In Line Water Temp Sensor

while not a direct answer, here is an informative article on Veglia temperature gauge sensors
http://www.panteraplace.com/page205.htm

Is the in line sensor you mention threaded into a bung on a steel pipe somewhere in your coolant system? If so, why not just install the proper Ford sensor in the already existing threaded bung?

Wrong threads? Find the proper adapter and this sounds like a easy fix.

Of course, your particular situation may not be as I picture it to be.

More details on your in-line sensor would help us provide a possibly more correct solution.

Larry

Reply to Larry ....

Yes, my sensor is fitted into the steel pipe out from the engine to the rad. I can't fit anything in the original location as the take off for the oil cooler fouls the location for the water sensor. The solution I was hoping for was to fit a sensor into the rad water pipe as I have said.

I have fitted one from a TVR (British Blackpool Sportscar) but the temp dial reads far too low. The resistance of the sensor is 1000 ohm. What I was hoping to get was a low resistance sensor and then add resistors to it in order to get the gauge to read 200F when the radiator fans kick in.

My problem is that none of the website I have found here list the term voltage and the sensor resistance of the sensors and I was wondering if anyone knew of, or had used, a suitable sender they could recommend.

Thanks .... Murray

I understand the aggrovation in vendors not providing electrical charitreistics of their sensors.

If all fails and you desire accurate, you might consider using one off these adapters.
http://www.technoversions.com/MeterMatchHome.html
this is one site I had bookmarked for future use, I was thinking there was one vendor that had a 3 gauge module, but could easily find that one

Murray,

Perhaps I am missing something, but why are you not just installing the Ford temp sensor that thousands of Pantera's are still using with their Veglia gauges?

As long time owners come to understand, while the mismatch of the Ford sensor and the Veglia gauge results in readings that are not necessarily accurate,they are none-the-less quite sufficient at monitoring the coolant system performance.

A Pantera will tell you that the cooling system is not functioning correctly when upon shut down it bubbles, gurgles, and boils all the way through the expansion tank until it spits out on the ground.

Unless that is happening you really do not have any cooling problem. And whatever the numbers on the gauge are indicating is merely a number.

An oil pressure gauge needs to be giving a correct reading. This is not the case for a water temperature gage.

Different owners report different regular coolant temperatures, ranging from 160° to 220°. None of those readings are wrong or correct. All of those readings are merely numbers. The true story is told in the performance of your system and any gauge will let you know if it is not functioning properly once you understand what is normal for your car.

That being said, I would install the Ford sensor and learn what numbers on your gauge indicate a healthy or a not healthy coolant system.

Larry

quote:

Originally posted by Murray Reid:
....
I think I need something of much lower resistance which (if necessary) I could increase with resistors to give me the required gauge reading at operating temperature.

Can anyone recommend anything please?

Here is a box that I have used to match my stock fuel sender with a VDO fuel gauge. It will work to match any sender with any gauge. Even reverse resistance situations. It is pretty trick and simple to calibrate. You have to calibrate the high and low ends of the scale, and the box will interpolate the in between. It will work in your case as long as you have the capability to measure the true temp with an alternate device (probably a cheap IR gun)

http://www.technoversions.com/MeterMatchHome.html

Just a thought, I remember reading that the original location of the sensor was in the swirl tank but most all owners have move them to the block. Is there still a fitting (plug) in your swirl tank? As Larry said you should be able to put a Ford sensor there.

There is a reason for removing the sender from the tank and placing it in the block, where Ford installed it for all of their other applications.

Should a large loss of coolant occur it is possible that the tank mounted sender would be exposed to air instead of coolant and provide a highly inaccurate reading.

That is why you do not want to mount that sender in the cooling tank for any reason.

Larry

The MeterMatch is a good item to know about, however in the Pantera gas tank the interpolation process will likely not be very accurate.

Unlike most gas tanks that are roughly square or rectangular in shape, our gas tanks vary greatly from top to bottom.

Thus the gauge will display half full at the middle point of resistance but that will not correlate to the middle point of the volume of the tank.

Larry

Larry, the Metermatch does not need to interpolate levels between full and empty. You can set an indication on your Gauge at 2 more intermidient levels. The Metermatch will then only have to interpolate in the range between any of the settings you made during the calibration.

And of course the same is valid for the Water Temp Sensor (to honor the original subject).