Projekt: LS-10 Dash Overhaul
05-14-2019, 07:53 AM
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Projekt: LS-10 Dash Overhaul I have a 1982 S10 swapped to a LS2/4L60E (iron block, but heads, cam, pissed ons, etc, all LS2). 580K on the truck, 170K on the motor and trans. Full custom harness, running on stock ECU from 07 Tahoe. Had given the truck to my daughter, and it got little maintenance, so now I have the truck back. Mechanical stuff is basically fixed or getting fixed, and is easy enough for me.
*Rebuild front end (all bushings and wear parts)
*Rear disc brake conversion (sitting in box waiting install)
*Driveshaft carrier bearing
*Exhaust leaks
*Ground Upgrades run temporary, but need to re-run permanent-like and hidden
Wife wants new dash, gauges, etc. Everything I did was to keep the stock gauges working. Speedo was the hardest part, but I used the servo-box that converts the speed pulses from ECU to an electric motor that turns the cable for the stock speedometer. While I'm very up to date on tuning, mechanical, etc, I'm woefully out of touch on making the aftermarket gauges work with the stock ECU.
I'm thinking to do a custom dash cover, brushed aluminum face and gauge pods inserted into the face. Give it a muscle car look, as it were. I'm sure there is a huge write up somewhere, but I'm feeling lazy. What's everyone's thoughts on gauges? Current dash has speedo/odo, oil press, water temp, voltage, fuel. Would like to add tach.
I'm assuming Dakota digital or equivalent? The harder question I have is -- how to get the signal from the ECU to the gauges? Or are there digital gauges that work with the analog signals I already have everything converted to so I can reasonably plug and play?
*Rebuild front end (all bushings and wear parts)
*Rear disc brake conversion (sitting in box waiting install)
*Driveshaft carrier bearing
*Exhaust leaks
*Ground Upgrades run temporary, but need to re-run permanent-like and hidden
Wife wants new dash, gauges, etc. Everything I did was to keep the stock gauges working. Speedo was the hardest part, but I used the servo-box that converts the speed pulses from ECU to an electric motor that turns the cable for the stock speedometer. While I'm very up to date on tuning, mechanical, etc, I'm woefully out of touch on making the aftermarket gauges work with the stock ECU.
I'm thinking to do a custom dash cover, brushed aluminum face and gauge pods inserted into the face. Give it a muscle car look, as it were. I'm sure there is a huge write up somewhere, but I'm feeling lazy. What's everyone's thoughts on gauges? Current dash has speedo/odo, oil press, water temp, voltage, fuel. Would like to add tach.
I'm assuming Dakota digital or equivalent? The harder question I have is -- how to get the signal from the ECU to the gauges? Or are there digital gauges that work with the analog signals I already have everything converted to so I can reasonably plug and play?
05-15-2019, 11:22 AM
#2
Here's my experiences. In my LS swapped Jimmy(Lq4/4L65e), I have the following aftermarket gages: Speed, Tach, Oil Pressure, Water Temp, Trans Temp, volts, fuel. All are VDO gauges (disclosure, I work for Continental Automotive, which owns VDO, and I spent 13 years designing instrument clusters for the OEMs)
It's relatively easy to get everything running, although some may depend on your ECU. I was running a red/blue Gen III computer and harness, now switched to Holley Term X Max.
Speed: I used the VSS output from the ECU directly into my electronic speedometer. Both the speedo, and the ECU are configurable here. I think my default speedometer calibration is 40,000 pulses, so I used HP tuners to program the VSS output to this number, and it works perfect. I still need to configure the Holley to mimic this setup. Most electronic speedometers are programmable, so as long as you can get some kind of VSS signal there, they can usually work. For example, mine can count pulses for 1 mile and calibrate itself.
