The connector on the back of my water pump housing and the actual sensor are all jacked up, more or less broken with age. Is this a critical component for the ECU or I can just not even worry about plugging them together?

This is a full blown race car, never seen the street nor does it have stock instrument cluster. I wasn't sure if the ECU relied upon this sensor for anything critical?

 

It's the water thermo sensor. The temperature information it reads is sent to the ECU, where it can lean out the mixture when temps are high. Apparently the main change is at about 120 F, which is below operating temp. Check out the FSM to see if it's possible to just connect the 2 wires and get the ECU to always adjust the mixture for hot conditions.

 

Thanks for the info. For what it's worth, since this is a race car water temps are always between 180-220 depending on if it's a 35 degree January race or 100 degree August race.

 

I replaced that part a few weeks ago, costs all of like $10 from pepboys, just replace it and have it done right.

It can cause problems with rich/lean conditions if not right.

 

This can affect cold starts most notably. You better fix it.