Stewart Warner "Wings" water temp inaccurate

Fleetside, I agree with your comments on teflon tape, regarding the thread grounding indication. I usually use thread sealant or pipe dope on fluid threads and don't recall ever having a grounding issue. I suppose anything is possible. With this little modification, I know that my water temp indication is at least a bit more accurate throughout the range of the gauge and am very satisfied with the outcome. It was very easy to do, and cheap. For those that prefer a capillary tube for it's accuracy, I can appreciate their decision, but for me, I just hate the looks of the line and the excess that needs to be coiled up under the dash. Now my gauge is maybe 8-10 degrees hotter than actual, which, to me, is tolerable. Beats the heck out of 30-50 degrees of inaccuracy.

Thanks to all the brainiacs that helped me with this. Now, I'm moving on to the damn pesky oil leak/weep whose source I have been unable to discover. There's always something. Ain't it great!

 

More to the sender problem.
I just looked at my new 100 to 240 sender.
They must keep track of what they are getting and from where.
Mine says MEX 12/02 334F 12V
So the 100 Deg mark must be around 334 OHMS, boiling water is 180 degs is 100 ohms and closer to zero thats over heating.
At room temp 900 to 1000 ohms.
Still not hooked up.

 

George, Keep us posted on the accuracy when installed, now that you have evaluated sender and gauge. However, I don;t understand the statement from your post
"So the 100 degree mark must be around 334 ohms, boiling water is 180 degrees is 100 ohms and closer to zero thats over heating"

Is the 100 degree mark on the gauge 334 ohms on the sender?
Are you saying that boiling water (212 degrees) reads 180 degrees on the gauge and the sender is reading 100 ohms? Sorry, just not sure what you are saying and would like to understand...Thanks

BOutlaw

 

I was just testing it and to see when it was at boiling temp. 100 ohms
I thought water boiled at 180 degs. in a open pan.
With voltage applyed I don,t realy know what i will read.
But adding resisters you are going in right direction.
I would NOT want my engine to ever get to 334 degs
Just reading off sender info.

 

Maybe on top of Pikes Peak. 212 degrees F at sea level.

Bob

 

I had this problem when I changed the sender on the engine. I had a different olm unit and it showed way wrong. My gauge is SW, look at the range of sweep (numbers), and then match the s/w sender to that. Worked for me.

 

You can get different readings depending on where the sensor is positioned on the engine.I have a new set of sw gauges and all will stick ,even the tack.Disappointed with sw.

 

Also disappointed with quality of mine, tach has a bent needle and doesn't read zero every time.

 

To reinforce the findings on this post I tested my flathead with generator and a new 12 volt regulator. when my regulator switches the generator output from 13 to 14.8 volts the amp gauge goes from 0 to 15 amps and the temperature gauge goes up about 15 degrees.

 

Helping a friend that's running the '31 Model A he entered in the 1964 Oakland Roadster Show, So he has had a few engines in it. Now a later 70's SBC 350, Dart heads and Magneson M220 dual blower on it. He had a detonation issue and kissed off block, heads and a few pistons, so new engine has about 600 miles on it and the Temp gauge issue with his SW, was the fluctuation anything over an idle, from 180-240, I figured air bubble some where. the actual temp is like everyone else's 185 -195. This set up puts over 500hp to the rear wheels. Here's what we found if you turn a SBC Chevy head over and look at the Small water holes on the ends (the 5/16" ones) there are 2 on one end and only 1 on the other. When the head is on the engine the left bank has 1 holes forward on the block and 2 to the front, with the temp sensor on the 1 hole end. I say this because when we had the sensor on the pass side at the rear of the head it was erratic, but when putting the same sensor on the left front hole in the head it runs between 180 and 185 all over the rpm range. I don't know why maybe turbulance in the block and heads??? I don't know but this worked for this car, and that's where the factory places the sending units.

 

5+ year old thread, great info though.

 

Well have we seen an improvement in the quality of the wings gauges over the last 5yr. Just curious, They do look good.And you really have to admint the old gauges are out of reach for most of us.

 

Got an Alert regarding my posting on this thread the other day. so re read the entire thread. Just as a 5 year update, I have never had any other issues with my SW Wings gauges. They are still in the car, water temp is still accurate as indicated in my post from 2012, all thanks to the amazing assistance I received from all the brainiacs on the HAMB. I was disappointed that all the pics are missing. They are still in my Photobucket library so am unsure why they were dropped from the thread. Special thanks to BobF for his diagram and explanation for adding the Diode and 2 ea 10 ohm resistors. Still working like a champ Bob. I ve put close to 8K miles on the car since 2012 so am very happy with "the fix". The HAMB remains AWESOME.

Outlaw

 

I had/have the same issue with mine. I didn’t read all through this post I think I read it a few years ago when trying to figure mine out. Mine is definitely voltage related I can manipulate the temperature gauge by changing the load on my electrical system even cranking my stereo will change the temp reading. It reads about 15-20 hotter than actual. I had a SW rep admit to me they are calibrated at 12V which I questioned why but he had no good answer. When mine starts to run hot I just crank the stereo and turn on the blower motor....

 

Hello Gentlemen (and ladies),

Stewart Warner has been made aware of the issue with the wings temp gauges. There are a few issues at play here and hopefully I can shed some light on things for you all.

First and foremost, there is some confusion on which sending unit should be used. The proper sending unit for the wings temp gauges is part number 280EC. The confusion here is due to the fact that this sending unit is listed as a 230° sending unit and the gauge is a 240° gauge. It has come to our attention that, as a result, some people are using sending unit part number 280EA or one of the 362 series senders which are all listed as 240° senders. Moving forward, we will be standardizing some of these parts or listing which sender is required for each individual gauge on our website and in future catalogs. It is our hope that this will eliminate much of the confusion and problems with inaccurate readings.

Some of you may have purchased the gauge as part of a gauge kit, in which case the correct sender would have come with the gauge. In these cases, we definitely would like to know if there is an issue. We have recently done testing on the sender and gauge together and typically we did not see more than a 5° variance, so if this is your situation, we definitely wish to resolve the problem.

Something to keep in mind. When checking the gauge reading, many people will use an infra red thermometer. The IR temperature can read as much as 10-20° lower, depending on where you are taking the reading, due to heat dissipation, especially when reading on an aluminum radiator. This does not account for the issue as a whole, but it is just an FYI while doing your comparisons.

I hope that this information is useful to you, and I would like to assure you that this is something that we will be working to correct.

 

Been working with Chris at Stewart Warner on this problem. Ended up putting in a 334R-D 1/2" NPT Sender and the gauge now works great, 180 thermostat and 180 on the gauge while moving. Stop & go driving and the temperature rises accordingly.