Tach: There's a tach output from the ECU. You might need to add the pin/wire to your harness. There are 2 things to remember for an aftermarket tach: You need a pullup resistor to 12v, and you need to set your aftermarket tach to read 4 cyl mode. See this post for details. (I designed the cluster for the 5th gen camaro, the resistor that you need to add is inside the OEM gauge cluster, the ECU just grounds the tach line to pulse it. So adding the resistor is normal).
https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...t-correct.html
Fuel: Straight forward, just match your sender
Voltage: Straight forward, just decide where you want to pick up the voltage you are measuring, I'd suggest running a dedicated wire to your battery, or your voltage distribution point.
Oil Pressure: Depends... the stock ECUs don't "need" the OEM oil pressure sender. You can remove it, drill it out, and tap it to screw in an aftermarket oil sender, this is what I have. Or you can add a sender down by the oil filter on the little block off plate, plenty of people sell pre-tapped plates for cheap, or you can tap your existing one, depending on the style.
Water temp: This can be a pain, because the head is metric. It can be difficult to get an 1/8 NPT adapter to work in the head, the adapters get thin and fragile. What I do on mine is there is a block plug on the passenger side, I Think where they'd install a block heater. I have an adapter here for my aftermarket sender, and it matches pretty close to what HP tuners tells me from the OEM sender in the drivers head. within 5 degrees or so, which is fine.
Trans Temp: There's a port on the 4L60e that is already tapped for the 1/8 NPT, just remove the plug and install the sender. It's above the PRNDL switch on mine, I think it's a pressure test port.
So, that gets you the gauges running.
For looks, just scour the internet looking at all the pics you can find. I personally don't like the standard 'bunch of autometers stuck in a piece of diamond plate' that a lot of people do. Usually with a bunch of those cheap round LEDs/lights from autozone for high beam and turn signals, etc.
Mock everything up in cardboard once you decide on your parts. Make sure you are happy with the visibility in the vehicle, as the steering wheel will usually block some of your view.
What I like to do now for the warning lights (called "telltales") is to steal graphics from old scrap instrument clusters, and design a new bezel for them. If you disassemble a cluster, you can take the faces off, and use scissors to cut out the symbols for turn signals, high beam, check engine, brake, etc. I 3D print a light housing for LEDs to light them, and then you can 3d print a bezel to cover them, so you can't see where you cut them out. You could do it will conventional tools as well. textured paints, especially matte blacks work well to make things look less homemade.
On one of my old off road trucks, I used a sheet of 1/8" acrylic as the base which all of my gauges were mounted, and then drilled 1/2" holes with bevels, which the telltale symbols were glued into from the back. The acrylic piece was sprayed with textured flat black and looked like a molded plastic piece. On the back, I put a 2-liter bottle cap over each telltale as a light housing, with an LED inserted inside to light them up.
It's relatively easy to get everything running, although some may depend on your ECU. I was running a red/blue Gen III computer and harness, now switched to Holley Term X Max.
Speed: I used the VSS output from the ECU directly into my electronic speedometer. Both the speedo, and the ECU are configurable here. I think my default speedometer calibration is 40,000 pulses, so I used HP tuners to program the VSS output to this number, and it works perfect. I still need to configure the Holley to mimic this setup. Most electronic speedometers are programmable, so as long as you can get some kind of VSS signal there, they can usually work. For example, mine can count pulses for 1 mile and calibrate itself.
Tach: There's a tach output from the ECU. You might need to add the pin/wire to your harness. There are 2 things to remember for an aftermarket tach: You need a pullup resistor to 12v, and you need to set your aftermarket tach to read 4 cyl mode. See this post for details. (I designed the cluster for the 5th gen camaro, the resistor that you need to add is inside the OEM gauge cluster, the ECU just grounds the tach line to pulse it. So adding the resistor is normal).
https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...t-correct.html
Fuel: Straight forward, just match your sender
Voltage: Straight forward, just decide where you want to pick up the voltage you are measuring, I'd suggest running a dedicated wire to your battery, or your voltage distribution point.
Oil Pressure: Depends... the stock ECUs don't "need" the OEM oil pressure sender. You can remove it, drill it out, and tap it to screw in an aftermarket oil sender, this is what I have. Or you can add a sender down by the oil filter on the little block off plate, plenty of people sell pre-tapped plates for cheap, or you can tap your existing one, depending on the style.
