drilling a hole in intake

rwhistles · Post by **rwhistles** » January 28, 2011, 9:49 am

I want to drill and tap a hole on each side of the heater supply hose. One for an electric fan thermostat and the other in order to move the temp. gauge sending unit to the front of the engine.

Am I safe in doing this?

slick4x4 · Post by **slick4x4** » January 28, 2011, 10:21 am

or you could just use some Tee-fittings
it wont look as good, but would work

Hawkrod · Post by **Hawkrod** » January 28, 2011, 11:42 am

slick4x4 wrote:or you could just use some Tee-fittings
it wont look as good, but would work

Tee fittings would not work as the sensors would not be submersed in flowing water. Hawkrod

charliemccraney · Post by **charliemccraney** » January 28, 2011, 11:46 am

A lot of the time, instructions with sensors advise against using t's. It won't hurt to try it but don't be surprised if it doesn't work.

You could use one sensor and make a controller which both turns on the fan and sends a signal to the gauge. Maybe there is a product that already does this.

I think your fan switch can go into the thermostat housing since the fan will not come on until after the thermostat is open and coolant is flowing to the radiator.

ICEMAN6166 · Post by **ICEMAN6166** » January 28, 2011, 12:18 pm

the tee i have installed for my temp sender works fine.

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the reason the sender is in the tee is because the cast iron 4v manifold had a 1/8 npt hole for the tiny (early) sender. so i came up with the tee, when i went to the edelbrock i just left it in.

rwhistles · Post by **rwhistles** » January 28, 2011, 12:53 pm

What I'm really worried about is drilling a hole through an intake runner as I'm not familiar with a v8 intake. Icould take the thermostat out and look inside to see if there was enough room for 2 more sensors without drilling into other passages.

don morris II · Post by **don morris II** » January 28, 2011, 1:05 pm

make a thermostat housing extenion and drill into that. just an idea

charliemccraney · Post by **charliemccraney** » January 28, 2011, 1:26 pm

I'd at least remove the thermostat housing. From there, the only place for the shavings to go is through the thermostat and into the radiator. It'll be a good idea to clean it out as best as you can. Really, I'd remove the intake and drill it on a drill press. On a 292, removing the intake is not a big job at all. Almost anywhere you drill, it will be thin so you need to make sure the hole is the right size for the tap to get good threads. I just don't have enough confidence in the steadiness of my hand to risk drilling it by hand.
You can tell where the coolant passage is from the outside of the intake. Use that as a guide and it is very unlikely that you will drill into an intake runner.

A thermostat housing extension will be difficult if not impossible to do. There isn't much room between the bypass nipple on the thermostat housing and the nipple on the water pump fitting for any kind of extension.

slick4x4 · Post by **slick4x4** » January 28, 2011, 1:31 pm

Hawkrod wrote:
slick4x4 wrote:or you could just use some Tee-fittings
it wont look as good, but would work
Tee fittings would not work as the sensors would not be submersed in flowing water. Hawkrod

if they are in contact with water they will work.... but probably not as accurately

Jonas · Post by **Jonas** » January 28, 2011, 2:09 pm

Could you mount the sensor in the top portion of the radiator? My 66 F250 has a sensor mounted there. I am not sure why, it is not used

unibody madness · Post by **unibody madness** » January 28, 2011, 6:03 pm

MY 1980 rabbit had a sensor mounted in the top portion of the tank for the automatic fan. you should also run a bypass switch to the dash in case your in traffic and the sensor goes out.
Comes in handy,trust me.
John

61 Merc · Post by **61 Merc** » January 28, 2011, 8:46 pm

I would be moounting the fan thermostat in the rad, as you want the radiator to get up to running temperatures quickly. The engine will heat up quicker and prematurely kick the fan in. If the tanks are on top/bottom, mount in the bottom, if the tanks are on the sides, go half way down.

Dean

tomrooster · Post by **tomrooster** » January 28, 2011, 8:48 pm

58 Edsel came with a thermostat extension with a taped hole for the sensor if you could find one in a local junk yard. Be careful with them they crack easy. Tom

rwhistles · Post by **rwhistles** » January 29, 2011, 3:04 pm

I have had one of each type that push through the rad one adjustable and one fixed was not happy with eather. Wonder if I could get a threaded sensor hole put in my top rad tank? It needs to be rodded anyway.