seadog

im currently trying to make my factory water temp gauge work in an 89 s-10 with an 01 ls1. this is just an idea, if anyone knows why it wouldn't work, let me know. I took my factory water temp sending unit from the s-10 and measured the resistance across the body of it and the one pin it has at the plug end. it was like 3.4 kilo ohms. the ls1s coolant temp sensor has two pins on it, so i measured resistance across these two pins, which was the same as the s-10 unit. after putting them in water that was 180 degrees, they dropped the same amounts. if they were off, it wasn't by much. so i thought i could just leave my coolant temp sensor in the drivers head for the pcm, buy another one for the passenger side head and just ground one terminal, run the other to my gauge. Ive heard of people drilling and tapping the head to put older styles in, but the motors in the truck and i dont want to mess with pulling a head or trying to clean it out. anyone see why this wouldn't work? thanks in advance guys. youve all been very helpful so far in my swap.

patrick_rodgers

Sounds like a plan. I am putting my water temperature sender in the passenger side head.

You may want to monitor the temperature gauge against LS1 temperature when using one of the diagnostic code readers.