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ok so i finally got my KLZE in with the straight neck IM ... it looks and works like a dream... sorta....

so i dont know what the issues are of having a new engine in place but ill pretty much lay down the skinny...
i got a 92 with the klze swap with straight neck IM
je50 is in there with a now short ram intake
k8 ECU
the tranny got swapped out for a klze 5speed
and i believe it has a stock clutch.. (yeah yeah i know its sketchy)
as for anything else engine related its all stock parts at least to my knowledge

my engine temp gauge, gas gauge, and clock are busted....

so heres the big issue... when i drive around theres a little trickle of smoke that comes out from under the hood... and it seems that it may be overheating cuz you can see the heat waves coming out from under the hood...

now im totally paranoid of my engine burning out so i bought some aftermarket gauges i got an oil temp gauge and water temp gauge to replace the busted one....

anyone have any ideas about what the problem might be? and also how do you wire up the aftermarket gauges...

i would NOT drive it until you get your temp gauge wired up. that's kinda an important thing to know...

if you are overheating -- and it sounds like you are -- it's bad thermostat or water pump or blockage somewhere. or low coolant. that's about it

I would check the most obvious and make sure you don't have air in the coolant hoses.

Look right below your the front of your throttle body on the side of the head. If there's a open hole there plug it with a short bolt or use the plug out of you K8. It's a part of the EGR system in the head and as one can never be totally sure these days there is a chance the exhaust is leaking out there.

ooh definitely a good point, dan. if it's jsut exhaust that's leaking, then that would account for both the smoke and visible hot gases

if you can see hot gasses then you should see where they are coming from, though if your overheating it wont look like white smoke it'll look like white steam and it wont be a little it'll be a lot and generally you will only see this steam coming from the reservoir (assuming you don't have one of those caps that release pressure or have any leaks in the system). Sounds like to me you have an exhaust leak somewhere and that's what your seeing. But again i'm with everyone else, don't drive your car till you get a temp gauge working, you just did the swap, you don't want to kill it before you really get to play with it.

i just came back from the mechanic and he was telling me that the smoke is and should be coming out from the transmission because the clutch is stock and not strong enough for the engine and that i should be using a racing clutch or something along those lines :/
cuz its a light smoke and smells like burning plastic... any points on that?

well you did the 5 speed klze swap then that clutch should be for it, but i wouldn't of used a stock clutch especially a used one

but do you guys think that it would be a cause for smoke or heat waves coming up

lol you ever touch your motor after running it for an hour or so lol, theirs a lot of heat coming off that motor, the smoke could be a exhaust leak. I live in GA and see heat rising off from most of my cars so i'm sure you could see heat waves off yours.

If it was overheating the mech that told you it was the clutch should of instantly saw that. unless he was a moron

I can instantly identify any smell an engine makes, and any decent mechanic can, too. If it is your clutch, he would smell it.
Unless you are new to driving, you should be able to tell if your clutch is slipping. I don't know about this car in particular, but I don't think a slipping clutch would cause as much heat as you're describing, unless you're burning it badly. You'd have to be a fool to burn it that badly, and not know it's slipping, so I think it's something else.
Didn't those gauges come with instructions?

well is smoke or is it steam? if it stops steaming it means there is nothing left to steam, not that your problem fixed itself.