We got a 98 or 99 Z24 coupe in at my shop that has a blown motor and some bad quarter panel damage so its headed to the scrap yard. I have a 97 2.2 coupe for a daily driver. They just both happen to be black on black and the interior is very clean in the Z24. I plan on taking everything possible from the Z24 for my car before sending it out to the crusher. Obviously Im taking all the ground effects, decklid with spoiler, hood (mine has some dents), tires and wheels (goodbye 14" steel, hello 16" aluminum) all the seats, door panels and any other interior plastics that are in better shape then what is in my car. I just have a few questions. The Z24 has power windows, my car has manual. Does my car already have the wiring harness for power windows installed and I just need to swap over the doors and switch panel or am I going to need to run wires too ( i know some cars come from the factory with the wiring harness for all optional equipment even if it isnt installed at the factory, is this true for J-bodies)? Aside from cosmetics what else should I switch over to my car? Are the brakes, suspension or sway bars better on the Z24 then the base 2.2 cars? I own a fully equipped auto repair shop so heavy jobs arent a problem, I just want to make sure I get everything worth taking off this car before its gone. Id swap drivetrains but the engine in the Z is done and its auto and my car is stick. I even thought about taking the sunroof but cutting into the roof of my car makes me a little too nervous. One more question that I can think of for right now, my car has the base model gauges (i.e. no tach) with the manual spin over style odometer. I know that If I found a Z24 gauge cluster from 97 or older that it would swap in no problem but the gauge cluster on this car has the digital odometer, will that work on my car or no? Thanks a lot for the help. Ill get some pics of the transformation

P.S. If anyone has a set of ten spoke painted LS wheels that they might want to trade for 5 spoke Z wheels let me know.


97 Cavalier 2.2 5-speed, 88 Camaro IROC-Z 5.7 auto, 91 Firebird Formula 5.7 auto, 88 Conquest TSi 2.6T 5 speed, 93 Silverado ECSB 5.7 auto.

clusters won't swap as for body parts all can swap, suspension idk there is a strut tower bar take it! your speedo will be off when you swap over your wheels and maybe you can get a close match between them.

good luck

the Z should have a stock front sway bar that the 2.2 doesn't have, it says somethin about it in the FAQ supension sticky (i think you should be able to transfer it tho), other than that i think the suspension and brakes are basically the same, i dunno about the speedo stuff



There's no pain like wrecking your first J

speedo will be off, maybe by 1kph, not very much tbh. cluster will not work. and yes, if there is a strut bar, take it, and if there is a lower bar, take it too, it will work. though, check if your 97 has a sway bar too, mine did on the 97 2.2 4-door. brakes are the same, but it wouldn't hurt if you have a spare set though. the rear drums may be different sized on the 2 also, may want to check that and go to the bigger one.

if you want to make the spoiler swap easier, take the full trunk lid off and swap it over instead of having to drill holes in your trunk.

I can't think of anything else off the top of my head.

His speedo won't be off at all since he is going stock wheels to stock wheel and the tires are the right size.


The proper way of using the word seen. It is not I seen it that would be I saw it. He has seen the car is the right way to use the word. English class is Cool. By the way thats my sig

My 97 is actually an RS I think and it does have a front sway bar if I remember correctly. Ill have the check the part numbers to know for sure on monday but it looked to me like the front brakes were a bigger diameter and had larger calipers then the front brakes on my car.


97 Cavalier 2.2 5-speed, 88 Camaro IROC-Z 5.7 auto, 91 Firebird Formula 5.7 auto, 88 Conquest TSi 2.6T 5 speed, 93 Silverado ECSB 5.7 auto.

brakes are NOT larger. brakes between all cavaliers and sunfires from 95-2005 were all the same diameter with the same calipers. take the whole interior if you want. and your car may have had a swaybar. gm kinda picked and chose what cars they put them on. i have a 96 ohv base sedan and its got the front swaybar. also. you do NOT have the wiring for the power windows. so that will not work. cluster will not work. since its for an auto.

Well the windows will work, just need to do a bit of wiring.


