[71_challenger]

Does anyone know if there are any issues in using a mechanical water temperature guage (from Autometer) in a 440 aluminum water pump housing? I started up my rebuilt 440 last weekend to try to break in the cam and got nothing at the temp guage. I check and verified it is hooked up as directed by Autometer. Just curious if anyone else has had any problems using mechanical temp guages in aluminum water pumps due to the different heat transfer properties. Thanks for the help.

[dave-r]

Not sure what you mean by a "mechanical" temp sender?

They usually use a stock type temp sender. The aluminium housing makes no difference. In fact it might even make it more sensitive to temp changes which would be better.

[spitfire9137]

By a mechanical temp sender, he means, there is a sender that goes into the port on the water pump housing, then there is a tube running to the gauge. Autometer sells mechanical temp gauges that work that way, im not sure how the sender works, or if you have to fill the tube with anything.

Maybe your tubing has a leak in it, or the sender or gauge is bad.

[dave-r]

Ah. I see. Like a mechanical fuel or oil pressure guage? I didn't know they did those for water temp. Seems silly to me. You could have a significant change in temp from one end to the other.

If the guage itself is not faulty (which it could be) it must be either wiring (like no ground or something) or air in the tube.

[71_challenger]

Thanks guys for the input. It is a brand new Autometer meter gauge, so one would hope that it did not come out of the box bad. The tubing had no noticable kinks or anything that would indicate there might be an issue there. I did not think that installing it in an aluminum housing would make any difference, but wanted to get some addtional opinions to make sure. I have not had a chance to do any additional troubleshooting, but I will keep you posted as to what I find. Thanks again for the info.

[spitfire9137]

I think you mis-understood me a little Dave. It is basically a pressure gauge, the sender that goes into the housing creates pressure in the line as it heats up thus making the gauge read higher. The only electric in it is for the light of the gauge. So the problem has be in the sender, tubing or gauge.

Here are the directions from autometer if I still don't make sense.

[dave-r]

Its my age you know. Get confused easily with all this new technology.

It still sounds like a stupid way to measure temperature in a car engine to me.

[ianandjess]

so if you have a leak it doesnt tell you that your cooking your motor i think it would increase the need to be vigilant with minor leaks to your cooling systemm maybe you have a small leak & are unable to get correct pressure
cheers ian