I have a little project car that I am about to rip down again. I have leaky valve cover gaskets and my slp headers are blowing by also. So I went out and bought a 1988 iroc parts car today.

The computer in a 1985 only has a baud rate of 160 and i believe the 86-89 is 8192 and has a bigger data stream. The car runs rich and i thought the computer may have something to do with this. I am hoping the 88 computer will learn a little.

So my question is how do i adapt this 88 ecm into my 85?

I have spent alot of time in the past trying to figure this stuff out on my own. I am hoping someone has the experience to guide me so I can do this effortlessly.

While its in the shop, I was going to change the cam and heads. The car has a stock crank turned 10/10, .030 bore with a '91 350 block with a 2200 rpm torque converter and servos upgraded in tranny.

I am also hoping the parts car has a posi since i got a limited slip now.

thanks for your help

 

I do believe that the 85 ecm was the first year of the TPI and that ecm along with the MAF sensor was totally different from any other year. So a 88 ecm wont work in it probably no matter what you do. I could be off base though, so someone please chime it.

 

I swapped the whole harness from a 87 into my 85 to use the better ecm system. I figured that way it would be easier than rewiring the 85 harness to the 87. They use differnet MAF's and burn off relays. If the Parts car you have has the harness and the relays and stuff I would just swap over that stuff. Your going to need a custom chip for your set up the ecm wont learn that much and it wont run to its potential if you dont. You can rewire the 85 harness to work with the 88 but I believe its just as easy to swap the whole harness.

 

The parts car has all the goodies, and changing the whole wiring harness is the idea i am thinking of doing, from what i can gather the 85-88 ecm utilizes the following sensors,

mass air flow - i know i need to swap that with the 88
manifold air temp
coolant temp
oxygen sensor
throttle position sensor
cold start switch, cold start injector, idle air control, distributor electric spark timing, electric spark control module and knock sensor.

Does anyone know of other sensors i have to change other than maf.

 

You will need all relays (maf power and burnoff) and stuff. You might as well take everything from the 88 and put it in the 85. I know most of the sensors are used on both yrs but to be safe i would just use the 88 stuff and use the 85 sensors as back ups

 

I'm surprised no one has linked you to this site yet:

http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~davis/z28/ecm_swap/