Just a general question...

Today I was looking at a 69 Toronado that my dad's friend recently acquired. The car is completely original and has been in a garage since 1986. The car has air conditioning. While looking at the car I noticed that on the drivers side of the engine there was a strange little device either on top of or in place of the second to last outer head bolt near the back of the engine. The device looked similar to an oil pressure idiot light switch and had one wire coming out of it which lead off somewhere. Unfortunately I didn't have time to further investigate and I had to leave puzzled.

Does anybody know what it is? Thanks!!

 

Take the wire off it, then turn your ignition switch to ON. Then ground that green wire to the engine and you will see a yellow "STOP ENGINE" light go on in the dash cluster next to the "HOT" light. If it still has the original bulb it should start to flash. If it doesn't light, replace the bulb. It's a 257 bulb, though you can get by with a 194 or 168 if you have to, it just won't flash.

It senses cylinder head temperature. Toronados generally ran kinda warm underhood, and it's just one more way to idiot-proof owning a Toronado.

 

cool!!

Seems kind of unnecessary since there is already an overheat light but its still a neat accessory. Maybe some people didn't realize that when the hot light comes on they are close to damaging their engine.

I love the dashboard in the toronado...I think it goes without saying that it has the coolest speedo ever made!

Thanks for feeding my curiosity!