97 Cavalier 2.2 5-speed, 88 Camaro IROC-Z 5.7 auto, 91 Firebird Formula 5.7 auto, 88 Conquest TSi 2.6T 5 speed, 93 Silverado ECSB 5.7 auto.

If it's a digital, that's questionable. It's generally accepted around here that the clusters with digital odos in 98 & 99 will not work in an earlier car, but I think they actually will. The 95-99 does not store the mileage in the BCM like the 00+ does. I'm sure the serial data signal is the same. The only thing is that the gas gauge might be off, because IIRC the sender is higher range on the 99. if you pull the sending unit from the tank, you would be fine.

The speedo will not be off from swapping tires. All J-bodies use the same speed signal based on the average overall tire height. All 3 factory size tires available on 95+ J-bodies are within 1% of each other.

There's a good chance that the wiring from the windows is already in your car, but you might as well pull the harness from the 99 just in case.

Only verts have the front strut bar. The z24's have a front sway bar and the stiffer rear axle as compared to the base cav's and sunfire se's having no front sway bar and the soft rear axle. I would check to see if your cav has a front sway bar and if not take it off the z24 and put it on. I managed to put mine on my fire with out dropping the sub frame was a pain.

Also you can look at the rear axles. The difference is the z24 has a piece of round bar in the middle triangle piece in the middle of the axle as to your cav not having one. I believe that is how it is.

If you are going to use the trunk/spoiler from the Z, you might want to take out the back deck from the Z so you won't have two third brake lights in the back. The front sway bar on the Z is bigger than on a stock Cavi.


98 Z24

RIP Specks

Thanks for the info everyone and anyone who PMed me has a reply. I checked and this car is a 98. Im gonna pull her in here in just a bit and start taking off parts. I should have my cav up here wednesday and Ill start compairing parts to see what the Z has as far as upgrades over the RS components.


97 Cavalier 2.2 5-speed, 88 Camaro IROC-Z 5.7 auto, 91 Firebird Formula 5.7 auto, 88 Conquest TSi 2.6T 5 speed, 93 Silverado ECSB 5.7 auto.

If the block and heads are good, take the motor man!

Good for a built LD9 swap!

Wojo wrote:brakes are NOT larger. brakes between all cavaliers and sunfires from 95-2005 were all the same diameter with the same calipers. take the whole interior if you want. and your car may have had a swaybar. gm kinda picked and chose what cars they put them on. i have a 96 ohv base sedan and its got the front swaybar. also. you do NOT have the wiring for the power windows. so that will not work. cluster will not work. since its for an auto.

for the rear drums there are 2 different sizes. had you of read my post you would have seen that

i beleive its like a 1/4 of an inch in diameter. and thats it. which is NOT worth trying to swap.

Wojo wrote:i beleive its like a 1/4 of an inch in diameter. and thats it. which is NOT worth trying to swap.

Could just swap the whole rear axle, that would make it easy.


97 Cavalier 2.2 5-speed, 88 Camaro IROC-Z 5.7 auto, 91 Firebird Formula 5.7 auto, 88 Conquest TSi 2.6T 5 speed, 93 Silverado ECSB 5.7 auto.

Any ideas on what I would have to do to swap the cruise control from it to my car?


97 Cavalier 2.2 5-speed, 88 Camaro IROC-Z 5.7 auto, 91 Firebird Formula 5.7 auto, 88 Conquest TSi 2.6T 5 speed, 93 Silverado ECSB 5.7 auto.

Just swap the 2.2 over into the Z and swap the quarter panels and your set!! Could then keep the 2.4 and put it in you 2.2 cav and keep it out back for a little project or just rob parts off when you need them.

Swapping quarter panels? Cant swap, gotta cut, paint etc. Im not a body guy, I do mechanical. Plus the 97 has been a great little car, 160,000 and still going strong. It would be a shame to do that to her. Plus with as much as it would take to do all that I could sell it and just buy a stick Z24.


97 Cavalier 2.2 5-speed, 88 Camaro IROC-Z 5.7 auto, 91 Firebird Formula 5.7 auto, 88 Conquest TSi 2.6T 5 speed, 93 Silverado ECSB 5.7 auto.