Hi guys, i have a 94 Toyota pickup dlx 2.4l 22re 4wd 2 door short bed. I am wondering if a bad ground on the intake could affect the temperature gauge. I bought the truck a year ago needed a bit of work to be daily read so my problem is i cant tell if my motor is to cold or over heating it gets about 1/8 to 1/4 of the way to half. So i have replaced my temp sensor twice thermostat many times once to a 180 and now back to a 195 oe made by gates and i have done a water pump cause that was on its way out and didnt want it damaging the timing cover. So does anyone have an answer also using 50/50 green coolant?

 

Is it possible to have the wrong direction of coolant flow? I honestly have a lot of different years in this yoda of mine

 

Mine runs about 1/4 on the gauge, and that is normal temperature. If I stomp on it, and run through the gears, gauge goes up to about 3/8, and then comes right back down. Using the stock Toyota thermostat on my 92 22RE.

 

The factory gauge on my 92 22RE goes up exactly 1/2 way after reaching operation temp and doesn't move. I am running a 190 degree t-stat (OEM part# 90916-03078).

Use this cap on your radiator to see if your gauge is accurate: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

If youre gauge isnt going to 1/2 way when warm, you have a problem. Most likely its the gauge itself. They have coils that heat up when the electric signal increases. If this coil is burnt it wont give you an accurate reading. Going up slightly then back down is a typical symptom of a burnt gauge.
maybe you are used to a 1/4 reading. The problem is how will you know when your engine starts overheating?
you need some way of verifying temperature. At least get an infared thermometer or an aftermarket gauge.

 

Test your sensor, test your guage. The resistance curve is available and its a simple enough process.

Yes having good grounds are very important for single wire sensors.

You are aware the guage sensor is located under the plenum, near the cold start injector?

 

Yes i am aware sorry for late reply. I have replaced sensor didnt change, replaced cluster didnt change. I do have starting issue from time to time that i think could be a bad ground, also been told of intake isn't grounded right could cause issues as well. i have owned this truck 94 Toyota pickup dlx 2.4l 22re 4wd 5 speed manual transmission for a little over a year. I been battling this issue for at least half of time owned and has been a Frankenstein motor 92 voltage regulator and a 90 distributor and ignition control module and still finding out if any more is mixed in. I am gonna install a secondary temp to the block drain to make sure im not overheating. But running a 195°F thermostat, new water pump, couple temperature sensors, re wired the connector.

 

Also been battling it since water pump, thermostat, and temperature sensors replacement
94 Toyota pickup dlx 2.4l 22re 4wd 5sp m

 

Sounds like you just got to keep sorting out the gremlins.
hook your aftermarket gauge and sensor up. I have one of the common ones my 80 20r. Just make sure you get the metric adapter bc the sensor will be threaded SAE.

 

Also if you want instant answers as to what temp its running, go to the hardware store spend 20 bucks on an infared thermometer, put the battery in, warm the engine up, point, shoot, instant numbers.

 

Iirc..

There are two manufacturers for the gauges, and they use specific/separate resistance ranges.. Google should be able to turn something up about the Yakazi clusters. I don't recall the other but I want to say it was ND.

Something systematic testing would have shown. You might have a legit issue that's not a wrong part!

Start at the sensor with your ohm meter, measure resistance across the output to the sensor body, now check that against the battery ground post. If it's the same your grounds are fine.

Do similar for the sensor wires to the dash, measure the resistance at the cluster plug to the sensor lead. If they are the same it's not a fashion wiring issue..

Now test the flexible circuit board the same way, you might find some dirty or loose connections here after several decades the screws work loose.

Now your down to the guage it's self, you're gonna have to pull it out of the cluster and do the visual inspection and might need to repair it's coil. (There are posts about this issue, Google will find them if they aren't sticky posts already.)

Now if you haven't found anything to fix, you've got a sensor-guage mismatch.. Get a resistor that falls in the range your sensor shows and tack a potentiometer to it, dial in the POT untill your guage looks right and measure the resistance.. Now source the right water temp sender that matches this temp-resistance curve.. (Hint a good parts counter person can skip all that probing and fiddling around and tell you it's either part A or part B, which do you have now cause it's the wrong one?)