I currently have an aftermarket temp sensor mounted to the head next to the factory water temp sensor. Max readings I'm getting there is 120F which has to be wrong since my oil temp is 220F at the same time on s M54B30.
I've read that the most accurate water temp is at the head.
Here is the location I mounted the sender. Stock on the right and aftermarket on the left.
Should I just scrap this and move it to the upper radiator hose and use the adapter below?
http://www.iemotorsport.com/bmw/2002...seadapter.html
Get rid of the hard pipe for the TB coolant lines and put the sensor at the head. With the sensor at the TS housing if your TS gets stuck closed your screwed.
Last edited by Brent 930; 07-04-2011 at 12:11 AM.
the temp is not accurate because there is no flow through the tee, so you are reading the temperature of the tee and not the coolant. The sensor needs to be *in* the head.
Are there any "free" ports in the head (perhaps a throttle body heater line that is no longer in use). If not, the upper radiator hose would work reasonably well.
Michael McCoy TRM
I used a fitting I purchased from Mr McCoy here ^ to measure temp directly in the head flow. It has a quick response and works great. If you are ok with deleting your throttle body lines then this is a great location.
Joe
I, as well as a bunch of other guys, went the route of an aluminum t-stat housing tapped for the sender. Seems to be accurate to me, I run around 205 typically when I'm cruising with a 190 t-stat.
'03 M3. Titanium Silver/Black. Bilstein PSS10, 19" VMR 710, UUC SSK, UUC LWT clutch/flywheel, UUC catback, ///Avin Avant2.
'95 S50 TI, bad weather beater, tow rig. 210hp210tq @ the wheels
OP, don't listen to clueless people. Put the sensor at the head.
I had an extra port in my radiator for the stock temp sensor that I didnt need so I am using that on my LS1 build. Totally useless until the thermostat opens but all good from there and dead simple.
Mark
'03 M3. Titanium Silver/Black. Bilstein PSS10, 19" VMR 710, UUC SSK, UUC LWT clutch/flywheel, UUC catback, ///Avin Avant2.
'95 S50 TI, bad weather beater, tow rig. 210hp210tq @ the wheels
The AL housing is perfectly reliable as long as the casting is good to start with. There are rumors of high porosity castings floating around.
- Ian
2000 M Coupe, stripped and DE prepped
46mm wheel bearing socket for rent - $30 deposit + $10 fee. PM for details.
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...uminum+housing
The housing is reliable. The thermostat itself is not. On the E46, the thermostat comes with the housing. I have not read of anyone using an OEM thermostat in place of this aftermarket one.
Again, this only applies to E46s.
I have had about 4 aluminum thermo housings. All were poorly cast. I cleaned them up with a dremel. Two did not seal to the front cover so I had to remove and seal them with gasket maker. Fresh gaskets and thermo seals were used in all cases. I no longer see any benefit to the aluminum housings. I think the plastic ones flow better because they are smoother and they seal better to the engine and they last long enough.
1. Don't listen to everyone else as they are giving you e36 advice and you have an e46.
2. Put it in the upper radiator hose as you are not getting an accurate reading. The water temp should be around 210 when the thermostat opens.
3. The other option is buy an AIM dash and it'll read the water temp through the ECU (what the ECU sees). Plus you'll get a host of other items.
4. Google "OBD II Dash". There are a few companies that make a dash that plugs right into your OBDII port. Then you can pull plenty of data off of that without having any extra gauges. Plus you can use it in other cars.
Sorry to dig up a post from the past, but I have the TRM unit as well and am having a difficult time finding a sender that works in the fitting. I have been trying various VDO senders but the taper in the adapter doesn't allow for any of the senders I have seen from VDO.
I would appreciate it if anybody could post a link to a sender they are using.
1997 BMW M3/4 Cosmos Black Luxury Package 437whp 378 ft/lbs torque Dyno Dynamics Dyno
10 psi Stage III KO Performance Vortech supercharger,
Not all sender units are built the same, what I had to do sometimes is to run a drill bit thru the adapter to make sure I get the clearance that I need to screw the sender unit all the way in.
Use a caliper to measure the O.D. of the sender unit and find the right size drill bit, keep in mind that you need 100's of an inch to make it fit.
Rafa,
BMW-PC F80 M3 HotLap │ Formula 1000 Video │ 3 Time NASA-SE GTS2 Champ │ TRM Stg.2, Coilovers & Tuning │ Racing Videos[/CENTER]
I have mine in the upper rad hose. A side benefit of having it there is you immediately know if you lose your coolant because the temp drops to around 100-120 when it is measuring air temp rather than water. I lost a hose at Road Atl because of overpressurization and I was able to pull off track right when it happened. If you pull temp from the head you have to have another light for coolant pressure.
Bringing this back alive.
Anyone has precise location where we can put the sender in the T-stat housing. I found this pic, which looks like the sender it is placed in the flow of the upper radiator hose (NOT in the direction of the thermostat opening).
housing4.JPG
This is kind of silly questions, I guess I'm wondering what the coolant flow in and out of the engine is. Based on the pic above, the upper radiator hose would carry the "hot" coolant goes in the radiator but If I understand how the thermostat works, the thermostat sensing part is in the engine head, which in this case in the flow path of the lower radiator hose NOT the upper radiator hose. UNLESS there is an opening/by pass on the block where the hot coolant goes to the thermostat side of the housing and activates it when it reaches certain temperature and retracts the thermostat open to allow the cold coolant from the radiator to go to the engine.
Which diagram is it?
This
IMG_5674.JPG
or This
IMG_5673.JPG
Thanks
Last edited by Genes1s; 03-22-2019 at 01:39 PM.
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