I have a carbureted 350ci in my Z, if I remove the old temp sensor all together (leave it unplugged) and install my new temp gauge, and sensor (sensor goes right to gauge and thats it) am I going to have problems with the car heating up properly, or running rich etc?

Not sure if there's a computer in this car doing anything or not, but I'm trying to figure that out so I can eliminate all the wiring in the engine bay also.

If anybody has installed an aftermarket temp gauge, did you tap into the stock connector, or did you remove the old sensor and install your new one for the gauge?

 

I'm not as familiar with carb cars as I am EFI cars, but on the EFI cars there are two temp sensors. The one in the front of the intake manifold by the thermostat housing is for the computer. The one in the driver's side head between the #1 and #3 cylinders is for the gauge in the dash. They are completely separate in function, they do not talk to each other.

You can remove the temp sensor in the driver's side head and replace it with the sensor for your aftermarket gauge, if you want.

 

I think the coolant temp sensor on my intake manifold is the only one on the car, cyl's 1-3 don't have anything on the head between them so I'm really not diggin' this I have no temp gauge the stock one is stuck maxed out and I have no idea what the person did to connect one before.

Crap!

 

Tapping into the power for your existing temp sender will work in most cases. You will loose the function of the temp gauge in the cluster though. It is either one or the other. So in reality you must disconnect the sender wire from the cluster and run it to your new gauge. Learned this from experience.

 

The cluster temp gauge is broken I got the car with the temp gauge needle facing way past full hot. I ordered the new gauge because I needed other gauges as well so I figured why not.

There are holes in my dash already, which have wires running from them although I have no idea what they are going to, I'll need to remove the dash and figure it out later but for now it's safe to say that on a carb'd car that has pretty much no ties to the ECU if I replace the intake manifold sensor with the gauge sensor and sending wire, it won't be able to effect the engine running right?

MY ignition is HEI w/ vacuum advance by the way if that helps since I don't think the ECU controls that distributor?

 

I would say that they only temp sensor on your motor has nothing to do with the ecm considering your running a carb.

 

That is very good news, if you are correct I can finally do my wire tuck because I have about 15 plugs that lead to nothing in the engine bay. Half of them are charcoal black and burned to a crisp from laying on the engine being useless which has illuminated my check engine light, with no codes because nothing is wrong other than a burned up harness.

 

Yes, if your carbed engine has only one temp sender, it's only for the gauge int the dash. Our cars have one dedicated sender for the gauge and one for the ECM (if equipped) so it's not a problem to replace the gauge and sender even on a TBI or TPI car.

Hope this helps.
Lou