".

 

Like I've always said... "bolt-ons aren't"

 

Yeah, they aren't cheap, but an electronic to mechanical converter box is like $350, and I like that they look somewhat factory with a modern twist. Would really like to see some pics at night. I am leaning heavily towards getting them, and if I do, I will definitely post up some pics, but my swap won't begin for a couple months. And I think like Five7 mentioned, you could fab up the dummy lights to work fairly easily.

 

I bought an electronic to mechanical box, and it wouldn't drive the speedometer. Wasn't too happy about that.

I hope to order a VHX cluster next month. I'll let you all know how it goes.

 

Boy, that must have been frustrating.

I plan on having my motor by then so That would be awesome if you could let us know. I am pretty sure I am going to get them anyways. Maybe we should try to get a group buy going. I don't know what they would need for confirmed sales, but between you and I there is already 2.

 

Not to hijack this thread from it's original point, but I know five7kid, and Jim85IROC showed interest in the VHX gauges. Currently I have an ongoing conversation with the sales manager at Dakota, if I can get something rolling on this I will post it in the group purchase section. I did get them to update their website with a night shot of the gauges. The link above five7kid provided also reflects the updates.

Here is the Camaro cluster in blue if anyone is interested:

 

Keep me informed if a group purchase becomes a reality.

 

I will PM you if I am able to get anything rolling on this. I have been emailing back and forth with Scott from Dakota Digital. Unfortunately, they directly cannot offer a Group Purchase at anything below retail. They have an agreement with their dealer network to only sell at retail, so as not to compete with them. He had checked the forum to see if he recognized any dealers that were sponsors and didn't. He has provided me with a spreadsheet of the entire dealer network, so i guess the next step is to contact some of them, to see if they have interest.

five7kid, sorry for the hijacking. Let me know if you want me to post this in the group purchase forum. If I find out some more info, or someone willing to do this, I will be posting it there. I may also post one just to see how much interest there is.

Steve