I recently put an 83 22r in my 81. I had to splice some plugs from old harness to new. Now when My engine is on my temp gauge reads normal, starts cold and slowly rises to a lil below middle. As soon as I turn the engine off, my temp gauge hits max. If I turn key off, it slowly drops down. If I turn engine on with it maxed, it will slowly drop to normal temp. My oil pressure gauge also reads off the scale. This scares the crap out of me. First time I noticed, bout crapped my pants. But motor doesnt seam to actually be that hot. I can put my hand on block, and doesnt feel TOO hot. No smells nothing. Also, I dont think Oil pump is out, and if it was I dont think it would show off scale, I think it would show nothing. I saw engine run in previous truck before purchase, and didnt have these problems. Could it be a missing ground? What do you guys think?? Thanks.

 

the stock gauges arnt exactly the best things in the world. it wasnt untill my temp gauge started to "bump" to my music that i finally decided to buy an aftermarket gauge. you can pick up a small mechanical gauge from shucks or autozone for pretty cheap and it gives you a definite number to know just how hot your engine really is. but a bad ground could be the culprit to your gauge problem, its what i tracked my problem down to being, but i didnt like the idea of not knowing how accurate my gauge really was so i decided to go aftermarket.