o.k. - i had it in the passenger side head. well the POS metric to NPT adapter broke (wall thickness too thin). i had to remove it for now. lately i have been thinking about alternate locations. if you could mount it ANYWHERE without taking into consideration available holes, where would you put it? i have a few ideas, but would like some feedback. keep in mind, my car is an open track car (road racing) not a drag car, so accurate water temp is very important. right now i'm seeing 220 in the passenger head. i was thinking of splicing in a section of aluminum tubing w/ a 1/8" NPT bung into the upper radiator hose. i also thought of tapping the water pump (just to the left and under the T/B cable cam). i've also thought about putting a bung into the custom radiator i'm having built. any ideas? any feedback?

 

There is a drain plug on the pass. side of the block behind the starter. You have to unbolt the 2 bolts that hold on the starter and drop it to get access. This is where I installed mine. No problems with it. You will need a 1/8" - M16 x 1.5 adapter.

 

o.k cool. but just to be sure you understand my question. i'm not really looking fo another location. i'm looking for the IDEAL location. is the water temp comming out of the motor (upper radiator hose) the most important location? that type of thing.

 

Id get a bung put in the radiator. It would make for easier access if you ever had to get to it later down the road. Either that, or dril and tap your own hole into one of the water jackes in the block. Where ever you put it should be a place to where you can get easy access to it

 

I put mine above the starter also. It's a great location, extremely easy to access and route wire from. Not sure if its the "ideal" place, but it is if you don't want to drill any holes, or even attempt to put it in by the #8 cylinder

 

I don't see how one in the radiator would be a better location than one actually in the block. I guess maybe depending on the location of where you put one in the radiator (ie. incoming side vs. outgoing side. The block is a better candidate IMO.

 

Can one of you tell me how you wired the sender into the car? I have a water temp guage but I have yet to install it because I dont know where I could run the wire through to get it to the sender. And whats the part # of the sender you used? Thanks.

 

I ran mine through the grommet in the firewall, behind the ECU. Not sure on that part #. The sender came with the guage.

 

The sender came with my water temp gauge. I'm not sure what brand gauge you got, but if it's Autometer, you can probably just buy their general temp sender and install it. Refer to their website to see if they sell them individually, I'm sure they do.

To route the wire, I bought a bunch of convoluted tubing. I installed the water temp sender above the starter if you know where that is. Right below the starter I joined up all three wires from my other senders on the tranny and the O2 sensor. If you look carefully there are two black convoluted tubes that run from the starter area up along the passenger side, next to the motor, up to the PCM. Where these tubes pass alongside the motor they are covered in a heat protective material. The larger of the tubes is for the O2 sensors and some other wires, and the small one is from the ABS sensor.

Anyways, you could try to run a wire up one of those two tubes, but it might be difficult. So since I had three wires to run up there, I just got my own tubing and zip tied it to the small tube, mentioned above, and used the small tube to "guide" it up. I wraped the new tubing in aluminum foil to prevent the plastic tube form melting.

Now that I could pull the tubing up through the top of the engine bay, I carefully routed the tube out of the way of sharp objects and what not. To get the wire through the firewall, there is a grommet located of the very passenger side of the firewall, near the PCM, but a little lower. It's kinda hard to see but get a flashlight to help you. To get the wires through this, I taped them to an end of a coathanger and pushed the through.

Now, you need to get in the passenger side of the car and remove the kick panel, it is located right below the glove box. There are two of those plastic black push pins that hold it in place. Just get a pair of pliers and pull them out. Get a flash light and find the wires and pull them through and unhook the coathanger. Now remove the driver side kick panel with the four screws. Also remove the trim around the headlight **** and then remove the headlight and dimmer switch with the two screws.

From here it's pretty obvious, just pull the wires through to the driver side avoiding sharp things and make sure they can't be seen. With the headlight switch out, you can stick your hand in there and pull the wires through, and finally bring them up to where you can hook them up to a gauge pillar. If your going to mount the gauge somewhere else just go back to where you pulled the wires through the firewall.

If you need more help like where to route power wires, grounds, etc... PM or e-mail me

Oh, also, you can bring the wires up through the driver side drain plug but you would have to pull up the carpet which might prove to be difficult, and you might have wires showing, not sure.

Good luck

 

hmmm... That all sounds SOOO familiar.

 

I'm sorry gauge master

I still have gauge fever

 

Thats right! Bow in awe to all my glory. :p

 

Ok, I'll bow to your glory.

 

You would bow like that.

 

 

Just so you know, water temperature is very important in drag racing too. Consistant wate temps staging up equal consistant runs.

I havent put any of my gauges in yet but after looking around, by the starter seems to be the best place.

 

Thanks Ferocity, I have already set up an AF guage so I know about the hole on the passenger side. My biggest issue was just finding the best route to get that wire from the sender to the inside of the car. I figured there was a Driver side hole instead of having to go over the engine. I still dont know exactly how the sender will work or how many wires come from it since I havent seen which one I need, I dont even know the part #. Oh, and I have the Nordskog digital water temp guage (no sender) from Summit, dont really like them, might sell them soon for Autometers. Thanks.

 

Ya, sell that piece. The Autometer needs only one wire for the sender. It's a really simple set-up. Then ofcourse you have a power and ground for the gauge, and two more for the light.

 

i just use a scanmaster

 

well it still seems to me that you guys are using place's of convienence. i'm looking for the best location. were is the temp the most important?