hey, tried searching for this but no luck. do i have to drain the coolant or oil to install the senders for these gauges? they are electrical if that matters or not. i know the oil pressure sender goes on the driver side rear of the engine and the water temp sensor goes on the water pump. just wondering if u had to drain the liquids. thanks for the help.

BUMP, come on guys. I want to know if I will have time to do this tomorrow or not. If it requires me to drain the oil and coolant I won't be able to. Somebody has got to know.

That depends on how much you enjoy having those fluids in your engine bay as opposed to your engine.

For the sacrasm impaired, the only reason to drain is because it could get messy otherwise. The oil should be fine; it collects in the oil pan and not much should come out when you remove the stock sensor. But while I've never actually removed my coolant temp sensor without having the coolant drained, I'm fairly sure you'll get a couple of quarts out of it if you don't.

could i actually use the same sensor for the coolant temp? they look exactly the same. could i just unhook the wire that hooks up to it and put on the one from the gauge to it. i know if i would do it that the gauge cluster one wont work, but that wouldnt be too big of deal. anyone?

I've never tried it; it's worth a shot.

On mine there are two sensors on the thermostat; a one-wire blade type that runs to the sensor (which I know because I pulled it off once by accident and spent the better part of a day trying to figure out why my gauge stopped working...), and a two wire (I think..) that is most likely the fan control.

Easy way to tell if it'll work is to grab a wire with some alligator clips on it, start your car, and clip the gauge directly to the sensor. If it reads the same as the stock one, you're good to go.

Personally, though, I'm a fan of mechanical gauges. If there's a problem with one of those, you know it because your leg is soaked in oil. ;)

Originally posted by RyMon
I've never tried it; it's worth a shot. On mine there are two sensors on the thermostat; a one-wire blade type that runs to the sensor (which I know because I pulled it off once by accident and spent the better part of a day trying to figure out why my gauge stopped working...), and a two wire (I think..) that is most likely the fan control. Easy way to tell if it'll work is to grab a wire with some alligator clips on it, start your car, and clip the gauge directly to the sensor. If it reads the same as the stock one, you're good to go. Personally, though, I'm a fan of mechanical gauges. If there's a problem with one of those, you know it because your leg is soaked in oil. ;)

These things usually work out better when you know what the hell you are talking about and not pulling nonsense out of your ass.

The single wire sensor goes to the dash gauge only. The 2-wire sensor feeds the ECU and helps with enrichment/stock tuning etc. Those are mounted in the thermostat housing/waterneck not the thermostat itself.
The single wire I have never had any luck with hooking up an external aftermarket gauge to and gotten any accurate readings from. My GUESS is because the stocker uses a different voltage sweep.

Mechanical gauges are generally considered a no-no in IN-cabin situations, but hey if you like hot oil or gas squirting into the cabin, by all means go for it.
NEXT!

Originally posted by djtrickee
These things usually work out better when you know what the hell you are talking about and not pulling nonsense out of your ass. The single wire sensor goes to the dash gauge only. The 2-wire sensor feeds the ECU and helps with enrichment/stock tuning etc. Those are mounted in the thermostat housing/waterneck not the thermostat itself. The single wire I have never had any luck with hooking up an external aftermarket gauge to and gotten any accurate readings from. My GUESS is because the stocker uses a different voltage sweep. Mechanical gauges are generally considered a no-no in IN-cabin situations, but hey if you like hot wax squirting onto your ass, by all means go for it. NEXT!

And no, you do not have to drain any fluids for either. You'll lose some coolant out of the water neck, but have a rag handy and you'll be cool. As for the OPSU, why are you even bothering? All it does is turn on your dummy light.

Definitely stick with electrical gauges. Like deej said, if you like hot wax on skin, go for it. :7

Originally posted by DR1665
Like deej said, if you like hot wax on skin, go for it. :7

We smart.

Originally posted by DR1665
As for the OPSU, why are you even bothering? All it does is turn on your dummy light. Definitely stick with electrical gauges. Like deej said, if you like hot wax on skin, go for it. :7

I was actually planning on not using the stock OPSU anyways. I read up on that info on here and figured it's not really worth the time getting fittings and t's to make it all work again. I will probably have to postpone doing all of this because Hurricane Rita is coming to my area so i'm just trying to hope my car doesn't get totalled by a tree or something along those lines.

1) Move car out of area.
2) Wait out Rita.
3) Replace sending unit.
4) Connect new guage.
5) Drink beer and wonder why you wasted time on new guage that doesn't work any way!
They aren't that hard to install. Most actually come with a sheet that is labled "Installation Instructions" :+ Messin'! Take your time do it right and for Gods Sake don't use mechanical guages INSIDE! Even race cars don't do that. So... Good luck with that thing called Rita.

OK, I plan on finally doing my gauge hookup today. I have had the gauges all ready in their pods and wired up, but haven't gotten the senders hooked up to their wires to actually have them read. I am gonna try to do the water temp today and the oil pressure sometime soon, because I don't have the right tools to take off the stock sensor, but know a friend that has them. OK, now to my questions:
-If I don't hook up the stock OPSU, won't my light on the dash cluster stay on because it doesn't see any oil pressure?
-Is this all I need to hook up my water temp gauge? I don't need any fittings or anything to make it fit right?


Any help is very appreciated. Thanks a lot guys.

Anybody know?

Leaving the stock oil sending unit UNPLUGGED from the harness, the oil light will never come on. It only sends a signal when it sees no pressure. So if you leave the sender connected to the harness, wiht the sender not on the engine, then yes, it will light up your oil light.

For the water temp sender, you will prob want to drill and tap a hole into the side of the thermostat housing. You do NOT want to take out the 2 wire sensor that is already on there, as the ECU needs this sensor. The small one wire sensor is the dash gauge temp sender..which you dont need now, but i highly doubt that new sender will fit that hole. When i installed my megasquirt ECU, i just drilled a hole in the side of the housing, and tapped it, then used some teflon paste on the threads to seal it up. Its been fine. Here is a pic of my sensor:

Originally posted by XtremeRS
which you dont need now, but i highly doubt that new sender will fit that hole.

On my Aftermarket coolant temp sensor it was the same size as the stock Water temp switch for the dash guages... I couldnt stand having the stock gauge look broken though, so I used a Y tee and kept the stocker and the new one both hooked up. Seems to work fine even though they are not in the flow. Very consistent readings with my Datalogger. The aftermarket sensor is a smaller diameter sensor than the stock CTS or the Wells one we use for the megasquirt. I got my tees and connectors at my local Ace Hardware.

Originally posted by djtrickee

Originally posted by XtremeRS which you dont need now, but i highly doubt that new sender will fit that hole.

On my Aftermarket coolant temp sensor it was the same size as the stock Water temp switch for the dash guages... I couldnt stand having the stock gauge look broken though, so I used a Y tee and kept the stocker and the new one both hooked up. Seems to work fine even though they are not in the flow. Very consistent readings with my Datalogger. The aftermarket sensor is a smaller diameter sensor than the stock CTS or the Wells one we use for the megasquirt. I got my tees and connectors at my local Ace Hardware.

Ah cool..didnt realize aftermarket senders were that small for coolant temp..I never bothered with a coolant temp gauge, since the dash one is sufficient, and i know approx what temps are what by looking at the needle's positon. Good info.

Alright cool, thanks a lot Matt and Chris for your guy's help. I will probably tackle those gauges this weekend finally because I don't work and I can check and see if my friend works so he can help out and I can use his house and tools to remove the old sensors. Again, thanks a lot, appreciate it.

EDIT, Points to you guys as well.