i recently picked up a 93 RS and the guy had installed a water temp gauge in place of the stock one. i was just wondering what the safe operating temperature for this car is? also i noticed he wired the radiator fan to automatically come on when the ignition is in the 2nd position. is this a good idea or is it putting an unnecessary strain on the electrical system?

 

There is nothing wrong twith the fan running if your electrical system is ok. I would be curious if he did it because of overheating though. If you have a bad cooling system you can fight it by wiring your fans to run all the time. Check to make sure the cooling system is ok. Try rewiring your temp sensor plug back in to the sender if he has it jumped and see what happens.

 

i'll check the cooling system out today. hopefully its ok, however i don't even kno if i'm running hot since i only got this water temp gauge and i have no idea what temperature it should be at.

 

anyone kno what temp?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 808style &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i recently picked up a 93 RS and the guy had installed a water temp gauge in place of the stock one. i was just wondering what the safe operating temperature for this car is? also i noticed he wired the radiator fan to automatically come on when the ignition is in the 2nd position. is this a good idea or is it putting an unnecessary strain on the electrical system?</TD></TR></TABLE>

guess there is something wrong with the wiring
cause the fan should turn on automatically.
so instead of diagnosing system and actually correcting the problem
bypassed it so its up to you running a rigged system.
and the temp depends on your thermostat 160-170-180

 

damn, i really hope it isn't wired like that because my cooling system is jacked. i'm kinda worried now especially since the fan is on all the time and i think my temp gauge is reading around 190-210.

 

ok the other night i was jus driving around normally, not even pushing the motor hard and my water temp gauge was reading around 210. am i overheating?

 

someones gotta have a water temp gauge in their teg...

 

tryin again, jus wanna kno if i'm running way too hot or what.

 

stock b-series thermostats start to open at 169-176 and fully open at 194 soo..

 

ok so obviously my cooling system isn't running optimally. is my car in serious danger running around at 210?

 

210 sounds a little high, but not too far out. Does it climb any higher when you push hard? That might not be too good.

If it holds steady at 210 when you drive normal AND ALSO when you push hard, then you might check the thermostat. Or maybe it's not really 210? If he used the factory temperature sender with an aftermarket gauge, then it might not be accurate anyway.

 

so far i have not seen it go higher than 210 regardless of how i'm driving. granted i have never really driven it super hard. i'm jus worried cuz it seems like a high temp and the radiator fan is wired to be on constantly. your post brings up something i have been wondering about which is if this gauge is even giving an accurate reading. i traced the wire and its reading off of the ECT sending unit which is on the block under the distributor. is this the factory temperature sender?

 

That's where the factory sender goes. If the gauge is specifically designed to use the factory sender, then you're good. If the gauge came with it's own sender, and that's in there in place of the factory sender, then you're good.

If both gauges are wired together to the same sender, that's probably not good. But I really don't know unless you can find some kind of instruction manual for the gauge. Mfg's web site?

The absolute accuracy of the gauge is another question. If you're really worried you could take out the sender, put it in a pot of boiling water, and hope that the gauge says 212. Or compare it against a meat thermometer or candy thermometer in a pot of hot water at a couple different temperatures. If they agree, good. If they don't agree, you gotta decide which thermometer is more trustworthy.

 

well actually i only got this water temp gauge. the fool who owned the car before me actually took out the stock temp gauge and put in this autometer one. i'm assuming it must be pretty accurate considering its a pretty well known brand. what i am worried about is my radiator fan is on the entire time the engine is running and yet the gauge is reading 210. what should i do about this? drain the coolant out and refill it? maybe i got bubbles in it or something? any insights are appreciated.

 

If you know the coolant is less than 2 years old, then just check for air bubbles. They can hang out in the heater core, so turn the heater all the way to hot.

If you don't know how old the coolant is, you might want to replace it. When you measure specific gravity with a hydrometer, that doesn't tell you if the corrosion inhibitors are used up.

Autometer is good, but it depends on what kind of sender he used, too. I don't know if they come with their own sender? You said it reads the ECT sender. Technically, the ECT sensor is the 2-wire one that's for the ECU. The factory gauge used it's own 1-wire sender mounted nearby.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JimBlake &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If you know the coolant is less than 2 years old, then just check for air bubbles. They can hang out in the heater core, so turn the heater all the way to hot.
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jus my friggin luck. i can't even do this cuz my fan don't work either. i'm thinkin its the blower fan, but thats a whole separate problem. as for what my gauge is hooked up to, i think its the ECT sensor. i'll try to take a pic of it so someone can verify. btw i drove around tonite in mid 70 degree weather and the temp was 210+ sometimes! i really gotta fix this problem. i'm also wondering if maybe the problem could be my upper radiator hose. that thing looks all bloated. i'll try to get pics of that too. thanks JimBlake for continuing to help me out!

 

When you wanna bleed bubbles out, your blower fan doesn't matter. Just turn the temperature dial all the way hot. All you need is the water valve to be fully open.

The ECT sensor has a plastic plug with 2 terminals. The sender for the temperature gauge has 1 terminal, and it's smaller.

If your upper radiator hose is bloated, get a new one. It just might be that the layers of the hose came apart. Outside is bloated, inside is collapsed, and not much water gets thru. But if that were true most likely you'd get a lot hotter than 210...

Inspect ALL your hoses & replace questionable ones. Maybe replace them all? Anybody know if some hoses just last forever so you don't have to replace them? This might just be a clue that your coolant is more than 2 years old anyway.

 

ok, i been drivin around with the temp dial on hot for a few days now. when i do so, the temperature stays below 210 so i'm happy about that, however if i put the temp back on cold, the water temp goes back to 210+. i guess bubbles weren't the problem? gonna replace the upper radiator hose next. i'm really starting to wonder about the accuracy of this gauge since i swear i see it bouncing a little sometimes...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 808style &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok, i been drivin around with the temp dial on hot for a few days now...</TD></TR></TABLE>That must be brutal...

Does your engine have a coolant bleed valve? Bubbles from my heater can just move to the head where I can get them with the bleed valve.

Now if your temperature comes down with the heater running, that means your radiator isn't cooling properly, or your hoses are blocked. When you change the hose, take a good look inside the radiator. Scale or crud deposits inside?

Take a knife & dissect the old hose. Are the layers separating? If you don't find something to block the flow, then you might not have fixed it yet...