no temp gauge in 94 FWB wagon. Any suggestions?

I have a 94 FWB long LONG roof wagon (hearse) with no temp gauge. Anybody got an easy suggestion to install some kind of temp gauge under the dash so I'll have SOME idea of the temp I'm running especially when towing cars on my dolly. I use it as a daily driver and a shop truck. It's got 3/4 ton truck rear end w/ 3.73 gears, probably weighs around 6k lbs. ( commercial chassis ) and is super easy on fuel with the LT1. Thanks for any help, Billy

There are some pillar mounts for gauges. It mounts in place of the A pillar. I do not know if they are available new, but you can sometimes find them on the ISSF, in the parts for sale/wanted section.

There's always the one built into the diagnostics on the climate control too.

How do you get to the one in the diagnostics? I have a temp gauge, but curious how it's calibrated. The PO put in a cooler thermostat so it hasn't hit the middle temp range yet.

The Roadmaster forum has a sticky on the subject: http://www.buickforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=43614#post43614

That said, the temperature function is not available or working on all models. On my 95, the 08 and 024 registers are most definitely not related to temperature, as they rise up to "operating temperature" without starting the engine and bear no resemblance to the scan tool results (details near the end of that thread).

However, Griswald on that forum has different results with his 96. In his case, the value only rises as the engine warms up and seems to fluctuate under different loads as one might expect. The difference might be related to the addition of OBDII on the later models, but we need more people to check to see if there is a discernible pattern.

The cars with idiot lights (and some with gauges) have an on-off switch for a sender. The ones with normally operating gauges have a variable output sender. On the LO3/5, the sender is on the driver's side head, and on an LT1/L99, the sender is on the passenger's side head. If you have a gauge, and it acts like an on-off switch, you can swap out the sender, and it may work like a real gauge. The gauge sender does not go through the computer on LO3/5s or LT1/L99s.

Thanks for the info guys. Our gauge acts like a gauge, just with no markings to know the actual temp. As long as it stays cool I'm happy. I would like to remove the belt for the mechanical fan and maybe eventually go with dual electric fans, I hate the roar of the mechanical fan.

There were all sortd of hidden measures on out 2000 BMW 540it wagon that you could access if you knew how. Those ran hot and were known for cooling issues so I liked to check in on it.

Cheers,
Ian

The electric fans will roar just as much when they are working.

Probably, but there is something I hate about hearing the fan more than the engine.  I might look into a louder intakebor exhaust someday tomake it sound more like a v8 than a Zamboni.

Our 2004 Tahoe has a nice burble at idle. The Roady is pretty quiet, ell other than an exhaust leak I need to chase down.