Temperature Sensor Wire and Engine Question

[WinslowS]

My 72 had a 400 swapped in, but the PO never hooked up the coolant gauge to the temperature sender. It has this switch:

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/pa...nsncZ91shz?itemIdentifier=128603_77401_0_5673

What kind of connector goes onto that temperature switch?

I feel with a 400 I need a temp gauge, even with a 454 radiator and electric fans(they are on a switch so I let them run constantly, I am paranoid about overheating).

I have also been having some slight engine problems.

When I have driven it a while it diesels then starts very hard. No gas pedal modulation is necessary, it just takes significantly longer to crank.

I think I have a timing issue.

 

[sweetk30]

flat spade conector that most any guy will have in his tool box.

and most 400 sbc run around 10 degres hotter.

 

[dyeager535]

Agree on spade connector. Personally I don't like that style, so I converted to a later sender (mid 90's) that has the wire as part of the sender, so it can't fall off/melt to the exhaust. But that's me. The spade style only let me down (yeah, it was the connectors fault!) when I was messing around in the engine bay. Since it was a loose fit, didn't take much to dislodge it. Can't help that the setup is what, 25+ years old?

You could save some sanity, check out the the Echlin catalog that covers coolant temp switches, there are a few that are NPT that will work to turn the fan on/off, at various temps. Not really hurting anything with it running all the time, it will simply overrun when cruising down the freeway, but if you wired a temp switch up to constant 12V (which GM did in some applications, GN comes to mind, but Monte SS too) that might help hot restarts, if that is related to a hot engine.

 

[84 k5 blazer]

I have also been having some slight engine problems.

When I have driven it a while it diesels then starts very hard. No gas pedal modulation is necessary, it just takes significantly longer to crank.

I think I have a timing issue.

Dieseling can be caused by several things, timing is one but also not running enough octane in performance engines can cause it too. My 454 was dieseling when I first put it in and after switching to 93 octane it stopped.