Just started up my car for the sencond time, and this time we were gonna let it run for like 20 mins. But half way through i noticed that the temp wasnt registering inside the car, and we turned it off just in time to stop it from over heating. So I was wondering what would cause this. The fan didnt come on either, so i was wondeirng if anyone could help me with this, i want to drive my car but i want it to be reliable and stuff. So someone please help me!

 

How do you know it was about to overheat if the temp gauge doesn't work?

As far as the temp gauge itself, make sure the sender in the driver side cylinder head is there and plugged in. Single green wire. If it is there an plugged in, try replacing the sender.

The temp gauge and the fan control are on 2 seperate circuits and have nothing to do with eachothers functionality aside from the fact that they both measure the temperature of the coolant.

 

Well, we figured out today that i crached the therm housing when i was putting it on (second one!) anyway, my dad wanted to run the car some more cuz he likes to hear it, lol, and he thought loosening the radiator cap would releive the pressure on the therm housing. I knew it was close to overheating cuz when i turned the car off a bit of antifreeze boiled out of the cap. Hope i didnt mess anything up to bad. Anyway, I replaced the fan switch with a Jet one so it would turn on sooner. But it may not be working. And i think i took out the temp sender thinking it was for something else that i didnt need anymore, cant remember what though. Thanks for the reply!

 

The system gets pressurized when you run an engine. It will always flow out the rad cap if you release the pressure. It wasn't overheating. If it were, you would have been blasted in the face by steam/coolant.