Temp guage and heat issues

This is gonna be a long one but if somone would tell me what the problem i would almost send them 10 bucks. In 2003 i bought a 94 splash with a 2.3. I drove it home with about 6 inches of snow on the ground. The heat would get so hott it would burn your face. I noticed the temp guage barely went past C and i also noticed it had a tranny leak.
I took my truck to a local mechanic and told him to fix the leak and get my guage to work. He installed a thermostat and a temp sending unit. Neither one fixed my guage issues and my heat suddenly stopped working.
Summer time came and i obviously didnt need heat till winter. I finished school and became a mechnic at a local shop. when winter came and we slowwed down i was gonna fix my heat. i installed a new thermostat, new water pump and timing belt, all new hoses rad. and heater core hoses and a new heater core. still this winter i froze my butt off driving to work.
My questions are what could possibly be left that would make my heat not work. and as for the guage you can ground out the wire for the sending unit and the guage sweep all the way back and forth. Winter is over now but im hoping by next year i can get some heat.

Any info would be great THANKS

That sounds like you've done everything I would think of, did you look at the air blend door to see if it was working properly? On the older models like your 94 that use cables sometimes they get old and stretched out.

For the temperature gauge have you ever taken a gauge cluster out of another truck and hooked it up, sounds like you narrowed down the issue on the engine side.

Ya everything in the engine bay has been changed. we checked the blend door nothing real extent just kinda looked in there. This may be a dumb question but let me ask you this. With the fan on off and the selector on off should anthing be blowing through the vent. Mine does have air blowing through the vent while driving even with everything in the off position. It could be the door not working right. As for the guage no i have never hooked up another one but we did ground the wire going to the guage and it did sweep from cool to hot so i tought it should be OK.

Yeah sounds like the gauge should be working but I would still try swapping a gauge cluster as a test. Then that would narrow down your problem to between the gauge and engine wiring.

If it's off it shouldn't be blowing any air, mine was doing the same thing until I fixed my blend door issue. Mine was out of a 97 so it was electrical. The problem I had was it was stuck slightly open and the D collar or what ever you would want to call it was just turning in the cylinder because part of the D broke off.

Does the air coming out of your vents increase as you accelerate?

Im thinking about repainting some of my interior piecesin my truck in the next week or so so i will swap the cluster with another one out of an old parts truck. If it is a guage problem can just the guage be swapped out of do i have to replace the whole cluster. I would much rather just change the guage and not have to mess with the whole different milage paper work crap if i ever sell it.

As for the air blowing yes the faster you go the harder it blows out even with everything in the off position.

Last question i have is in the heater hose line going to heater core there is a senser right there. i think if im not mistaking its a 2 wire plug. What is there thing. The sensor they changed was in the back of the block and thats what they grounded to make the guage sweep. i was just curious what the sensor is no parts store in my town has one.