rollinstylee
Hard-core CEG'er
I just installed an electric oil temp gauge, and since I haven't seen a how-to for the operation on this site and a lot of people ask for installation help, here's my how-to. I installed the temp sender in the head location under the TB, which I know isn't the best place, but I am going to put an electric pressure sender behind the A/C and will probably make a guide for that when I get around to doing it. This could also apply to a pressure sender installed in the head location. Some of the pictures are less than sharp...sorry.
1) Make sure you have a 1/4" NPT fitting. My gauge came with a 1/8" NPT sender and a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter.
2) Pop the hood, loosen the hose clamp on the IAC vacuum hose, pull the hose off the IAC and rotate it up to get it out of the way.
3) Looking from the driver's side fender, locate the allen key plug in the rear cylinder head, under and to the right of the throttle body. It takes a 1/4" allen key and is easily removed without removing the UIM or TB. As long as you have the right allen key or socket, a U-joint and an extension, rotating the IAC hose out of the way makes plenty of room. I forgot to take a picture before I removed the plug but this is what it looks like.
4) Install the sending unit. Be careful not to over-tighten, as the threads of the sending unit and adapters are (theoretically) designed to give way before the block and heads. Also, electronic senders do not require teflon tape or liquid and can even suffer from a bad ground if you use these. Hard to get a clear picture of the sender with all the closer stuff around it.
5) Wiring into the cabin: You can drill through the firewall next to the hood release cable and go in that way, but I didn't feel like doing that when there are perfectly good existing holes. I went through the grommet next to the cruise control module and into the cowl, then through a second hole into the cabin. I will put a grommet around this hole once I install and wire up a pressure gauge. First remove the wiper cowl.
On my car there was a black rubber cover glued on with a very sticky gooey substance over the hole into the cabin. Peel that back and behind it is the sound deadening behind the instrument cluster. Poke a small hole through this foam and feed your hook-up wire through to the interior. Your gauge information should tell you what gauge of wire to use--this is 18.
Making sure you have plenty of wire to work with, rout to the gauge and tuck away neatly, etc, clip the wire and crimp on properly sized ring connectors. Make sure they're crimped securely.
6) Attach the hook-up wire to the sender. (Bad pic, sorry)
This is where the wire enters the cabin from the chosen hole, looking up from the clutch pedal.
7) Wiring power: It's probably prudent to disconnect the negative terminal of the battery. (I didn't do this but I was confident in what I was doing)
Drop the interior fuse box down by pulling on the black knob to the right of the box in the driver's footwell, above the clutch pedal. Choose a fuse that will receive power only with the ignition on to tap into for the gauge power. I chose the radio fuse for the sake of not tapping into a more critical one.
7) Wiring ground: If you need a how-to for wiring ground you probably won't make it this far. Go from the gauge to bare unpainted metal on the chassis.
8) Wiring lighting: Since it was late when I finished installing the gauge and I wanted to take it for a spin to test it, I just wrapped the positive line around the positive post on the gauge and the ground line around the ground post. Obviously this means the light is on any time the ignition is on. Eventually I will run hook-up wire to the headlight switch to control the gauge lighting.
That's it. Comments? Suggestions? Sticky?
1) Make sure you have a 1/4" NPT fitting. My gauge came with a 1/8" NPT sender and a 1/8" to 1/4" adapter.
2) Pop the hood, loosen the hose clamp on the IAC vacuum hose, pull the hose off the IAC and rotate it up to get it out of the way.
3) Looking from the driver's side fender, locate the allen key plug in the rear cylinder head, under and to the right of the throttle body. It takes a 1/4" allen key and is easily removed without removing the UIM or TB. As long as you have the right allen key or socket, a U-joint and an extension, rotating the IAC hose out of the way makes plenty of room. I forgot to take a picture before I removed the plug but this is what it looks like.
4) Install the sending unit. Be careful not to over-tighten, as the threads of the sending unit and adapters are (theoretically) designed to give way before the block and heads. Also, electronic senders do not require teflon tape or liquid and can even suffer from a bad ground if you use these. Hard to get a clear picture of the sender with all the closer stuff around it.
5) Wiring into the cabin: You can drill through the firewall next to the hood release cable and go in that way, but I didn't feel like doing that when there are perfectly good existing holes. I went through the grommet next to the cruise control module and into the cowl, then through a second hole into the cabin. I will put a grommet around this hole once I install and wire up a pressure gauge. First remove the wiper cowl.
On my car there was a black rubber cover glued on with a very sticky gooey substance over the hole into the cabin. Peel that back and behind it is the sound deadening behind the instrument cluster. Poke a small hole through this foam and feed your hook-up wire through to the interior. Your gauge information should tell you what gauge of wire to use--this is 18.
Making sure you have plenty of wire to work with, rout to the gauge and tuck away neatly, etc, clip the wire and crimp on properly sized ring connectors. Make sure they're crimped securely.
6) Attach the hook-up wire to the sender. (Bad pic, sorry)
This is where the wire enters the cabin from the chosen hole, looking up from the clutch pedal.
7) Wiring power: It's probably prudent to disconnect the negative terminal of the battery. (I didn't do this but I was confident in what I was doing)
Drop the interior fuse box down by pulling on the black knob to the right of the box in the driver's footwell, above the clutch pedal. Choose a fuse that will receive power only with the ignition on to tap into for the gauge power. I chose the radio fuse for the sake of not tapping into a more critical one.
7) Wiring ground: If you need a how-to for wiring ground you probably won't make it this far. Go from the gauge to bare unpainted metal on the chassis.
8) Wiring lighting: Since it was late when I finished installing the gauge and I wanted to take it for a spin to test it, I just wrapped the positive line around the positive post on the gauge and the ground line around the ground post. Obviously this means the light is on any time the ignition is on. Eventually I will run hook-up wire to the headlight switch to control the gauge lighting.
That's it. Comments? Suggestions? Sticky?