318 Temperature Gauge Port

[B3vedere267]

Hello!
I just recently picked up a 1967 Belvedere II equipped with a 318. This is my first venture into the Mopar world. The cars original gauges do not work. I bought a 3 gauge cluster. My question is, where is a port that I can put in the Temp gauge sending unit? The only one I can locate looks like the factory hole in the front left as you look toward the engine. It appears to be electrical and not big enough for the sensor. My intake manifold doesn’t have the port on the right side of the thermostat housing as I have read about on others cars. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Eli

 

[YY1]

Pic of intake would help.

 

[YY1]

...and congratulations on a cool new (to you) car.

 

[B3vedere267]

here are some pictures of the intake. Thanks! Hopefully start a build thread soon.

 

[YY1]

What's this?

Another option might be one of the block drains.

One on each side near the bottom of the casting?

 

[B3vedere267]

What's this?

View attachment 1161564

Another option might be one of the block drains.

One on each side near the bottom of the casting?

I took that out and it appears to be an intake passage…I for sure know not a water outlet. That would have been too easy!! I will look at the drains on the block. Thanks for the idea!

 

[krazykuda]

Hello!
I just recently picked up a 1967 Belvedere II equipped with a 318. This is my first venture into the Mopar world. The cars original gauges do not work. I bought a 3 gauge cluster. My question is, where is a port that I can put in the Temp gauge sending unit? The only one I can locate looks like the factory hole in the front left as you look toward the engine. It appears to be electrical and not big enough for the sensor. My intake manifold doesn’t have the port on the right side of the thermostat housing as I have read about on others cars. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Eli

I drill and tap my own hole for the mechanical temp sensors... Right in the water port next to the thermostat just off to the driver's side... I like that position because it is accurate for what temp the thermostat is seeing...

You have to be careful when tapping the hole, pipe taps have tapered threads... If you go too deep with the tap, the sensor bushing will sit too low and bottom out in the port before tightening up... Drill the hole for the tap, then tap a few threads, then check the hole with the bushing and the sensor hand threaded down in the bushing... If it's not right, tap a couple more threads deep and re-try fitting the sensor and bushing in.... You don't want to bottom the bushing in the tapped hole as that will be too deep, just enough to get the bushing threaded in to the bottom of the metal in the top of the water port wall... Just take it slow and easy as you tap the hole for the bushing so you don't go too deep with the tap and open the hole up too wide...

Plus by making the mechanical gauge sensor a separate hole, you can run the stock temp gauge and aftermarket gauge and see how well they correlate... I know you said that your stock gauge doesn't work, but I like to run dual temp gauges like that on my cars just for a double check on the temp...

Notice on the first picture here that the temp sensor bushing is not all the way into the hole... This is how you want it....

 

[krazykuda]

I took that out …

You took it out???

 

[B3vedere267]

I drill and tap my own hole for the mechanical temp sensors... Right in the water port next to the thermostat just off to the driver's side... I like that position because it is accurate for what temp the thermostat is seeing...

You have to be careful when tapping the hole, pipe taps have tapered threads... If you go too deep with the tap, the sensor bushing will sit too low and bottom out in the port before tightening up... Drill the hole for the tap, then tap a few threads, then check the hole with the bushing and the sensor hand threaded down in the bushing... If it's not right, tap a couple more threads deep and re-try fitting the sensor and bushing in.... You don't want to bottom the bushing in the tapped hole as that will be too deep, just enough to get the bushing threaded in to the bottom of the metal in the top of the water port wall... Just take it slow and easy as you tap the hole for the bushing so you don't go too deep with the tap and open the hole up too wide...

Plus by making the mechanical gauge sensor a separate hole, you can run the stock temp gauge and aftermarket gauge and see how well they correlate... I know you said that your stock gauge doesn't work, but I like to run dual temp gauges like that on my cars just for a double check on the temp...

Notice on the first picture here that the temp sensor bushing is not all the way into the hole... This is how you want it....

View attachment 1161682 View attachment 1161683

Do you usually drill and tap while on the engine? How do you control the metal shavings? Greasing the drill bit and tap? Thank you for the reply!

 

[YY1]

IIRC, there is a special fitting that both adapts the size of the bung and extends the distance to get the correct depth.

...or my mind could be cooked.

I seem to remember one of my aftermarket gauges coming with one.

 

[HALIFAXHOPS]

Hey with the factory guage does the gas gauge work also? If not it is as simple to fix with a current limiter.

 

[YY1]

Third fitting on right-

 

[krazykuda]

Do you usually drill and tap while on the engine? How do you control the metal shavings? Greasing the drill bit and tap? Thank you for the reply!

No, I drill and tap with the manifold loose and dry...


But if you do it on the engine, leave the radiator cap on and when you break through into the water jacket, the coolant should push the chips out when you drill it....


Then drain the coolant and tap the hole... Any shavings that fall through should be able to be removed with a shop vac and a small pencil attachment....

But the safe way is to remove the manifold before drilling a tapping to be sure no chips get in the coolant...

 

[krazykuda]

Third fitting on right-

View attachment 1161923

No, middle fitting is the one to use for the temp sensor..... But you can't let it bottom out when threading it or the sensor will hit the bottom of the water port...

 

[YY1]

No, middle fitting is the one to use for the temp sensor..... But you can't let it bottom out when threading it or the sensor will hit the bottom of the water port...

Yes- The third fitting is the adapter to make the aftermarket mechanical sensor fit in the smaller, factory electric sensor hole on the manifold.

Not a perfect solution, but saves from drilling into the intake and potentially leaving chips inside, or removing the intake.