wow you guys will not believe this one. first of all thank you to the person who pointed me to the vacume line on the passenger side of the intake manifold. That wasnt the problem but it lead me to the place where i found it. As i played with the hose as you directed, My hand was brushing up against the coolant temp sensor wires, near the connector. As i did this the cooling fan was shutting on and off and moving at different speeds and the engine was surging, also the car just turned off a couple of times. So i removed the radiator hose and disconnected the coolant temp sensor... turnes out the connectors on the inside of the plastic sleeve on the female end were pushed way back into the sleeve. I conected them wih a pair of needle nose pliers, put everything back together. Now when i play with the wires there is no odd response at all. Now its time for a test drive!! thanks everyone for the quick responses! I suppose this goes to show how much of a brick this car is commuting 50 miles a day with little or no coolant temp signal!