4.8 l swap in a 81 El Camino

[Ferret Lady]

Hello folks I have had a 2005 Chevy 4.8 L engine put in my 81 El Camino and I need some help. I am wanting to use electric fans and a Auto Meter water tenperature gauge. And I was wondering if I could hook these up to the factory engine coolant temperature sensor wires, these would be the yellow and gray wires? Would this damage the computer?
I can only find one other place to put a sensor and it is very close to the AC box. Also I think it is a 12 meter. And the fan and temperature gauge both use pipe threads. And useing a adapter only the very end of the sensor will be exposted to the water
Also where can you put in a oil pressure sensor on this engine?

Thanks far your help.

[Firebirdjones]

Well, you ran into the same thing I did and here is how I solved it.

I didn't like the adapter idea for the water temp either, and I needed pipe thread for the sender, not that metric junk. So I simply drilled and tapped the head to fit my pipe thread sender,,,now I can use my factory gauge in the truck,,,,first here is a pic of the metric plug and the factory hole....



Here is the difference in size. That's a 1/2" pipe thread sending unit.



And here it is installed in the head after drilling and tapping, also pictured is the drill bit size needed for 1/2 " pipe tap.



That took care of the temp gauge. I still have the factory temp sending unit on the driver side head to work with the computer, so I can run a factory electric fan setup as well.

On the oil pressure, rather than deal with the sending unit on the back of the intake I took a much simpler approach.
I simply drilled and tapped (1/8" pipe) the small bolt on cap right above the oil filter. My truck happens to have a mechanical oil pressure gauge, so I just have to run a simple line. But this trick would also work for an electric sending unit as well.




Hope that helps.

[pajeff02]

Very slick, FBJ. I especially like the oil sender solution.

[Firebirdjones]

Very slick, FBJ. I especially like the oil sender solution.

Thank you sir, one of these days I'll get the swap done . Seems I can't win right now, since the motor in my truck let go a couple weeks ago. So I have a 502 crate on the way to replace the tired 454 Gotta do that one first and put the blazer on hold for now.