i've been itching to do this for a long time, but I never have anytime...i just got done with the drivetrain, now its time to move on...it will be paint and interior next...that will all be taken care of this winter. However this winter i'm going off to college, and will see my car very little

I'm wondering how much labor is invested into a swap like this? i'll be home for like thanksgiving, christmas, spring break, things like that, and i'll be starting on my car like a week before school starts, but i'm gonna spend that time sanding it all down to get rid of the old paint...but when i'm gone for school, my dad will still be able to putz around on it a little bit...do you guys think i'll have enough time to do the swap, or will it take mroe time than i have?

 

also, you guys that have done it, what do you do for gauges? is it hard to wire up the new ones, or would it be easier to make a custom bezel and just buy like autometer gauges...

 

dont know how long it takes to do the swap but as far as the wiring goes there is a sticky on it.

 

Fitting the actual dash into place (tearing out old, labelling wires, pounding the side tabs in) take about 7 hours or so.

The wiring is the hard part.

Me, I've got my dash in place, but havent started on the wiring just yet seeing as I've got more mechanical difficulties than anything else, so my priorities lay elsewhere.

 

Wiring in and amongst itself is easy. Follow the chart in the sticky. Mix and match colors, solder and heat shrink all connections, neatly wrap and tuck away. Nah, it's not hard. Just time consuming. Then comes the gremlins IF you screw up......

Just be careful. Depending on which dash you go with, the Camaro and Firebird cluster pin outs are different.

 

can you use the stock 4th gen gauges? My IROC has a cable driven speedo.. could i just get the vss setup for it and use the 4th gen speedo? or would it be easier to cusom bezel it and use autometer/whatever? I've been toying with this idea for awhile myself...

 

yea, isn't htere a certain year that has cutoff for which gauges you can use? i have an 86, will everything beable to work out in the end with the stock 4th gen gauges? also which would be the easier dash to do? i like the trans am one better...

also for you guys that have done this, does anybody have a final cost on everything?

 

Hey. I'm thinking about doing this swap. But noone has mentioned anything about this. How much easier would this swap be if the 4th gen engine that went with the dash was also going in the car??

 

Best way to swap dash & engine is to grab the wiring harnesses and PCM/ECU from the donor 4G as well. That way it's mostly just a matter of laying the 4G wiring harness down, and in a couple places you may need to splice into 3G stuff (locks, windows, mirrors, power hatch, etc)

 

hmm. ok thanks man. Anyone have tips on "easily" doing this?

 

the swap is pretty straight forward, think there's been enough write-ups on it to make things somewhat clear also. getting things lined up shouldn't take that long, getting the new dash mounted shouldn't take that long, making all the changes to the wiring harness will take a little while, but it's more time consuming than difficult, just do your homework first before you go jumping into it. Only things that'll really need splicing are headlight/dimmer switch, guages, hvac, and reuse your radio stuff. then, you can do window switches and the works if you so desire. No biggie really, just don't expect to have it done in a nite. Thing i had the car driving in maybe 3 days from the time i started tearing stuff out, but i was no where near done. Friend and I just wanted to see what it looked like on the road, and i was definately happy with the results. However 12 months later, i'm still trying to work out some of the things i "dislike" about the swap. But, all in due time.

 

double post

 

Cool. thanks 85. Info appreciated

 

so does the 4th gen dash bolt up the same as the 3rd gens? I'm putting an ls1 and auto out of a 98z into my 91 z and i'm also going with the dash, so the wiring will all be swapped over. just curious what needs to be done to fit the dash itself in.
Thanks,
Adam

 

if you have patience, a dremel, and a hammer, you can do it.

lots of good info in stickys and in searches on this site.
hard to go into detail about everything.
if you cant find an answer to a specific question, just post/ask.