I wanted to know how hard is it to put in an aftermarket temp gauge? The gauge that i have now is fried for some reason, so if i go down to my local pep boys and pick up a new one will it be hard to hook up. And will it use the same connectors as my old Water Temp gauge, because if it did then theres no use. Thanks for the help.

Joey

 

Most aftermarket guages will come with thier own sending units requiring you to replace the existing sender and possibly add wiring. Whats wrong with the stock guage? There is only a couple of things that go wrong. If it stays pegged look for a cooked wire bet cyls 1&3 on the driver side. If the wire is OK unplug it from the sender and look at the guage with the key on. If is still pegged replace the guage($45 from GM). That wire sometimes cooks around the manifold. All in all it's probably less work to fix the stock one than to wire in an aftermarket.

 

But I've never trusted the gauges used in 80's cars. They are not meant to be an exact reading of the temp, but a 'guideline'. And this came from an ex GM engineer.

Want to see how accurate the stock gauge is? Simply hook up a scanner and look at the reading there...the majority I've seen are always off a good bit.


I like mechanical temp gauges, but from what I've seen, aftermarket ( and now factory ) gauges have come a long way in the last few years.

A new aftermarket temp gauge ( mechanical ) will come with a temp sensor that is already connected to the gauges. You simply pull the factory temp sender from the driver's side head, and replace it with the new one. Most gauges come with adapter fittings to make it will fit into the threaded hole in the cylinder head.

One thing I REALLY like about a mechanical gauge is the fact it gives the temp even with the car off. If you ever go to the dragstrip this comes in very handy, especially in the staging lanes.


YMMV

HTH