Hey guys, been browsing the forum for a long time and finally just signed up. Hoping I can get some input on an engine I'm building for my '64 Biscayne. I'm towards the end of my build and trying to get all the little stuff sorted our but having some trouble with some minor details. Engine is a '77 Chey 350 and I have a Weiand intake on it with 2 NPT fittings up front, water neck has one as well. I have a temp sensor, a heater inlet, and a sensor for the electric fans that all need to be in these spots, but the only way everything fits without any clearance issues is by having the heater inlet on the water neck (see photo). The fan sensor is the only one that fits on the right without hitting the upper radiator hose and the temp sensor bottoms out against the thermostat if it's in the water neck so this is really the only way I can do it. Now, I don't think this will cause any issues but I figured it wouldn't hurt to run it by the folks here just to be sure since I don't recall ever seeing a setup like this. I've explored some other options for a water neck angled differently and/or spacer with NPT fittings built in, but I'd rather run with what I already have if possible. Thanks for any input you guys can offer.
Bad location for the heater hose in the thermostat housing. Plug that hole or get a housing without tapped holes in it. Heater hose should come out of the runner on the intake where the sending units is on the passenger side. Move that sender to one of the heads. Sent from my Moto G Play using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
That's about what I was thinking, just needed to confirm before buying even more parts. Thanks greybeard.
ditch the electric fan, and put the heater fitting where it belongs. Or put the temp gauge sender in the driver side head. If it's a small hole and the sender is large diameter, spend some time on a lathe and make it so it fits. I think the 77 will have the large hole, but it's been a few years since I worked on a 1977, so I could be wrong.
Heads are '66 "double-hump" 462 castings, didn't see anywhere to mount a sender but I can look again. Not sure I'll have room for a mechanical fan with the long water pump, but I do have one so that's still an option. My initial thought is just to add a water neck spacer and eliminate the clearance issues. That'd give me somewhere else to mount the fan sensor too.
Oh, yeah, no holes on the heads back then. You said 77 motor Put a short pump on it, like it's supposed to have in 1964. But a fan should fit anyways, they had a really long fan shroud on the 283 with the short pump.