Hey guys new here and I got a question..

My old engine finally gave up the ghost after 292k .. I was trying to hit 300k on the original but she just wasn't having it..

so I went out and got a good used engine from a yard "it came out of a wrecked truck with 84k on it" engine still ran and sounded really nice...I went ahead and did the "while I was in there stuff" and did the usual timing chain kit,oil pump,plugs,wires,coil pack,water pump,exhuast manifold gaskets, intake gaskets rear and front main crankshafts seals etc etc.. and stuck the engine in.. got it all bolted up and was underneath bolting down the motor mounts and buttoning up the underside when I noticed the CHT sensor plug was off.. so I reach up to plug it in and off comes the plug no warning..

no worries I say.. went and grabbed a new one from the parts store and unscrewed the old one..

screwed in the new one and that's when disaster struck.. spun it down by hand and grabbed a wrench to snug it up and it just broke flush at the head..when I say I wasn't even putting pressure on it I'm serious I wasn't I'm not scared to admit I goofed up.. looking at the sensor the walls are paper thin inside where they drilled it out to insert the sensor itself so its no wonder it broke. tried the usual easy out.. nope the walls are so thin it just crushed it inside and made things worse..



now if your familiar with this truck this sensor is on the left cylinder head and its not exactly in a good spot to get to at all.. drilling out the sensor is out of the question because its facing the firewall and would require me to pull the engine back out to do it.. not what I want to do at all..

now looking at the other engine and the head there are 2 threaded holes back there the lower one is the spot for the sensor and the top one is unused..

since I cannot get the other part out can I just screw the new sensor into the top hole and call it a day?? the sensor does not seem to intersect a coolant passage so it would seem that I could just thread it into the other hole and be done..

but I figured I'd ask you guys first.. what do you think? should it be fine?
I'm attaching a pic I found on google that points to the sensor and you can see the top hole I'm talking about as well.. any help would be great.. thank you.

 

just an update for anyone who may need to know..installing the sensor in the top hole seems to be just fine no issues. it has clearance so it doesn't interfere with anything in the other hole.

 

For others, if you too someday have a momentary brain dropout, and tighten a plastic sensor with a wrench as if it were metal one, all is not lost.

Once I was replacing a transaxle speed sensor, used a socket wrench to take old one out, spun the new one (plastic) in by hand, was going to use a deep-wall socket to just snug it a little bit. Just then got telephone call, was on it for a while, when over, got back to work. Wasn't thinking then, tightened it... broke it off flush with the case. In a really hard to get at spot. CRAP!

Used inspection mirror and light to look at it. If I could just grab it somehow from the inside, maybe I could unscrew it. Tried two short screw drivers with the shafts crossed to try to grab some of its guts, no go.

I went to my rubber hose collection, and found a hose that could be jammed tightly inside of it. There was so little working room, I couldn't get a good hold on the hose to unscrew it, while pressing in tightly. So I cut the hose off short, and found a socket size that the hose would have to be really rammed into to fit. Then turned socket with hose in it with a ratchet, while pressing in to the sensor with it with all my might (which wasn't much one-handed in a tiny space at that angle!). It worked! I was able to unscrew it!

 

good story man.. this sensor was all metal even the part the wrench goes onto it just had a plastic electrical connector on the back of it.. the stupid thing was they drilled out WAY WAY WAY to much metal to insert the bare temp sensor into the body of it.. if they would have left 1/16 inch more metal it would make the part 100x more stronger but no.. they drilled it out till it almost eats through the outside and then stuffed the sensor inside "with no thermal compound mind you" just rattling around inside of a cavity inside the "bolt" that screws into the head. makes my brain hurt how cheaply everything is made these days.