OK.. so while I do love the wright up and the pictures and yes the engine is ridiculously clean.... but, what is the difference/advantage of going this route as opposed to the scangaugeII or Ultrascan. It would seem to me that while it is neat it was alot of work and about the same cost, time not included in the cost of the scangaugeII. Please if I am wrong help me to understand. I love to learn.

 

OK I finally got around to looking at my spare block. The passenger side drain plug looks like a place you can insert a heat sensor. There is 1 1/4" depth available, I stuck the back of a 5/16" drill bit in there to measure. The thread looks like 1/2" - 20. The drain plug takes a 3/8" open wrench.
To find it on your engine look down the gap in the exhaust manifold directly below the center head bolt, you will see the knock sensor behind the starter motor heat shield. About an inch forward you will find the drain plug.
Hope that helps.

 

It's like getting a second opinion from a doctor....
Scan/ultra gauge gets the temp reading from the stock temp sensor. Since these engines like to over heat it is not a bad idea to have an independent temp sensor and gauge.

 

I actually looked at it on an engine sitting on the floor of British 4x4 here in Jax this morning. As it turns out, it won't work for a number of reasons. Firstly, the thread pattern is wrong so there would have to be an adapter. Secondly, it would give an artificially low reading because of where it sits with regard to the circulation of the cooling system. I learned this morning that the factory sending unit actually has 4 pins for sending data, but only uses two on the Bosch D2. (It's the same sending unit as on the Range Rover which uses all 4 pins.) On the D2, pins 3 and 4 are used (if you unplug it you can see that the pins are numbered at the bottom). Pins 1 and 2 can be tapped for an additional electronic sending unit. Pin 1 must be grounded (the sending unit does not ground itself to the block like some do) and Pin 2 will be the wire that feeds your temp gauge. The problem is, the resistance range for the factory sending unit is 186-18, and that isn't compatible with the glowshift gauges. The technical support guy from glowshift suggested a T-fitting to use the same port for both sending units, but I don't think there's room for that.

 

I see, interesting point about the stock sensor. A T fitting will also skew the temp readings since you are not getting coolant flow around the sensors.

 

Yes, as much as I despise the in-line hose water sender attachment, it is starting to look more and more viable.

 

I could not find a place for an aftermarket sender on the block where I would have preferred so I had to put the water sender attachment inline with the top hose, I hated adding two more hoseclamps to my system. But im happy I have a gauge to see what is going on..at least according to my top radiator hose..

 

How close is the reading from an aftermarket gauge connected to the top hose like that to what the truck says when connected to an OBD scanner?

 

Good question, will reply when done. unless someone else can chime in?

 

I found this thread interesting/helpful, I've installed the temp gauge in mine. I remember reading in the posts that there was no place to get the illumination dimming function to work. I looked at RAVE and then tested fuse #33 and it only powers up when the lights are on so I used that for the orange wire that dims the temp gauge when the lights are turned on. Just thought I'd pass it on (unless I missed this being said in the posts, in that case, "never mind")