Installed Custom X Pipe Exhaust and Now Engine Overheats

Phreakish said
Sounds like further diagnosis necessary. Without independent verification of the engine temperature, it could be any of the sender/gauge issues you raised.

Without knowing what else you may have touched while installing it, or where the welding leads were attached, it's tough to say if something else might be up.

Without o2 measurements, it's tough to say if it's gone lean. This could even be confirmed if you had ir temperature measurements off the exhaust before/after. If you were leaning out from the X pipe alone, you'd likely feel an unquestionable difference in the performance.

Just wanted to note, that I installed the custom X-Pipe due to my crappy installation job of the Jeg's A-Body exhaust kit (driver's side pipe was hitting the body, and the tail pipes were hitting the leaf springs) and for better performance.

Funny that you mention O2 measurements. I don't know what they were before, but I'll know soon enough what they are current. My new AEM A/F gauge should be delivered today. That should at least tell me if I'm running lean. I do need to weld in the bung and wire it up.

Performance wise, even though the guage is telling me it's hot. It drives GREAT. It's a manual trans car, so transition from a dead stop to cruise speed is good. Acceleration is good too.

I guess I was hoping for some confirmation that these two events are no way related and it was just a coincidence.

You did mention the welding leads. My guess is that it could have blown out some circuitry somewhere? Maybe blown out the factory temp gauge? Is that where you're going with that? I do have spare I can test.