Water temp: This can be a pain, because the head is metric. It can be difficult to get an 1/8 NPT adapter to work in the head, the adapters get thin and fragile. What I do on mine is there is a block plug on the passenger side, I Think where they'd install a block heater. I have an adapter here for my aftermarket sender, and it matches pretty close to what HP tuners tells me from the OEM sender in the drivers head. within 5 degrees or so, which is fine.
Trans Temp: There's a port on the 4L60e that is already tapped for the 1/8 NPT, just remove the plug and install the sender. It's above the PRNDL switch on mine, I think it's a pressure test port.
So, that gets you the gauges running.
For looks, just scour the internet looking at all the pics you can find. I personally don't like the standard 'bunch of autometers stuck in a piece of diamond plate' that a lot of people do. Usually with a bunch of those cheap round LEDs/lights from autozone for high beam and turn signals, etc.
Mock everything up in cardboard once you decide on your parts. Make sure you are happy with the visibility in the vehicle, as the steering wheel will usually block some of your view.
What I like to do now for the warning lights (called "telltales") is to steal graphics from old scrap instrument clusters, and design a new bezel for them. If you disassemble a cluster, you can take the faces off, and use scissors to cut out the symbols for turn signals, high beam, check engine, brake, etc. I 3D print a light housing for LEDs to light them, and then you can 3d print a bezel to cover them, so you can't see where you cut them out. You could do it will conventional tools as well. textured paints, especially matte blacks work well to make things look less homemade.
On one of my old off road trucks, I used a sheet of 1/8" acrylic as the base which all of my gauges were mounted, and then drilled 1/2" holes with bevels, which the telltale symbols were glued into from the back. The acrylic piece was sprayed with textured flat black and looked like a molded plastic piece. On the back, I put a 2-liter bottle cap over each telltale as a light housing, with an LED inserted inside to light them up.
05-15-2019, 11:27 AM
#3
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Haggar, that is a LOT of good info! Especially good since you have done that sort of thing professionally.
05-15-2019, 02:11 PM
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Dude, you are AWESOME!! Just interrupted myself taking notes so I can reference this list off line. Tremendous help and cannot thank you enough
05-15-2019, 10:03 PM
#5
I used the stock panel for gauges in one of my v8 blazers. I haven't figured out how to make the Imgur pics show directly when using my phone, so you will have to click the link...
https://imgur.com/a/HTkRvvq
https://imgur.com/a/HTkRvvq
05-19-2019, 07:04 AM
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That looks pretty good like that.
07-16-2019, 12:12 PM
#7
Should the fuel gauge work straight up on a 1998 Sonoma with 2002 0411 PCM and a 5.3 swap?? ...
I'm stuck at 1/4 tank (never moves), but it drops to needle if I unplug it, and I can change the gauge settings and make the gauge move.... Sound like my float is stuck, or is there something in the tune that needs changed (I've heard the 98 and 99 s10s has bastard clusters) to make my factory gauge work correctly? I'm going to pull the pump and check the sender, I was just wondering about the tune because I have read mixed things.
ALSO I have a 1999 factory cluster with a tach, is there a way to make that cluster work correctly with tuning (basically only the speedo works when I plug it in) or can you not cross the 98 and 99 clusters for other reasons?
I'm stuck at 1/4 tank (never moves), but it drops to needle if I unplug it, and I can change the gauge settings and make the gauge move.... Sound like my float is stuck, or is there something in the tune that needs changed (I've heard the 98 and 99 s10s has bastard clusters) to make my factory gauge work correctly? I'm going to pull the pump and check the sender, I was just wondering about the tune because I have read mixed things.
ALSO I have a 1999 factory cluster with a tach, is there a way to make that cluster work correctly with tuning (basically only the speedo works when I plug it in) or can you not cross the 98 and 99 clusters for other reasons?