Pop N Wood Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 Can anyone help me figure out how to make the stock 240 temp guage work with an LS engine? Surely someone must have done it, but the search tool is not being helpful. Also, has anyone found an electric fan controller that works with the LS heads? The M12x1.5 opening is an odd duck at best. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m1noel Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 Pop, The adapter that came with my JCI kit works great, I wish the tach was as easy. Thier adapter moves the sender from the Z to a location on the lower left side of the block where a brass plug is. Then plug it into your existing z wire and it works. For the fan we used the leads from the ECM and added 2 relays and supplied power to them. Again, the fans work great. Just wish my tach would work. Sent it back to JCI this morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted December 30, 2006 Author Share Posted December 30, 2006 Ahh. Thanks for the tip. There is a water jacket plug for an engine heater there. I will pull that out and see what type of adapters I can buy to modify. Maybe do the JTR trick and drill and tap a 1/8 NPT. Trouble is John doesn't sell his "vital fuilds" kit unless you buy his mounts. How did the guys who aren't using JCI mounts get their water temp guage to work? make their own adapter? ECM pins won't do me any good since I am carburated. I may end up using a radiator probe, since it doesn't look like the aftermarket has caught up with the LS sized temp switches yet. Bummer too since a temp probe could be inserted in both heads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted January 4, 2007 Author Share Posted January 4, 2007 Made my own adaptor Drilled out the stock block heater plug using a 3/4 step drill. Then tapped a 1/2 NPT threads into the stock plug (McMaster Carr part number 2525A115), fit a 1/2 to 3/8 reducer bushing (McMaster Carr # 50785K264), then to a Sunpro M16x1.5 to 3/8 matrix adaptor I had to drill out the inside of the metric adaptor to get the stock temp sensor to fit. If I do it again I will do this with a hand file rather than drill since I didn't perfectly center the step sholder inside the metric piece. Hopefully there will be no leaks. I will probably solder the reducer to the stock plug and use some type of conductive sealant on the metric adaptor to bushing joint. Need good electrical contact for the sensor to work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m1noel Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Looks good to me. sorry I didn't get any pics to you, I came down with a nasty cold and haven't worked on the car for a few days. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted January 4, 2007 Author Share Posted January 4, 2007 Looks good to me. sorry I didn't get any pics to you, I came down with a nasty cold and haven't worked on the car for a few days.Mike Hope you feel better. My plant was shut down all last week and I got sick on Tuesday. Missed a whole week of 50° weather where I could have worked on the Z. thanks for the idear though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kj280z Posted June 20, 2010 Share Posted June 20, 2010 I would like to resurrect the original question on this thread which was - "Has anyone tried to utilize the LS1 temp sensor with the stock gauge"? The reason I ask is that even with the supplied adapters which put the sensor in the location behind the alternator, the stock sensor shoulder does not allow enough threads to bite and thus it does not work... This seems to have resulted in all kinds of ways to "adapt the adapter" which seems kind of silly when there is a perfectly good sensor already mounted on the LS Motor... Seems like splicing into the wire to get the temp gauge working off of the LS sensor would be much easier and a more efficient way to do it... Alternatively, to round out this thought... if the LS sensor will not properly operate the Datsun gauge, I'd love to see more ideas on you have adapted John's adapter to work correctly... The shoulder on the stock sensor only allows for 2 threads to make it into the adapter... It seems it was designed for one specific sensor in mind which is not the one that came on my 75 280Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m1noel Posted June 22, 2010 Share Posted June 22, 2010 I would like to resurrect the original question on this thread which was - "Has anyone tried to utilize the LS1 temp sensor with the stock gauge"? The reason I ask is that even with the supplied adapters which put the sensor in the location behind the alternator, the stock sensor shoulder does not allow enough threads to bite and thus it does not work... This seems to have resulted in all kinds of ways to "adapt the adapter" which seems kind of silly when there is a perfectly good sensor already mounted on the LS Motor... Seems like splicing into the wire to get the temp gauge working off of the LS sensor would be much easier and a more efficient way to do it... Alternatively, to round out this thought... if the LS sensor will not properly operate the Datsun gauge, I'd love to see more ideas on you have adapted John's adapter to work correctly... The shoulder on the stock sensor only allows for 2 threads to make it into the adapter... It seems it was designed for one specific sensor in mind which is not the one that came on my 75 280Z I can only tell you that my '78 sensor works just fine in the John's adapter-been 3 years now and guage works great and seems to be very accurate. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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