Flathead Temp Gauge

Does a guy need to have two temp gauges on a flatty? If I run one does it matter which side? Thanks Ryan

 

The flattie is basically two separtate halves and you should monitor both sides. I had trouble with the stock sending units on mine so I install two mechanical units, mounted them under dash.

 

i think it would be a good idea, a flathead has 2 seprate cooling systems, they are only conected by the rad.

 

Sounds good thanks for the help..............Ryan

 

Ford used two senders and one gauge.

You'll be fine with one gauge.Unless you going the Aussie Steve route.
two temp gauges belong in the department of redundancy department.

 

What if you have a head gasket taking a shit on one side? Wouldn't it have a different reading on that side?

 

The Ford temp gauge sits at the HOT position with the key off. When the key is turned on the gauge pulls toward the COLD position. In other words the current flowing thru the circuit goes towards COLD with a higher current than the HOT position.

That said the left sensor (usually on the left head) has two wires connected to it. This sensor is only a switch that is set to open at around 206 degrees. If the left head temp gets above 206 degrees the switch opens (current at zero) allowing the dash gauge to go to the HOT position.

The right head sensor is a single wired unit and actually tells the dash gauge what the right head actual temp is. This is a varaible current device with a bi-metal strip, a set of contacts and a wire wrapped around the bi-metal strip sensing the current thru the loop. As the current thru the coil around the bi-metal strip varies the contacts in the sender open and close resetting the dash gauge.

The dash gauge also has a bi-metal strip with a similar coil around it that positions the pointer. Hope this helps!

Here's a page from my Merc manual. You can right click and print:

 

Wow..........Thanks!

 

I have 3 or 4 more pages of the troubleshooting for the temp gauges. If you need them PM me and I'll e-mail to you

And you're more than welcome for the help

 

Hello

I have a question and hopefully you can guide me in the right direction...I have Baron heads on my flat head and each water manifold has its own 'port', of which right now one sensor on the left manifold activates my electric fan and the one on the right gives a temperature reading. I want to have a gauge for each head, so that means having a temperature sensor in each port which knocks out my sensor for my fan. Do you know a clean way to bring the fan back into play? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm still fairly new using this board even though I've been a member for a bit so I'm always worried I won't see a reply to a question so if you wouldn't mind you could reply to my email as well, [email protected]

Thank you very much.

Norm

 

Yes with two temp gauges a flattie owner can worry twice as much!