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I ended up using the 4th gen gauges out of ease and I think that they look pretty good.
i took a look at the finished product, and that does look very nice. Do you have any more detail on what went into it?
The issue I think I would have is that because my motor is from a 98, I have no idea yet what they did for the evap with the different tank and ecu, etc. I have some research to do there... wouldn’t it be nice if it used a simpler signal system for the evap rather than relying on the serial dat from the gas gauge and throttle position, blah blah.. (from what I remember looking up)
It was a lot of work for factory gauges. Definitely not plug and play. Some of the wires are the same colors, and you have to add some. I do believe the wire terminal ends that go into the connector that plugs into the gauge cluster are the same ones used at the ecm end of tpi harness. Serial data wire did a lot of things. You have to cut up your dash. I had to make a bracket to hold the cluster in place that is held up by being sandwiched between the steering column and mount. I removed all options and rewired my entire car in effort to lose weight, simplify troubleshooting, clean things up. I put 75,000 miles on my TA before it was totaled and becoming a complete donor car. The convenience of having all of the parts was another reason for doing it aside from already being so involved with the wiring. I can see it being a real pain in a car with all of the usual wiring behind the dash.
It’s amazing how long things can take between only building during kids naps and waiting for parts here and there. Subframe connectors are finally fully burned in. (I HATE welding on my back on old previously oily metal.)
Exhaust is almost done!!!!
Hooker blackheart modified to speed engineering long tubes with cats and bellows. All TIG welded and fully back purged. Working on this was as fun as I was expecting.
Been a long time, but might as well update. Mostly because it’s nice to look back on the progress and remember what I’ve done… Car runs and drives absolutely wonderfully. I was able to get about 6 months of driving in, then my emissions tech informed me that they won’t even bother testing the car. All CO engine swaps have to be fully certified with every component. So… started on the rest of that project. Worst part was drilling into the new headers to weld in the air injection ports. That and completely rewiring the ECM pinouts to 2002 specs.
Then the virus hit and I couldn’t get my 411 ecm tuned properly (or untuned with vats removal) along with the appropriate vin. Finally, it’s all done now.
At this point, every single emission, evap, 4 O2 sensors, etc are all in and functioning as they should. I also happened to find the solution (hopefully) to all of the 4th gen gas tank issues. I’m running the wiring exactly like it was in the 4th gen and getting the fuel data to a new set of Dakota Digital gauges through the OBD port from the ECM.
I’ll report back as the rest of the gauge wiring is happening this week.
Gauges are in! Fuel gauge reads from the ECM that is completely hooked up to the 2002 LS1 plastic gas tank. Oil pressure is t getting data and the turn signals are behaving oddly, but what a great success!
