A little scare

[tirebird]

Actually, a big scare. I was driving home the other afternoon and stopped to visit some friends who run a repair shop on a main street near my home. The Bird was idling while talking to them,..and I noticed no problems.

Next, I drove up the hill toward home, about 10 blocks and stopped to chat with a neighbor. After about a minute, he said, "wow, you're really throwing out some coolant". I looked, and I sure was. I opened the hood, and coolant was pouring out of the overflow tank. I next looked at the temp. gauge and it was at 212 deg. and climbing. I shut off the engine and took a closer look under the hood. It was quickly obvious, I threw a belt.

Fortunately, no damage to the engine. I replaced the belt, bought a spare, and added a gallon and a half of coolant. Things are fine now, but I was amazed about how fast the big block got to critical temp. I was probably only a few minutes away from serious damage to an LS-6 engine.

Now, I always drive checking the gauges. I grew up with gauges and not idiot lights so I'm in the habit of sweeping my gaze across the dash board. But, even the most careful of drivers can quickly lose an engine if a belt, or hose blows.

So, I'm thinking of installing some type of warning light/buzzer on the temp gauge or temp. sender. Is there such an item? Has anyone here done that or something similar?

Thanks.