Rodded radiator in, gauge still a little high. Why?

Jun 29, 2006 6 Replies

Got my rodded radiator, put it in, put 50/50 antifreeze/water, let it run and get to normal temp with heater on per recommendations. Took the car for a drive. My only concern is the temp guage is still reading higher than I think it should. It leaves about 70% to last mark, or about three bars from hot. Any suggestions?



Don


Take it to a radiator shop that has a laser temp gage - they'll tell you what the true temp is. I've gone through a bunch of hoops on one car only to find that the sending unit was bad - it wasn't as hot as the gage said it was.

D> Got my rodded radiator, put it in, put 50/50 antifreeze/water, let it

Could be the gauge, I know on my Hawk I can start it up and let it run, tap on the gauge and the needle will jump to the right and stop with each rap on the glass and peg out all the way to the right. This is with a completely boiled out block and new radiator. Never had the engine overheat once. I've heard several other people state the same problem when I've brought it up.

Lee

We should all invest in

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Imagine the future... Drop in a vial of Geobacter metallreducens and wait for them to eat your cooling system clean... Jeff (It could happen..) Rice

Don,

it depends on the car. In my '55 coupe, the gauge runs at 3/4 when with my laser thermometer it says I'm just a hair under 180 degrees. I believe the gauges were originally calibrated to read at exactly mid scale with a stock thermostat, which for earlier cars was 160 degrees and the latest models 170 degrees. Since 170 degree thermostats are no longer available most people run 180s therefore the gauge may read a little high. For piece of mind try to measure the engine temp. at the top radiator tank or thermostat housing and see where you're at, either with a laser thermometer or a candy thermometer. If it's within a few degrees of the thermostat rating I wouldn't worry about it. You could put a small resistor inline with the sender wire if you want to adjust your gauge to read mid scale.

nate

At one time I bought three aftermarket temperature sending units, marked TU-2 on the box at a generic swap meet. Two made the guage read

3/4 toward hot. The other read 1/2 way up. This was with a verified 160º thermostat and a freshly cleaned block with new freeze plugs. A glass thermometer > Got my rodded radiator, put it in, put 50/50 antifreeze/water, let it

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