Water temp guage instal

[MONMIX]

Water temp guage sender instal

On my 2000 SOHC the water temp guage is like the oil presure guage. It is fake. It reads " cold, normal and over heating " not enough information for me. Santa hooked me up with an Auto-Meter water temp guage and an oil pressure guage. Here is a write up on the water temp guage instal for a SOHC. Since instaling the sensor is 90% of the job I will focus on that for this write up.
This project is some what involved. It took me five hours ( with a lunch break ) I would not reccomend this to some one just getting into DIY stuff. But it is not a nightmare of a job either. Maybe a 6.5 or a 7 on the difficult scale. A good set of sockets, a T-30 socket is about the extent of the tools needed, other than the wrench seen on photo#2. This is ESSENCIAL to remove the factory sensor.
There are TWO temp sensors, one goes to the ECM, one goes to the guage. Obviously you want to deal with the one that goes to the guage. Photo #1 look at the pointer. The connector in question is the brown one. Getting to it is impossible with out removing the TB and the upper intake. Photo#3 You also want to drain the top half of the radiator too.

 

[MONMIX]

The hardest part in removing the manafold is this heat riser Photo#1 the metal portion is bolted in a location you can not get to. You will need to remove eight T-30 torx bolts, two vacumm hoses at the rear, two hoses on the underside, ( there are clips on these ) and a valve of some sorts on the rear. Once this is done the manafold should come off and a little bit of english there at the heat riser. Also the very rear T-30 is difficult to get to, more so if you have a large T-30 socket. You are gonna want a swivel for that one.
Remove the T-stat housing. You might as well toss in a new T-stat wile you are there. Photo#2 you can see the old sensor. That off set wrench (3/4) is the hot ticket on this one ( thanks Blee )
Photo#3 old sensor removed ready for the new. In this photo, you can see to the right of the hole is the sensor for the ECM. It has a gray connector.

 

[MONMIX]

Here is the new sensor ready to go in. Photo#1 Teflon tape is a good thing.
Photo#2 is the sensor instaled. I used green wire on pourpose. ( get it ? )
In going back togther learn from my mistakes. Make sure the wire for the TPS is where it should be and instal the hose to the IAC BEFORE putting the intake back on.
Photo#3

 

[MONMIX]

Lastly here is a pic of the wiring. The water temp is the bottom guage and oil presure is the top guage Photo#1
and the final shot Photo#2
yes I know the color match on the pod is WAY off. I matched it up with the paint chip with the sales rep it looked like an exact match to the two of us. I will be seing him next week and try to resolve the color issue.
If the color match is my only problem, I would have to say job well done.

 

[2000Sportdriver]

very helpful and informative write up.

 

[spindlecone]

Great writup Monmix
Question? this my seem off the wall but all the AM sensor is doing is sending an electrical signal to the meter.
My engine has both sensors also, one to the ECM, one to the useless OEM gauge.
I wonder if one could just say tap into the OEM sensor, to send the signal to the AM meter, just curious.

 

[MONMIX]

Great writup Monmix
Question? this my seem off the wall but all the AM sensor is doing is sending an electrical signal to the meter.
My engine has both sensors also, one to the ECM, one to the useless OEM gauge.
I wonder if one could just say tap into the OEM sensor, to send the signal to the AM meter, just curious.

Thank you.
Yeah I had that thought initially. I really wanted to have both guages functional. Either way, the AM sending unit had one wire and the OEM sending unit had TWO wires. Rather than figuring out which does which, I just droped in the new sender. I would supose with a few mineuts and a DVM you could arrive at an answer, but even with that I am not sure how it would wire up.

 

[spindlecone]

Am tottaly electrically challanged, but assume that the sender sends a voltage that is converted into a gauge number, just for grins say, 8 volts at 150 degs.
I tried to get a reading off of mine today but as you know, not alot of room, could not get to the wires.
One of the two wires I would think is sending a voltage to the meter, maybe so maybe not, I dunno, but if at say 200 degs, with a VOM you measured say11 volts at the sender, easy to do, and if you could take your old sender, a hot plate, a pan of water, ground the sender and measure the voltage at 200 degs in the pan (not so easy to do) and came up with the same value? just thinking off the wall as usual, just looking for an easy way out.

 

[EMG7895]

Fyi: For any type of sensor that needs to seal and uses the case as a ground it is better to use a liquid sealant like pipe dope. Teflon can cause too much resistance.

 

[MONMIX]

Neither sender grounds to the case. The case is plastic.

 

[MONMIX]

yeah I hear ya Spindle. I am sure you are 100% correct in concept. At cold it reads X-volts which means cold. At say 100f it reads Y-volts which means, running temp. At say 230f it reads A-volts means over heating. Makes perfect sence.

I still have the old OEM sender, I could experament one of these days.

 

[spindlecone]

But is not the brass sender being one wire grounded to the block?
Monmix, when time allows, could you measure the voltage at your sender, will buy a new OEM sender and see what I can see, was not trying to rattle your cage.
Again, nice writup, lotta good info

 

[MONMIX]

Oh no I didnt even think you were trying to rattle my cage.
I thought you were just doing the same thing I do, think out loud. Or in this case think and type.

No, the brass surround is in a plastic setting. See photo #3 in post #2, that black / gray area were the brass hole ( at the pointer ) is NOT metal. That would ( ? likely? )
explain the second wire which is a ground.

 

[SkanlaxJMO]

why not just use a multi meter and see which wire has a positive voltage and then splice the Auto meter gauge wire into that one

 

[IAmTodd]

So the temp gauge on the dash is dead?

 

[spindlecone]

why not just use a multi meter and see which wire has a positive voltage and then splice the Auto meter gauge wire into that one

Me thinks that what the above is about, lets all see if thats possible

 

[SkanlaxJMO]

yeah that is what i would try if I had an SOCH to do it on

 

[spindlecone]

Oh no I didnt even think you were trying to rattle my cage.
I thought you were just doing the same thing I do, think out loud. Or in this case think and type.

No, the brass surround is in a plastic setting. See photo #3 in post #2, that black / gray area were the brass hole ( at the pointer ) is NOT metal. That would ( ? likely? )
explain the second wire which is a ground.

Confused as usual, in the AM sender I see one green wire, do not see a grd wire

 

[MONMIX]

yeah Todd the dash guage non functional. Not too far off from before


Spindle,
right exactally. Both my tranny temp sender and the water temp sender are the same.
One wire from the send. Grounds at the guage.

 

[spindlecone]

Not Knowing what I am doing, no joke
I think it would be interesting to know what voltage is being sent to your gauge at a givin temp, could you from an educational standpoint, take a VOM and measure the voltage at say 180 degs? would take seconds to do on your part, and than post your results, or just PM the numbers,
In turn I will try to tap into one of my wires and see what the value is, if I cannot, will try to get an OEM sensor and test it.
The point is, perhaps the signal from the OEM sensor, can drive the aftermarket AM gauge with just a wire tap, just food for thought