Camaro37

Temp gauge reads ~230*F when I shut the car off to avoid damage, however when the gauge reads 230* the pcm reads almost 180*.

Camaro37

Thanks for the info. I may have to go to the dual purpose sender like you said.

From your post you said the sender in the head should read cooler than the waterpump sender, correct? My head sender reads 50-60* hotter than the waterpump sender. Which I guess could mean that either I have the wrong sender or I have air in the engine.

If getting the head sender from the dealership doesn't work I will go with the dual purpose sender. What did you plug the hole in the head with?

Thanks again

Blk94Z28LT1

have you changed the thermostat? I would do that first, before anything else. Go with a 160*

Camaro37

Yes, thermostat has been changed, but I stayed with a 180*

Blk94Z28LT1

okay, did you bleed the system. Place a rag or towels under the one near the thermostat, open it and the other one till coolant runs out of both. I have found that sometime alternating between the two works well. Open the one closest to the thermostat, then open the other one, wait till coolant runs out of the first one, then close it and wait for coolant to run out the 2nd one. You have to do this several times.

Z28SORR

OK, as I see it you only got two posibilities. 1) The gage is reading accurately and your engine is overheating, or 2) your gage is broke.

You've stated that the gage is moving and appears to be reading the temps from the sensor, and you've replaced the sensor. So its probably good and is reading correctly.

That means the engine is over heating which would indicate no coolant flow though the heads, ie. stuck closed thermostat.

Run the engine one more time until it get up around the 230 degree mark and measure the tempature of the cylinder head on the out side using a cooking thermometer. It should read around 230 degrees.

Good Luck,

Camaro37

Well, I think I have this figured out.......maybe.

I went out and ran it again like suggested up to the 235 mark. When the gauge in the car reached 235* the PCM says the temp is 185* which means the thermostat would be open if the PCM was correct. Once the needle got to 235* it never moved up anymore and the PCM temp stayed steady around around 190*. I'm thinking the PCM is correct and the thermostat opened when its should and kept the temp steady at 235* according to the gauge but it is really at 190*.

So, I'm assuming Autozone gave me the incorrect sender. Other things that helped me come to this conclusion was that the radiator finally built up pressure and the radiator hoses were hot, none of these had happened before cause the car never got warm enough to open the thermostat according to the PCM.

For anyone who may go to Autozone for the same sensor, they gave me Wells part TU152. They swore it was the right part but as far as I can see it is not.

Anyone think I should still not drive it?

Thank you to everyone who has helped.

anaik

I would say you are alright to drive it. The Autozone sensor works only if you screw it into the intake manifold.