Water temp sensor placement

I have an aftermarket set of mechanical oil pressure and water temp gauges in my XJ. The water temp sensor is attached to the thermostat housing via a couple of brass adapters. I'm seeing temps close to 240 before the electric fan comes on - is this a bad location for an accurate temp reading? Where would be better, if so? Thanks -

Andy

Is everyone using this location for their coolant temp gauges?

From what i know the jeep 4.0l engine has two sensors one on the end of the engie near driver firewall which is for the internal guages while the one on the tstat housing is for the compter and fan turn on. As far as the trigger temp for the fan, most ppl say it turns on at 220 but mine never does, it usually comes on when i am close to the red...or should i say when i used to have that happen.

pete

Does Jeep or any aftermarket companies make lower temp fan switches? If the fan's not coming on 'till the motor gets that hot, I'd rather run a lower temp switch. On the highway, the gauge reads a rock solid 180-185 degrees, no matter what the outside temp. If I have the A/C on in the summer, it'll get up to 210-ish if I'm in stop and go traffic, since the electric fans turn on immediately. However with no A/C, in the summer it gets a bit too hot for my liking.

How old is your fan clutch?

How old is your fan clutch?

Click to expand...

OLD - It's OEM. :gag: I know, I know - it's probably not working optimally, but I don't want to go to a super tight replacement clutch. My mileage is crappy enough as it is. Besides - while related to cooling in general, the fan clutch has nothing to do with when the electric fan kicks on...

Right, and I'm interested in this as well but I'll probably wire in a manual override for it. Mine does the same thing in heavy traffic without the a/c in the summertime, it will get up to 220 or so, but with the a/c its fine. The reason why I mentioned that is becuase if you are only overheating in low speed conditions like that if you replaced the fan clutch it very well could aleviate the problem with no need for other mods.

You could also switch over to dual electrics but be careful that you get an electric fan that is powerful enough. If I remember correctly, 3000 CFMs or higher is neccesary but dont quote me on that. Do a search if you are interested in it, theres a ton of info on the subject.

Maybe someone knows of a switch off another vehicle that contacts lower than 220F with the same mount threads. Maybe from a GM or Chrysler...???