Overcooling?

[90lxvert13]

Heres the deal, I have a 90 5.0 lx with 47k mi and all stock. The temp gauge shows the car to be running cold, and in the overflow the coolant only rises to about an inch over the cold line. I thought this might be th thermostat so I took it out and tested i na pot of hat water on the stove and it opened and closed fine at 195 degrees. Now I believe it might be either the temp sending unit or maybe the cap. Any ideas?

 

[Roland69]

did you replace the T-stat while it was out...

 

[HISSIN50]

Welcome to the boards!

Use another means of temperature notation than the stock gauge. It suffers from hysteresis and is just too useless to infer anything from.

Overcooling in this sense is not something to be concerned about.

Good luck.

 

[90lxvert13]

I put the original t-stat back in b/c it seemed to be fine, heat blows hot .

 

[RYC CUKR]

Welcome,

As Hissin said the stock gauge is notoriously unreliable. On mine when you turn the lights on it jumps up about a quarter. One of the first mods I would make would be a good set of water temp and oil pressure gauges. I prefer autometer mechanical gauges but their electric gauges are top notch as well.

 

[Shakerhood]

Sorry to kinda steal the Thread, but where are you guys tapping the sensor into for an aftermarket water temp gauge?

 

[HISSIN50]

Sorry to kinda steal the Thread, but where are you guys tapping the sensor into for an aftermarket water temp gauge?

Most of us use the stock sender location for the aftermarket piece (since it's in a very desirable spot regarding temp feedback). Then relocate the stocker POS someplace else. I moved the one on the '88 to a dead port on the back of the lower intake. This location isn't great because the flow of coolant back there kinda sucks, but it works fine for the stock gauge. Another option is to buy a chrome or cast t-stat housing and put the stocker there. The downside here is that the chrome ones leak and the cast ones rust. I used the cast unit (10 bucks at AZ) on the 94 and it's fine - paint it before you install it. This option kinda sucks because if the t-stat sticks closed, the gauge won't reflect true motor temps. Again, it probably doesnt really matter because you won't look at the stocker very often.

Yet another option is one Jrichker came up with, where you make a Tee fitting in the heater hose and install a sender there (the principle is similar to an Autometer gauge manifold if one is familiar with those).

Have fun with it E.

 

[Shakerhood]

Thanks!!!!