my temp sensor only reads barely above cold but the heater puts out lots of heat my truck is a 96 with a 2.3l engine. i was told there was more than one sensor. where is the one for the gauge located and how do you make it not an idiot gauge the same with the oil pressure gauge i know about bypassing the resistor but where is the sending unit?

 

Drivers side of the block, rearward, almost directly above the oil filter. The lower one-wire sensor is temperature, and the upper, on the cylinder heard, is the oil pressure sensor.
If the temp and fuel gauges read incorrectly, it may be the voltage regulator that feeds the two a more regulated voltage instead of the varying battery/alternator voltage.
tom

 

you would think they would have the oil pressure sending unit by the filter,i wonder why they put it up on the cylinder head

 

so fine: Where did you plan on doing the drilling and tapping the threads for the sensor on the side of the block. You'd have to machine a flat, drill, tap, and make sure you got into the right spot on the sidewall, plus the change in casting [maybe done from the beginning would not be so bad] to have a 'bump' that can be machined for a flat. If you were to go into the 'bare wall', you run the risk of cracking the cast Fe. A pipe thread grows larger the further up the threads, so you are putting a load on the cast iron that can cause cracks. The temp gauge has a much larger target to get to the coolant passage. The cylinder head has a lot of machine work and apparently adding a drill & tap on the side worked well with the other tasks...
Don't ask me, I am making this up as I go along...
tom