coolant temp sender

well i just put a 4.0 from a 98 XJ into my 92. And i cant find the coolant temp sensor that controls the gauge. On my 92 it was on the back of the head. How is temperature send to the gage on the newer engines. I was thinking of putting a sensor inline on the upper radiator hose(http://www.steigerperformance.com/PRODUCTS/pics/sp40001.jpg) . Are there any better options out there or does that sound ok

I have a 99 engine in my 96 and had the same issue. Put mine in the radiator bung, but it's not working out. Shows cold all the time.

What you are planning should work. I was thinking of moving to the heater hose. Don't forget to ground the sensor somehow.

I put a 4.0L out of a 99 Gr. Cherokee into my 89 Cherokee and ran into the same issue. I drilled and tapped for my stock sensor to fit in the same place it had been in the original engine without any issues. Don't worry about metal flakes in the coolant as the only moving parts is the water pump.

I "think in '97 and on" they switched to engine computer sending the temp signal to the gauge in the dash, so you only needed one sensor to do both jobs, instead of the older models that require 2 temp sensors (1 for gauges, another for the engine computer).

So your not going to find one on the later motors. Besides the ones already suggested, another option would be to pull the water jacket drain in the block, with some luck there will be enough room to mount the temp sensor there.

The later engines had a bung in the thermostat housing.

lawsoncl said:

The later engines had a bung in the thermostat housing.

Click to expand...

Up until I believe 96 that was only for the computer one, the gauge one was still in the back of the head. In 97+ 4.0s the one in the T-Stat housing was used for both computer and gauges.