Parts:

Auto Meter 1436
Fitting, Bung, Weld-In, Female 1/8 in. NPT, Aluminum, Each

Took my thermostat housing down to the local weld shop and had them weld in the sender bung for 20 bucks.





Upon removing the thermostat I destroyed the threads on the intake manifold that bolt the thermostat in place. Notice the non-existent threads on the left hole.



A helicoil fixed that right up. Also brand new OEM thermostat.



Finally put back together



Now for the gauge install. I am getting a gauge pillar soon but for now this location would suffice.



Little bit of Scotch double sided sticky tape and its mounted.



How I routed my wiring.



I should've used a color that stands out a little less.

 

Cover that wire with wire loam and it will blend right in. Nice idea on the bung.

 

Now you just need to reconnect your vacuum lines.

 

Dude those butterfly floor mats are so cool!!! Retro written all over them!!!! Also did you fix that split line in pic 5? Anyway looks good.

 

I couldn't remove those vacuum lines so I had to cut them, I have since replaced them.

 

Looks great. Good work there.

I have to ask as I don't know, if the thermostat should fail to open, then the location of the temp probe wont detect the over-heating of the engine coolant, correct?

That's why the OEM temp probe is on the cylinder head side of the thermostat, right?

 

I believe that is correct, that is why I left my stock gauge operational.

 

OK, good. That's what I thought as well.

My OEM gauge doesn't work at all and I installed a Sunpro mechanical gauge in the same place as the OEM sensor.

 

Figured someone would like to see how I installed my oil pressure gauge as well. See pics.

Installed gauge sender, had to use a converter for it to fit. LCE has the converter.



I moved the stock gauge sender to the forward location right inside the engine mount, I like to have some kind of redundancy in all my gauges.



Side view



How I can see my gauges for the time being

 

LCE makes a 3 hole pillar pod for your rig for 70 bucks. would look a little tidier than having them all over the place. but looks good, i just picked up the 3 piece set of autometer gauges gonna see how to get them in on my next days off.

 

How did you ever get the water neck clean enough to weld??

Or did you just buy a new one.:jessica::jessica:

 

I just ran it under a wire wheel for about 30 seconds, cleaned it right up in no time.

 

Thanks for the post I like the water temp gauge sensor. You might want to look into getting an SR5 gauge cluster Its pretty much plug and play except you need to get an oil sending unit for the oil presure gauge to work. I replaced mine and love it you get the tach, volts, and oil pressure all in one and looks factory. Then you could put your water temp in the pilar with a vacuum gauge and something else. Just a thought.