Today I wrapped up the latest project, installing some new gauges to get better readings from the car.  I picked up a triple gauge A Pillar pod from GlowShift along with Water Temp, Fuel Pressure and Trans Temp gauges.

Here is a shot of the items after unboxing.

  

 

I had to make a new access point in the firewall in order to run the sending unit wires since there is no open areas in the driver’s section of the dash.  The most difficult part about this was actually drilling the hole since it was like working on a puzzle trying to get the drill in the cramped spaces.

 

And  here is the absolute mess of wires before I put the A Pillar back into the car and ran the sending wires.

 

The Fuel Pressure was easy enough to install since all I needed to do was remove a schrader valve at the end of a fuel rail, screw on an adapter and install the sending unit.

The new Water Temp unit was a whole other story.  I couldn’t just replace the stock sender as the PCM would freak out when it was no longer getting a reading.  So I had to use another location on the other head.  Which happened to be allllll the way in the back and a pretty big pain in the ass to get to with the head still on the engine.  So after removing the coil pack and much cursing while trying to remove the plug without actually being able to see what I was doing I was able to get it out.  So after about a quarter of my coolant vacated the block I installed the new sender and ran the wires for it.

 

I spent a good couple hours trying to install the Trans Temp sender without luck.  My hands are simply too large to fit in the space where the pressure test port is on the trans.  This one will have to wait until I drop the trans to install a new torque converter.  I will likely swap the pan out at that time as well and just tap the pan for the sender location.

Here is a short video of the gauges after I wrapped up the install.

I also found yet more wires not connected to anything when I pulled the dash panels off.  It is a miracle that this car actually operates with as many cut and disconnected wires I am finding through out it.  No idea what they go to so I will have to do a little research.  Also if you look in the upper left corner of the second picture, you will see the grounding nut that has a ring connector on it with yet another pair of wires that were just cut off and the connector left there.

  

The other surprise I encountered when pulling the panels off was the spare ignition key for the car.  What it was going hidden in the under dash panels is beyond me.  It was also wrapped in electrical tape for some strange reason.

 

I went for a little test drive afterward and to show how lax and inaccurate the stock water temp gauge is, the new one was reading as much as 30* difference when cruising down the interstate in the cool night weather.  The stock gauge basically warms up and sits at 210* unless something goes horribly wrong and by the time it starts to move it is already too late in most cases.