Heater hose connection - Intake

[fairlaniac]

I'm making a Tee to take place of the fitting in the image link below. I have my Sniper using one opening on the intake, electric fan thermostat off the radiator elbow to intake and only the heater fitting remains and I want to put an analog gauge for my temp as a back up to the Sniper. The extension shown in the picture, what is it's main function? I figure it's the return from the heater core, maybe it was designed to not just dump coolant back to the intake but to force it into the coolant? Just trying to figure if it's a concern without on my ne to be built Tee?

http://www.fairlanet.com/images/coolant-tee.jpg

Thanks,

[My427stang]

Just a connection to the heater, if you Tee it, and the gauge sender has no flow, but adequate access to the water, it will read correctly, and the heater will never know its there.

Just be sure that in the new Tee, your sender is touching water not just buried in brass or steel and it is not blocking heater hose flow, it'll work as you want

[fairlaniac]

Just a connection to the heater, if you Tee it, and the gauge sender has no flow, but adequate access to the water, it will read correctly, and the heater will never know its there.

Just be sure that in the new Tee, your sender is touching water not just buried in brass or steel and it is not blocking heater hose flow, it'll work as you want

Ross, This is what I've got going on. See pic link. http://www.fairlanet.com/images/heater-tee.jpg

Not a perfect solution but it will allow me to see a temp reading without power. I didn't feel like popping a hole in my intake and weld in a new bung.

[My427stang]

Looks functional to me, although I would also epoxy or solder a standpipe in it though, like a stocker. 

Not an absolute requirement, but that standpipe ensures that the heater doesn't get spiked with a steam or air bubble in operation.  Easy to do, small pipe crammed in the hole, either epoxy or solder to hold it

[frnkeore]

I think there are several problems to what your wanting to do.

1. With the heater control valve off, there will be no flow.

2. If there is flow (control valve on), it will come from the cold side of the heater core.

3. The extension on the OEM fitting, is there to help heater core flow, by acting as a siphon, helping to lower the pressure on the return side.

I think a better solution, would be to find/make a fitting for the water neck, but it won't give accurate reading until the thermostat opens. To get around that, I think they make thermostats that have bypass holes in them or you could drill one.

[fairlaniac]

I think there are several problems to what your wanting to do.

1. With the heater control valve off, there will be no flow.

2. If there is flow (control valve on), it will come from the cold side of the heater core.

3. The extension on the OEM fitting, is there to help heater core flow, by acting as a siphon, helping to lower the pressure on the return side.

I think a better solution, would be to find/make a fitting for the water neck, but it won't give accurate reading until the thermostat opens. To get around that, I think they make thermostats that have bypass holes in them or you could drill one.

There is no control valve. 60's no A/C heater. A door opens or closes to let warm air in.

This I did not know. So what you are saying, the water pump is sucking fluid through the heater core, hence your siphoning remark? I get it then about the pipe sticking down into the coolant.

I was hoping to get some kind of reading close to the Sniper thermostat, thoughts are to see how they read in the same location.

[mbrunson427]

Doug, I ran into this same situation on our Cougar, when installing the sniper. To solve it we made a thermostat spacer with a temp sensor in it.

We put the dash sensor in the spacer, the sniper sensor went in the intake. We figured the sniper ought to have the better temp reading, and the dash light is simply a hot light so it could go in the spacer. We are intending on selling these once we get our website live. For now I think we have 4-5 of them on the shelf if you need one.

Here are some pictures. There's one installed on our Mustang as well.

[My427stang]

It's done regularly in the heater hose fitting, not how I do it, I like a dedicated bung, but there are hundreds of people on EFI forums that do what you do and argue why they don't need to add a bung   It'll work

People also add it to the thermostat housing, if I did that, I would clock a small hole and try to get some flow to spray on it.  Waiting until the thermostat opens seems goofy to me as a gauge watcher

The spacer idea is a good option too, assuming thick enough not to let the NPT warp the spacer

Last, I am pretty sure the hot water leaves the intake and is reintroduced to the water pump.  That's why the tube sunk into the bottom of the plenum, to ensure it's below water line

[RJP]

Looks functional to me, although I would also epoxy or solder a standpipe in it though, like a stocker. 

Not an absolute requirement, but that standpipe ensures that the heater doesn't get spiked with a steam or air bubble in operation.  Easy to do, small pipe crammed in the hole, either epoxy or solder to hold it

That stand pipe is essential to protect the heater core. Extend the standpipe 1/2" to 3/4" from the bottom of the water jacket floor.  I used a nice pretty chrome marine fitting [no stand pipe] in my 66 Galaxie 428, Everything was fine untill I matted the throttle and the heater core let go puking coolant all over the carpet. Not knowing, I just replaced the heater core with a new one that did the exact same thing under the same circumstance. 3rd new heater core later I started looking elsewhere for the problem. From a piece of aluminum hex stock I machined a new fitting with said standpipe included. End of heater core problems. I did however become quite good at changing heater cores on 66 Galaxies with A/C [Those heater cores are behind the passenger side fender, a PITA to change] BTW, I drilled and tapped the new fitting for a 1/8" N/P gauge sending unit on top so I had another source for a electrical gauge sender. Seems to work fine.

[fairlaniac]

Doug, I ran into this same situation on our Cougar, when installing the sniper. To solve it we made a thermostat spacer with a temp sensor in it.

We put the dash sensor in the spacer, the sniper sensor went in the intake. We figured the sniper ought to have the better temp reading, and the dash light is simply a hot light so it could go in the spacer. We are intending on selling these once we get our website live. For now I think we have 4-5 of them on the shelf if you need one.

Here are some pictures. There's one installed on our Mustang as well.

See you messages, I've inquired about your spacer. You can never have too many options.

Thanks,

[cjshaker]

I just used the spot in the thermostat housing for my aftermarket gauge. I always drill a very small hole in the thermostat, which is always a good idea for letting air escape, but it also lets enough water through to get an accurate reading on engine temp even before the thermostat opens. It's only been that way for 20+ years though, so I can't comment on how long it works. 

[fairlaniac]

I just used the spot in the thermostat housing for my aftermarket gauge. I always drill a very small hole in the thermostat, which is always a good idea for letting air escape, but it also lets enough water through to get an accurate reading on engine temp even before the thermostat opens. It's only been that way for 20+ years though, so I can't comment on how long it works. 

Thanks Doug, I always put a 1/8" hole in the thermostat and clock it to 12:00. Not sure if that does anything but its what I've done for years. My Edelbrock RPM intake coolant port is where my Sniper tstat goes. In the tstat housing I have my electric fan tstat/switch so I needed one more port for an analog temp gauge.

[BigBlueIron]

I took one of those factory elbows (with the stand pipe) and drilled and tapped to bring the sensor in from the top. 5 min in the lathe and done deal.  Kind of best of both worlds if you don't mind the extra height. I will say that it looked like it would restrict some flow to the heater but it wasn't an issue on that build, and idk how much it really restricted it anyway.