Derek The Great

i was jus curious - would a digital dash from a 89 gta fit my car? and if it does would it work or would i need to change stuff?
thanks, Derek

Derek The Great

hmm i guess it wouldnt, but i suppose if i ever come across one i will try it out, i mean what have i got to lose?

swimster

in your mods list, you list a 180* thermostat. every thermostat I've ever bought at the parts store is a 180* stat. 180 is pretty much the norm. Most stock f-body cars for some reason have the guages always reading like 220. why this is, I have no idea. when I put a real temp guage on my engine, it always reads right around 180. +- a few degrees and unless I get out there and hammer on the car for a while.

Derek The Great

the car stock has a 195 thermostat and the fan is designed to kick on around 225 degrees, which is why our cars run right around those temperatures. my car runs cooler and better now and i am even thinking of putting a 170 stat in there, as i should still be able to run in closed loop and i dont need heat since it is stored in the winter.

swimster

I gotcha.. i forgot about that.. Been working on my first 3rd gen. always owned OOLD firebirds, so.. but my apologies in questioning your mods. My car right now has no computer system.. Scrapped the whole thing. running old school carb setup but with the exception of Vortec heads.

almost done.. always something inthe works. buncha wiring on the driver's side I need ot get rid of.. All the AC crap, etc. but she'll be done soon..

Klortho

It would, but you would want to grab the underdash harness as well, then you take a chance on the plugs being different where the engine harness plugs into the dash harness on the passenger side.

AaronIROCZ

iTrader: (5)

You would need the entire wiring harness for the WHOLE car if you want the message center to operate correctly. I know this because I have a 87 GTA with the digital dash that had a engine fire and burned the orginal wiring harness, so I replaced it out of a 86 Trans Am and it always says coolant and f-lamp. It measures the restistance in the wires and bulbs, the stock wires for the digital dash are resistance matched so no ordinary wiring harness like what I use will work correctly. And yes the dash will fit into your formula.

swimster

What's the going rate on a digital dash setup anyways? I'm interested in saving some dough for one. to go with my Electronic CLimate controls setup. Wiring is not an issue for me. Measuring resistance in wires and bulbs? come on.. you had a sensor issue is all or a wire not hooked up right or a change in wiring harness from year to year is all. the ECM's can't tell how long a wire is or how thick or thin it is. just how much juice is going thru it at any given time. 95% of the sensors on the car are some form of resistor either thermal or whatnot. You just need ot make sure all your wires go to the right places. I've done ALOOOT of wiring harness swaps to include putting the VIC system in an olds trofeo which was never factory equipped with one.. IF you've ever seen an olds Toronado/trofeo with this factory system, then you ahve a pretty fun idea on what I got to play with. There's modules scattrered thruout the car for things like the compas display, cell phone system, etc etc..

You should get the wiring that goes from the ECM to the digital dash setup.. that's all you'll need.. then just get wiring diagrams for the original car and from the car that the digital dash came from and go to town.

I'll put in a pic after I get out of work today of the Climate controls setup I'm working on for my 86 TA.