I need a little help. I have a 80 el camino. I have a donor engine from a 87 truck. I would like to use as many of my old gauges as possibly. The swap is complete with engine, tranny, computer, and wiring harness. Will the wiring harness mate up to the fuse panel with minor modification. Or will I need a new harness. I know I need a electric feul pump, but does it have to be in the tank, can it be in line. The major question is what hurdle am I in for.

I feel your pain, I'm going through the same thing as we speak so I don't have all the answers yet. I am using the computer and wiring harness from a 88 caprice and a Holley throttle body on mine. I am trying to meld the two harnesses into one. As far as the fuel pump goes, as long as it puts out about 15 pounds of pressure the throttle body will be happy just remember you have to run a return line from the pressure regulator back to the tank. You need to keep the pump as close to the tank as possible---its easier to push fuel than to suck it up.................Dan

How are you going to mate the two harness together. What other hurdles have you ran into. Like what bracket do you have to mod or replace.

I think I'm doing this as easily as I can because I bought a Caprice for a parts car and I am using a lot of the parts off it like the accassory brackets and the whole engine wiring harness. I am a glutton for punishment though so I didn't leave it at that. I'm putting a small block 400 and a th700r4 in. The computer for the caprice has a vehicle speed sensor input and an electronic speedometer while the elky has a mechanical speedometer so I have to use a speedometer adapter that has a sensor added to keep the computer happy. I also am using the computer to drive a Holley 670 cfm replacement throttle body injector. So far I have the engine built and am currently doing the tranny. I went this way because this truck is going to be towing my race car----I think it will look cool and the 400 will have enough torque to get the job done. Hopefully I can make the 700r4 live too.......Dan

You really are discussing 2 seperate issues. You have the stuff that makes the motor run & then you have the rest of the wiring for the gauges. The easiest solution would be to buy an aftermarket wiring harness for the TBI system. That would get the motor running. Then get the correct end connectors for the sensors on the 87 motor.

You may have some compatability issues if the truck has real gauges and the elky has warning lights, or vise-versa, but that can be overcome by changing to the correct sensor.

If you really want to use the truck wiring harness, it can be done. But you will need a good (factory manual?) wiring schematic. You can remove anything from the harness that is not essential to run the motor. I'd probably start with the wires at the computer and keep everything that connects. Then eliminate anything that is not needed to make it run. You would use your original gauge wiring with new end connectors where necessary. Going this route, you will need an excellent understanding of which circuits/sensors make the motor run and which are accessories.