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I suspect the header panel is different on quad light vans. I know it is on squarebody Suburbans and pickups. Different holes for the rear of the headlight to stick through. I'm not sure you can remove that portion easily, although it is just sheetmetal and you could certainly weld in one.
I have the same issue with a 94 but it's a single headlight van so I think in that situation it may be as simple as rounding up the older grille, headlight trim and turn signals.
As a side note, I would look into a custom tune chip for a 1995 to make it more like the 91-94. 95's are detuned to help meet more strict emissions standards and if it has a 4L60E there's a one year deal with the TCC solenoid operation so it's not as easy as just swapping over a 93-94 ECU or chip. Or it may work, who knows, the 95 runs in steps where the others were just on and off. But you should be able to pick up 3-4 MPG which when you get 12-15 is a lot.
I suspect the header panel is different on quad light vans. I know it is on squarebody Suburbans and pickups. Different holes for the rear of the headlight to stick through. I'm not sure you can remove that portion easily, although it is just sheetmetal and you could certainly weld in one.
I have the same issue with a 94 but it's a single headlight van so I think in that situation it may be as simple as rounding up the older grille, headlight trim and turn signals.
You're in the thought process of making a swap as well?
Originally Posted by William Kisselstein
As a side note, I would look into a custom tune chip for a 1995 to make it more like the 91-94. 95's are detuned to help meet more strict emissions standards and if it has a 4L60E there's a one year deal with the TCC solenoid operation so it's not as easy as just swapping over a 93-94 ECU or chip. Or it may work, who knows, the 95 runs in steps where the others were just on and off. But you should be able to pick up 3-4 MPG which when you get 12-15 is a lot.
Oh, does the 91–94 have better MPG's than a '95? I had no idea.
You can look it up on fueleconomy.gov, across the board GM trucks are 3 mpg worse for 1995. My 95 G30 would do 12-ish highway with a 3.23 gear. My 91 G20 would do 15 all day long be it at 60, 65 or 70 with a 3.41. And both were well worn by that point.
I have a 94, yes, and I am thinking about changing to an older grille. But it only has dual headlights, not quad lights, so I suspect if I were to find a van like your first picture I would only have to swap the grille, the headlight trim and the furn signals and at worst I might have to drill a few holes to make it work. Unfortunately the side-by-side quad lights are unique to that style grille only, the older ones with quads were stacked.
All you really need to do is open the hood and look at the radiator support behind the lights. Either it has provisions for other headlight locations, and you can change it, or it doesn't, and it would be way more involved. You might need a section of headlight wiring harness to go from quad to dual. You'd also need the headlight buckets and all the mounting hardware.
The front fenders and core support on these I believe is all welded together as one piece so to change the support isn't a simple swap.
You can look it up on fueleconomy.gov, across the board GM trucks are 3 mpg worse for 1995. My 95 G30 would do 12-ish highway with a 3.23 gear. My 91 G20 would do 15 all day long be it at 60, 65 or 70 with a 3.41. And both were well worn by that point.
Great to know, since I haven't bought this van yet I can take that into consideration. Did you look into tune chipping your '95 G30?
Originally Posted by William Kisselstein
I have a 94, yes, and I am thinking about changing to an older grille. But it only has dual headlights, not quad lights, so I suspect if I were to find a van like your first picture I would only have to swap the grille, the headlight trim and the furn signals and at worst I might have to drill a few holes to make it work. Unfortunately the side-by-side quad lights are unique to that style grille only, the older ones with quads were stacked.
All you really need to do is open the hood and look at the radiator support behind the lights. Either it has provisions for other headlight locations, and you can change it, or it doesn't, and it would be way more involved. You might need a section of headlight wiring harness to go from quad to dual. You'd also need the headlight buckets and all the mounting hardware.
The front fenders and core support on these I believe is all welded together as one piece so to change the support isn't a simple swap.
Yeah, I read up on it a bit yesterday night. Would love to see those two vans in the attached picture side by side, to compare what parts to transfer over, what is similar and and what differs. In the link in my previous post, a '95 to 70's front swap was executed. Just hoped for a step-by-step instruction somewhere on the net
Last edited by Cosmonaut; Mar 23, 2021 at 9:55 AM.
I looked at an ECU swap from a 93-94 but then found the TCC solenoid change. That was a good 10 years ago and the van wasn't worth spending big money on a custom chip for it, as it was it only lasted about a year before I found some serious rot in the frame rails, hopped on Craigslist and found the 1991 that replaced it and went with that instead.
FWIW, if your van did have a 480LE I don't believe those have the TCC deal so you could just swap the ECU, but I think only the 1-ton extended vans got those.
It sounds like the guy in the article had the same problem I noted, the inner structure is not set up for headlights in that location, so he had to cut and drill holes to mount them. He's posted photos showing the inner structure and as I suspected it is unique to this grille style, with cutouts for the headlights side by side at the top, only.
The good news is this is just flat (more or less) tin and if you could find a donor van you could likely make your life easier by cutting out the area with the headlight mount and holes from the grille style you prefer, and then welding, bolting or even pop-riveting it in place on yours (after cutting out for it). I would just overlap it by an inch or so and bolt it down. I believe if you use the 83-91 grille the rest will bolt in with existing mounts.
G20 Van front end swap?
