I have a 88 Cavalier Z24 Red w/ Silver Trim and 2 doors, is there anyway to make it look and run better?

I also have an 88 Z24 and here's my recommendations: Tint, BF Goodrich raised white letter tires, and if you really want to go the distance, get the 3.1 engine. It's a direct fit and will work with all 2.8 electrical components. I can outline the job for you if you want. It's very very easy if you have the tools. It's not worth it to rip apart the 2.8 to do mods to it. The 3.1 will give you what you need. If you have to stick with it, and you want minor improvements in performance K&N cool air kit and a free flow exhaust will give you a little boost. Here's a link that may help out:

http://www.v6z24.com/

Hey i have someone doing that engine swap for me and he has a problem now with the dash.. my car is an 89 z24 automatic with digital dash and the engine came from a 91 cav rs 5 speed with no digital dash. now he cant get the dash to show how fast im going he is having problems with that electrical part. everything else turned out fine just this part with the spedometer. anyone know what to do

Did he forget to connect the speedometer cable to the tranmission? Something is definitely not hooked up. Or the speed sensor is shot. Speed is computed through the transmission and the computer, not the engine itself. Have him check again.

he said he needed a wiring harness and the wires are not matching up with what they should match up with.. does he even need a harness or should it be a direct swap and nothing is needed??

It is a direct swap. He must have fu**ed something up. All wiring harnesses are the exact same. The job in the simplest sense is basically unplugging the 2.8 and pluggin in the 3.1 They are the exact same engine all around. The 3.1 is just a stroked out version of the 2.8. When you remove the 2.8, you must unplug the following sensors on the engine itself:

O2 sensor, crank sensor, tps sensor, coolant sensor, coolant temperature sending sensor, iat sensor, oil pressure sensor, and the ignition module harness. None of these have anything to do with speedometer readout. There is a cable that connects to the transmission that gives sends the speed to the computer and then the dash. I have a manual transmission and this cable screws right into the top portion of the tranny. Some of the wiring to the tranny needs to be undone just so that you have room to work with, but none of it has to be changed, unless you are putting in a different trannny. It is this wiring and the speed sensor that should be checked. Not the wiring to the engine itself. Unless you changed transmissions, your speed readout shouldn't have been affected.

now my car is a 5 speed becuase the previous engine was an automatic tranmisson. so the 3.1 5 speed went in and the 2.8 automatic was taken out. everything else is completly done except he said he cant figure out why the spedomter is not working. the rpm works no problem but it is not digital. it has the the pointer that moves.

Ahhhh, ok, this makes a big difference. You need to go to the junkyard and pick up a speedometer cable for the manual tranny. It screws into the top of the tranny right next to the tranny oil dipstick. The cable has a round bolt which goes around it and screws into the tranny. Without hooking this up, you will not get a speed readout. This cable should be the same regardless of your dashboard, but you need to get it from a z24. That is the "wiring harness" he is talking about. Once you have it, it's only a matter of minutes to hook it up.

i talked to the guy and told him what you said and he said he has thought of doing that but because the dash is digital or sumthing he said it has digital readout.. <im not sure exaclty whats going on but im trying to repeat what he said...> thus there is nuthing that gets plugged into the dash. he said its just a bunch of wires ./. fuck now im all confused.. do u kinda understand what im talking about??

Ok, one more idea. Look in a junkyard for a 87-89 Z24 that has a manual tranny and a digital dash and get the wiring off of it. The wiring that you have is for an automatic. Obviously this will not work on the manual tranny. If there isn't one of these cars around, then you must go to a gm dealer and order the wiring. Don't know how expensive it will be, but it is only wires so it cant be that much. Maybe you can even get it from a regular auto parts store. Tell them that you need the speedometer cable/wiring for a 1989 Z24 with a manual transmission and a digital dash. Hopefully its available. You have brouht up an interesting point though. I am starting to think that the manual tranny Z's were not available with digital dash. If that's the case, then you are stuck and the only way around it is to convert to the analog dash. And that involves a new computer, a new fuel meter seding unit, and the dash itself. A pretty costly option.

ok one thing if he goes and gets a wiring from those years.. most of the engines are a 2.8 L.. the engine that is going in is a 3.1?? with the cable be the same or was there a 3.1 z24 during those times?
thanks alot for your help i have been carless becuase of this problem for like 3 weeks now.. everything else is completly done i just told him to keep it until the dash is correct. ok thanks

2.8 and 3.1 are same engine, just diff stroke.

as for looks, try the diza body kit, www.dizaracing.com

the only option for the 87-89 year is the 2.8. The 3.1 took over in '90. That doesn't matter though. Everything about those two motors is the same, including the wiring. This is why you can effectively run a 3.1 off of the 2.8 computer and wiring. If were talking manual tranny, they both use a Muncie 5speed. So to answer your question, yes, you can use the wiring if it's off of the 2.8 motor. Remember, the two things that the car has to have are 1.) Manual tranny and 2.)Digital Dash. Good luck.

forgot one more thing. the reason why i specified those years is because those are the only years that the digital dash was offered. Regardless though, you can still run your 3.1 and use the digital dash if you find the wiring. Remember the 2.8 and the 3.1 share the same muncie manual tranny and it is the tranny that gives the computer the speed, not the engine. Good luck.

PS, aren't digital dashes a pain in the ass? They're cool at night, but have too many problems. I used to have one on my first Z, which was an 86 and it was nothing but a headache.

problem solved!! the problem was my car had cruise control but when it got broken into the switches inside the car were taken out and just a normal blinker switch was put in. so there was really no way for him to figure this out.. he ended up going over everywire and then he figured it out.. ya digital dashes are shit! my kms are fucked and they jacked up like 150,000 one time.. thats the only problem i had but it is a big one.. but that was for my previouse engine so i guess im alright now
thanks alot for your help

Cool. I'm glad everything worked out ok. Let me know if anything else comes up.