The coolant temperature guage on my 1991 Chevrolet K1500 is inoperable. Either a bad guage or wiring issue. Mr Gasket offers a radiator cap that has a built in temperature gauge. Does anyone have experience with these?
Thermo cap
- Thread starter otis24
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hi otis,
i have not tried the mr gasket radiator cap you mentioned, i googled and found what they are. it seems to me you would want to have the temperature gauge inside the cab with you so you can keep an eye on it in the event you are running hot and it can alert you to the problem a lot sooner.
i also have an older 89 chevy truck with the guage problems and the first thing i did was replace the temperature gauge with an after market and sensor that fits right into the engine. these '89 to '93 must have failures in these gauges for some reason.
i have not tried the mr gasket radiator cap you mentioned, i googled and found what they are. it seems to me you would want to have the temperature gauge inside the cab with you so you can keep an eye on it in the event you are running hot and it can alert you to the problem a lot sooner.
i also have an older 89 chevy truck with the guage problems and the first thing i did was replace the temperature gauge with an after market and sensor that fits right into the engine. these '89 to '93 must have failures in these gauges for some reason.
https://www.summitracing.com/search...roduct-line/mr-gasket-thermocap-radiator-caps
Interesting idea - I had imagined a rad cap with a built-in sending unit, but there's actually a gauge in the cap.
Probably pretty accurate, but inconvenient in that you would have to stop the car and pop the hood to read the temperature.
Interesting idea - I had imagined a rad cap with a built-in sending unit, but there's actually a gauge in the cap.
Probably pretty accurate, but inconvenient in that you would have to stop the car and pop the hood to read the temperature.
So how do you read the temperature while driving so you know it's overheating? You can get a dash mounted gauge for $25,
Even if it's accurate, it won't show relevant engine coolant temperature unless the thermostat is open, and the cap is near the radiator inlet, and the coolant level is up to the cap's sensing part.
Interesting idea but hardly new or different.
I'm a fleet mechanic. This is a pic from a yard shifter that overheated a spotter truck that has a Cummins B6.7 in it. The trucks that move semi trailers to the dock at our hubs. The truck blew a radiator hose. If you think you're going to eye a gauge all the time to save an engine, good luck.
This happened years ago and the engine wasn't hurt and the truck is still in the fleet.
This happened years ago and the engine wasn't hurt and the truck is still in the fleet.
I would think there would be a flashing light or even a buzzer when it's overheating.
Working for a competing shipper at a hub, I can tell you none of the switcher drivers pay attention nor care about those gauges. Heck, half the time they can't even be bothered to plug in the lights at night...
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Back in the stone age when my neighbour raced we had gauges with programmable warning lights. I don't remember the brand we used, but here is an example. I would get one of these. A gauge in your rad does you zero good - and won't work anyway.
On that year and engine, the cap is on the cold side of the radiator so the reading won't be as accurate as a gauge sensor in the head or intake.
If the original isn't an easy fix, it would be fairly easy to rig up an aftermarket gauge.
If the original isn't an easy fix, it would be fairly easy to rig up an aftermarket gauge.
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