good news - temp gauge issue solved

[BarryK]

well, after almost a year now since I had to replace my original temp sender unit that went belly up on me with a Wells TU-5 unit and dealing with inaccurate readings of 30*-40* too high I managed to dig up two used original temp sender units. Man, trying to find them wasn't easy!
last month while I was putting my motor back together I put one of the two units in hoping it would work.
It's not dead-on perfect accurate but it's WAY better than the Wells TU-5 unit was.

Here are the pics I just shot 15 minutes ago after the motor had been sitting and running up to temp for about 15-20 minutes.
*Note: since I removed the heat riser valve with the plain spacer it does take about twice as long for the motor to come up to temp.

 

[Vette66AirCoupe]

Barry,

I could be wrong, but the lack of a heat riser shouldn't cause your engine to take twice as long to heat up. It really shouldn't have much effect on the temperature at the sending unit or the radiator. The heat riser forces hot exhaust gas to cross over from the passenger side to the drivers side and out the drivers side pipe. It goes across from one head to the other through the middle of the intake manifold and consequently warms up the manifold right under the carbeurator. This helps you get a smooth idle faster. I'm sure there are more technical minds here that will chime in and be able to give you a better explanation than I have. I'm thinking it just took twice as long becauase the weather has been colder than normal and the new sending unit is reading properly which means less needle movement on your gauge. It will take longer for your car to idle smoothly without the heat riser installed.

 

[BarryK]

Terry, you may be correct. all I know is that when it was recommended to me to pull the heat riser valve that I was also told that it would take a little longer for the car to come up to operating temp. I wouldn't know one way or the other but that's what I was told.
i'm sure the cold temps here today were somewhat of a contributing factor on the length of time also though.

 

[Viet Nam Vett]

Yeah My Foot :L ....I like the .5 Degree Mark. Like those gauges are that accurate..:ugh . There crappy. I compared mine to a in water cooling system thermoter and the infered gun is not that accurate...

You can shoot the intake in three different places with in 3 inches and get three different readings. There ok for reference but to me not that accurate..

Some people say they work fine.. but that's my story above ...and I'm sticken with it..

 

[BarryK]

Mark, that may be I and I do notice that by shooting the same area I'll get a range of +/- an few degrees, but before swapping out the temp sender unit my gauge was reading almost to the 240* mark.
With a 180* t-stat and everything else on the motor such as the radiator, fan clutch, etc working correctly I should be at a normal operating temp so my whole point is the new temp sender unit is working a lot better than the Wells TU-5 unit is.

 

[jims427400]

What I can see of that carburator Barry,it looks great..

 

[BarryK]

thanks Jim
you can see the carb better here:
http://69.253.166.197/page1/page76/page88/page88.html
scroll to the bottom of the page as the carb install pics are last

 

[jims427400]

Barry, for some reason I cant open "engine painting" and "reassembly" everything else opens fine.Any suggestions..

 

[BarryK]

Jim
I don't know why.
I was just working on the site trying to figure out another problem unrelated to those two areas but maybe that was causing problems as i was working on it.
i've closed out of the site program so try again.
Maybe also try clearing out your cache first and trying the site again.

 

[JohnZ]

Barry,

I could be wrong, but the lack of a heat riser shouldn't cause your engine to take twice as long to heat up. It really shouldn't have much effect on the temperature at the sending unit or the radiator.

Correct - all the heat riser affects is the temperature of the plenum floor under the carburetor; has no effect on the cooling system at all.

 

[JohnZ]

You can shoot the intake in three different places with in 3 inches and get three different readings. There ok for reference but to me not that accurate..

Some people say they work fine.. but that's my story above ...and I'm sticken with it..

Mark, that's correct - it makes a significant difference what the surface is you "aim" at; reflective surfaces will result in an (inaccurate) higher reading on the gun. The correct place to "shoot" is on the radiator hose itself (least reflective surface), just above the thermostat housing, not on the housing itself or on the surface of the intake.

 

[BarryK]

thanks John
next time i'll shoot the hose

 

[Vette66AirCoupe]

Don't shoot the hoes, they're only trying to make a living!

 

[BarryK]

Don't shoot the hoes, they're only trying to make a living!

funny!