I have an '88 240 Sedan which will act as if it's running out of gas and gradually increase in severity over a few minutes until it completely konks out. When this situation crops up you have a mile or so to get off the road to a shady spot or out of traffic at least. If you let it sit any length of time you can restart and go again but as it heats up the cycle repeats. It is much worse on hotter days and during cooler weather has gone 3 weeks without a spec of trouble. It is definitely heat aggravated.

My question is this. Can a bad temperature sensor actually stop the engine? I have thought it might cause bad running, bad gas mileage and so forth but not actually strand you on the side of the road.

Tomorrow afternoon I am changing out the sensor from another donor engine but it may take a week before the symptom could come back due to weather conditions getting cooler now. Changing this is another plodding stab at this elusive problem after changing over the course of the summer:
Fuel pump relay resolder, etc..
Air filter new, needed it anyway
In tank pump and filter sock brand new, orig was dead
Main pump from a good donor
Gas filter new
Fuel Pressure regulator from a good donor
Swap FI computerbox from good donor
Swap Ignition ECU from a good donor
Swap complete distributer and wires, plugs from good donor
Swap Ignition coil from good donor
Cleaned 25amp fuse connector blades
Cleaned #4 and #6 fuses, holder prongs, etc
Swapped TWO different AMMs from donor vehicles, both good
NO vacuum leaks I can find yet using starting fluid spray on joints, etc
Blocked the airbox flapper open, no extra engine air heat

I have tried tons of things here but I will never give up. The temperature sensor is something I've just ignored believing it couldn't cause engine shut down like this. I hope I'm wrong and that it will be the culprit. My question restated is, .. Has anybody out there had the temp sensor cause this "running out of gas" type of symptom?

ONE more thing, measured engine head, radiator hoses, etc with one of those infrared guns.. I get readings average around 185F.
--
Genesis 7:11