Yo,yo,yo

From what I can gather from this forum, it is pretty much the consensus that the stock water temp gauge is crap. I am curious as to how bad is it?

I've heard quotes like "you may have everheated the engine and not even known it" - Can this be true?

I've just bought my FD and the lil needle always sits a little below the halfway mark. I am an avid instrument reader (love these things) and I know that it has never been higher than this level.

Am I just paranoid or are some posters just exaggerating?

M

BTW - an aftermarket WT gauge is on its way

 

needle a little below half-way horizontal = normal operating temp

horizontal needle = ok but keep an eye on it in hot weather traffic

3/4 up = look for underhood steam around the hood/headlight seams and get the credit card handy. And fer chrissake pull over...

It's an idiot light basically. Sometimes running the A/C in trafffic will push it above horizontal also.

 

Go to the following link to see a graphical presentation of the points that Toadman made about the stock gauge:

http://www.geocities.com/sdrx7_club/tempgauge.html


Go to the following link to get a "how to" on linearizing the stock temp gauge:

http://us.share.geocities.com/sdrx7_...structions.pdf

I intend to go with linearizing my stock gauge and not adding another temperature gauge.

 

When people say the three readings are "Cold, Normal and OOPS, TOO LATE!" they aren't kidding. Watching my aftermarket water temp gauge; the stock gauge will read normal (just below halfway) before the 180degree thermostat even opens and it will still read "normal" all the way up to 220F. THEN it will start moving upwards. Kinda scary. Get a real gauge whenever possible.

 

I did the mod to linearizing my stock temp gauge and it kicks ***!

I also didn't want to just add another temperature gauge.

Now my stock gauge is very responsive. I can tell when my thermostat cycles & when the fans turn on by watching the needle deflection.

You adjust/calibrate the needle to point to the "H" at either 230' or 250'.

The only problem I had was after I put everything back together.
My dash lights wouldn't work.
It took me another hour to figure out I had bumped the dimmer ****!!!!

The instruction on the site are very good.
I ended up putting the calibration box under the driver's side kick pnl.

The only thing I would have done, in hindsight, is paint out the kph band on my Speedo.
This is America Damn it, we drive in MPH!!! I think it would look less cluttered.

 

Doing something about this gauge is probably more important than getting a boost gauge in my opinion. More engines are lost to people ignoring this advice than anything else other than detonation. The difference is that overheating is easier to avoid.

 

bringing this back, can someone find some other links or something on the HOW TO LINEARIZE stock gauge

 

someone needs to say "search"

 

+1, seriously, geocities? who uses that anymore.

 

download here

 

how bout you search yourself

youll see that every link on how to do the mod is broken in every thread under the 3rd gen tech section for "stock water temp"

unless you find it in some random thread

thanks

 

THANK YOU

this should be stickied or something,
since some ppl might not want to just buy an aftermarket gauge

youre the man

 

The powers that be were given a complete list of every broken link in the 3rd Gen FAQ section and they were never removed. I can only assume they leave them there for SEO purposes...certainly is annoying at times when searching.

 

Do you follow my posts lol

 

Not a fan of of unneeded gauges but less for linearization. Alot of trouble and (as mention above) some risk. Yet resolution is iffy at best.
A decent attractive aftermarket gauge is easy, inexpensive and accurate. I would also think about whether I ever intend to get a PFC.

 

not trustworthy...mine was saying it was running cool then actually it was running 10 deg hotter!!! watch it