Electrical water temp gauge
 

Hey guys, I've done a search..and didn't find much. I'm wanting to hook up an electrical water temp guage for my guage pod in my 91 Z28. IT would be alot easier just to glance over to check it. My question is...can I still have the factory guage (in the dash) hooked up?

You can run both gauges, the factory gauge should be hooked into one of the heads. You could run the other into the other head or if you can, run it into the intake manifold, that's how I have mine run. I left the factory gauge hooked to the head and ran the aftermarket one to the intake.
Works just fine and I get a reading from two different spots on the motor..
cc82Z-28

That's great to hear...I'm not really much of a mechanic...so....how do I hook it into the intake? where? how? The only guage I've ever hooked up is the air/fuel guage...and it was simple...just spliced it into the 02 sensor....:confused:

If you are running a carb and intake setup , you will find a couple of threaded places on the intake at the front. One will have a heater hose hooked to it. If you're running all your stock emission equip. then you will probably not have any open spots on the intake which means you would have to put in one of the heads.
On either head you will see threaded plug and you can remove one of those plugs to put the fitting for the sending unit in it. Just be sure to drain you coolant system before starting or you'll have coolant coming out of the fitting you took out. It's no big deal really, when I had my emissions the stock sending unit was in the passenger head, and still is, and my Autometer gauge sending unit was in the drivers side head. When I changed some things then I was able to move the Autometer sending unit up to the intake..
Hope that helps you out..
cc82Z-28

So....will I see this in a Tuned Port system too? That's what I have...

Yes, you should find them in the heads with your tuned port motor. Usually the one on the drivers side will be towards the front almost between the two front spark plugs, the passenger side will be towards the back. I found the drivers side easier to access on my car, yours may be different, just take a look see.
cc82Z-28

The Temp guage sending unit is in the Drivers side head between #1 and #3 Exhaust. Do not remove the one on the passenger side, as this is the secondary Cooling fan switch, and you do need that unless your car has a single fan setup.

ok.....is this what your talking about??

another

Yeap..that be the one.:) Well the circle in your second pic is a bit off, but it is the sensor right between the two plug wire boots.

so....if i remove that sensor....I can bolt the asending unit in and still have that sensor hooked up?? I hate to ask the same questions over and over again...but..I'm not much of a mechanic....and I don't wanna get in trouble....

Well to tell you the truth I wouldn't want the Factory guage working anyway, as they usually go bad or give false info. I only use a aftermaket guage in my car, so.. No I don't think you can have both hooked up on the same sending unit.

You could have both guages hooked up if you find another place to put you sender for the new guage. There's not many options though on the TPI manifold. You could tee in a juction off the heater hose going into the TB. That would look ugly though I think. Just use the driver's side head hole and loose the stock, inaccurate guage...

True, or you could try to find a Thermostat housing that has a temp guage in it. But I would just go with the Aftermarket guage, and forget the stock one.

Hey cc82Z-28......how would I go about running it to the intake manifold? Where is everything located? I have NO idea about doing this....I mean...it would be great to have an aftermarket guage telling my temp....but I'd still like to have my factory guage going too.....so it just not a wasted space....:confused: Does anyone have any pictures?