ok so i cant get no help over on the third gen board figured maybe you guy might have some info for me. well it all started when i did headers on the car i guess the guy i hired disconnected the coolant temp sending unit and he must have broke a piece off the pig tail because i could no was connect it back to the sensor in the block. so did research and i called gm and they said there was a new style blade terminal sensor and also my pin style sensor and even a piggy back to make the blade pig tail work on the pin style pig tail(which is what i assume i had before it broke cause i couldnt not plug anything in to my current sensor. i went and bought the new style blade terminal sensor hooked it up and the gauge in the car finally had life EXCEPT FOR the fact that the gauge was showing overheat in a matter of 5minutes and at 185 degrees the radiator hoses where ice cold,, now i know its not overheating it was in perfect working order before the headers. now another thing to mention is the stock pigtail sensor was melted and crumbled away which left me with only a metal tab left to push on.. my question is number 1,, could i be picking up the ambient air temperature around the header primarys and tricking the guage. number 2 do i have the wrong style sensor in there. and number 3 if a motor over heats arent the hoses going to be hot how can my guage read 185 and my hoses be ice cold and not to mention the overflow still on cold fill,, i know something stupid is going on,, hopefully one of youg uys might have some info,, its an 1987 tpi 305 motor,, driver side sensor in the head!!!!

 

first. may sound dumb, but i have run into a few people.. your engine is full of coolant right? second I am not sure about the sensor.... generally putting the sensor that was stock back in and replaceing the pigtail is ideal. less things to go bad. As for the question on overheating and ice cold hoses. Perhaps your thermastat is stuck closed. if it is, you will not circulate water through those hoses. So the hose may be alot cooler than the engine perhaps.

 

its full of coolant,, but after 5 minutes of running??? theres no way to get water 260degrees after 5 minutes of running,, oh and when i turn the car off and back on the gauge starts out at like 100degress something is really screwed up.. i just bought a radiator/temparture cap maybe i can tell that way

 

I would have to look at mine. if it was a 2 pin ( with 2 wires then one was a ground) if you put the blade one in .. is it a single wire? if so then it could also be a bad ground, as a one wire sensor uses the block or head as the grounding point. Did you use teflon tape on it when you put it in?


(also, I have 2 sensors on mine. one in the head and one in the radiator.. the one in the head actually hits 220 while the radiator one satys at 190. Both of them ge there within 5 to 10 minutesw max)

 

i did use black silicone!!!!!

 

well the reason i say that is because before i did all this header work, the guage used to take at least 10 to 15 minutes to reach 185 idiling now the gauge flys up wayyyyyyyyyy quicker

 

That right there is your problem. if you used the single wire sensor it is not grounding properly. You have to remove all that silicone from the thing, clean it up. and put it back in there. the sensors are made so you do not need sealant on the threads. the threads HAVE to touch bare metal to metal.

If it does not ground right it will read very high. (since the hotter the sensor gets the more resistance it has IIRC) Therefor with it not ground right it shovesw it all the way up right away

 

ok soooo that would make the temp fly up then cause i clean that off tommrow and get it done

 

yep. if there is no metal to metal contact it will make it hit full resistance and throw the guage to the top. you have a grounding issue. clean it off and it hould be ok.. report back with results lol.

(I have had the same issue in my 1984... thats why it has two guages. one digital in the cluster now, and one analog.set to the side... drove me crazy for a bit but that was my problem too. previous owner had used teflon tape.. and alot of it)

 

Radiator? There is a sending unit in the driver's side head which
connects to the gauge in the dash (it has a single lead). The 2nd sensor,
which is located at the base of the water pump, feeds information to
the PCM:

http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html#ect

The sensor in the radiator is the Coolant Level Sensor:
http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html#low_coolant_lamp

 

thanks for the help,, ill let ya know how it goes

 

Yes radiator.. we are not talking 4th gens. If you read his an a 1987 camaro with a 305.... Mine is a 305HO with a carb.. there is a coolant temp sensor in the radiator, and there is one in the head. the one in the head is stock. the one in the radiator is not. However the 83 camaro I have the sensor is indeed in the radiator. then again. the sensor CAME with the new radiator. so I figured I might as well use it.

 

Easy to get caught up when threads are posted in the wrong forum.

 

thats true.. but you just have to read the last line of the post. hehe.

 

hey moderator thanks for moving it off this board,, because in fact this was the ONLY BOARD WHO HELPED ME should have left it alone i did that for a reason