Water temp gauge install

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tacoman

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I'm looking to install a water temp gauge and oil pressure in my 89 5.0. Should I keep the stock water temp sender where it is and find a new place to put the new gauge sender and if so where should I put it or should I relocate the stock one and use the stock location of the new one and if so where should I put the stock one? Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

Prime Lord

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#2

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Do you want your factory gauge to keep working? if so, you need to find a new place to boss in the new sending unit so you effectively have 2 sending units. If you don't care, you can do what I did and just remove the factory the factory sender and replace it with the new one. That renders the factory gauge off and useless (like it was any good before).

 

millhouse

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#3

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Take the stocker and relocate it to the hole on the lower intake closer to the firewall. Put the aftermarket unit where the stocker was for an accurate reading. Both will work...however the stocker will read very...very low temps in the more innacurate rear mounting location.

 

jrichker

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#4

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Keep in mind that the sender for the temp gauge is located on the drivers side front of the intake manifold. It is not connected to anything but the temp gauge, so disconnecting it won't hurt anything. The thermostat housing has a boss for a temp sender, but it may not be suitable for your gauge.

Don't mess with the sensor that is on the passerger side heater tube. That's the computer ECT sensor that is used to tell the computer how hot the engine is.

 

onefstsnake

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#5

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As for the oil sender you can just use a brass Tee to hook it up to the stock sender.

Are you using Mechanical or Electric gauges?

 

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tacoman

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#6

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Electric gauges. I was under the impression that the stock sender had to still be hooked up for the ECU, but if it doesn't then I don't mind just disconnecting it. Thanks for the replies guys.

 

Prime Lord

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#7

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There is another sender that goes to the ECU, the one at the front of the intake by the water neck is ONLY for that dash gauge as jrichker said. Good call on the guage though, the factory one sucks a fat one.

 

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Sicarius428

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#8

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I tapped the waterneck with a 3/8ths pipe thread and put my autometer there. It isn't as exact as the intake manifold but is pretty close IMO. I too like having the stock gauges working too though they are pretty useless.
Kevin

 

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tacoman

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#9

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Thanks for the input and ideas.

 

HISSIN50

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#10

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Jrichker's post (and the others that followed) can ease your mind about the gauge's sending unit.

For the fox, I did mine like Millhouse did. On the '94, I spent 10 bucks at AZ for a new stat housing with the 3/8" boss already in place. On the 94 I chose to put the aftermarket gauge's sender in the stock-sending unit location because if my stat stuck closed, the sending unit in the stat-housing might not reflect motor temps (for a high quality stat like Kevin uses, it likely matters-not). Then I relo'd the stock sender and extended the wiring to the t-stat housing.

However, for a fox, Millhouse's method works well if your intake has that dead port. You can remove that dead-plug without removing the plenum. As he said, coolant flow back there kinda sucks (the gauge tends to reflect temps more radiantly), but the sending location accuracy and gauge accuracy are fairly matched.

For the OP, you will probably have to piece together some brass fittings from the Home store if you want to keep both senders. Knowing that the stock sending unit is 1/4" NPT and most aftermarket E-senders are 1/8" NPT can be helpful.

Good luck.

 

T

tacoman

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#11

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Thanks for the post. I'll have to keep that in mind. I'll probably end up getting a new stock oil pressure sender some time in the future and tee the stock and aftermarket one so that I can retain the stock gauge.

 

smellmygas

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#12

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onefstsnake said:

As for the oil sender you can just use a brass Tee to hook it up to the stock sender.

Are you using Mechanical or Electric gauges?

Click to expand...

i did this and it worked out fine for my oil gauge

 

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Sicarius428

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#13

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I have heard that a T for the water is not the best idea becase the temp probe doesn't sit in the flow of the water and it is possible to get an air bubble in there that will throw off your accuracy. May be wrong though... just what I heard.
Kevin

 

HISSIN50

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#14

• Dec 20, 2006

• #14

Sicarius428 said:

I have heard that a T for the water is not the best idea becase the temp probe doesn't sit in the flow of the water and it is possible to get an air bubble in there that will throw off your accuracy. May be wrong though... just what I heard.
Kevin

Click to expand...

Kevin, I agree. With what I know of fluid dynamics, this is true for all temp gauge sending units. Just to ease confusion, we are talkin about temperature gauges - not pressure gauges.

Teeing a deadhead (like the stock coolant sending unit location) is not a good idea (it becoming a radiantly-heated alcove, like Kevin wisely noted).

As an aside, if someone has a temperature line that is being cut and tee'd into (not unlike an AM manifold block) for one sending unit, then that would work because the probe is suscepted to the flow of fluid (this is normally used for trans fluid temp gauges). The stock water temp sending location is not one such application however.