has any 1 hooked up a electrical temp guage in our 57 fords, if so, would u tell me how, or is mech better?, thanks Jerry
If you get 14 responses to the question of which is better, you will get 14 opinions. Mine is that I always use electrical; I like the ability to hide the wiring and if you buy a quality gage it will be accurate. The instructions will be included in the kit.
should have said i want to keep the orig guage hooked up, and 1 i can count on,
update, changed from a mech to electric temp guage, i didn't like the dial on the mech & the electric #'s were more to the center, what i did was tap a hole in the thermostate housing, in the front by the water hose fitting theres a flat spot big enough to drill & tap a 1/8 pipe tap, and the hook up is rather easy, a ground, wire to the sensor and a wire to egnition switch, & hard to see any of the work i did,
Jerry
If you taped the hole in the thermostat housing and run a thermostat it will read correct while it is open. There is enough meat in the intake maniflo on the left side just behind the thermostat housing for a 1/8 pipe thread. I run a sensor there for the electric fan.
TOM :unitedstates:
Tom, your right, its only good after the thermostate opens, & i'll bet your the 1 that told me about the drilling and taping a while back, but i didn't understand just where to tap it at, so i let it go, but the heating thing got to me, and i started things all over again, while were at it on the highway it gets up to about 200, is that a problem? jerry
Jerry
200 degrees is about the top of what I would want to see. 50% antifreeze and a 7# radatior cap will put the boiling point about 220 dregrees or better. I run a 160 degree thermostat, with a 4 bladed fan and the stock gauge goes up to about 1/3 going up the Maine coast in summer traffic it goes up to about 3/4 but the elec fan does not come on.
TOM :unitedstates:
hi Tom, 1 last maybe 2 questions, right now i have a 13 lb presure cap on the rad, what do i gain by using a 7 lb?, or is it just a relief thing?, as to the thermostate i don't know what i have in there right now, i guess it wouldn't hurt to take it all apart one more time, it does have a pin hole leak right now at the thermo about 5 drops of water in 50 miles, but after i find out about the 7lb cap, and then i'm all done, thanks, jerry
Jerry
If you have the original radiator still in the car it was designed for a 7# cap. Sometimes a higher cap will start to disform the cooling tubes. a lot of people have used 13# caps with no problems in fact you go to a parts store and ask for a 7# cap and they will look at you funny. What do you have for a fan?? 3 blade or 4 blade. My son has a 57 with a 351W and a aftermarket flex fan found with a stock fan engine ran cooler. I am not a fan of aftermarket flex fans anyway.
TOM :unitedstates: