Dkarr

I've finally got my engine together, painted and buttoned up. It looks great and is just what I was going for, stealth performance in a stock appearing package. Underneath the seemingly stock-ish appearance are a set of Brodix IK 180 heads, Weiand Stealth intake (I even took the time to grind off the Stealth logo and fill in the Weiand logo with JB Weld. Can't tell at all) Holley 750 Street HP carb, comp solid lifter cam, roller rockers, yada yada. But... after all of this effort I have realized something that has really pi$$ed me off... I completely forgot that I would need to tap these heads to use the stock coolant temp sensor. Given that everything is together that is no longer an option so I am left with hard choices as the where to mount it. Anywhere is going to be an eye sore and undo much of my efforts to make it look "stock".

The easiest route would be to mount on the intake since I have two taps there. This just looks hideously ugly in my opinion though and gives away the stealth mystique.

My question - Does anyone else know of another way to solve this problem short of removing the heads and taking them to the machine shop? Could I use the top plug on the water pump instead of the intake? I think on the water pump may be less of an eye sore but I am not sure if it would get an accurate reading.



Eyesore....!!!

'75

Some one solved this problem by having the temp sender machined to 3/8 npt. If you decide to enlarge the hole in the head, it's easy also. I like the stealth look.

Dkarr

Thanks for the info. My problem is that there isn't a temp sensor hole to begin with. No big deal if I would have taken it to the machine shop, $15 would have got a hole drilled and tapped. I have no idea how I overlooked the need for doing this.

resdoggie

Leave the sender in the intake and paint it orange. Won't look any worse than that square plug to the right of it.

larrywalk

I installed an engine with the Brodix IK180 heads a while back... The heads had a 3/8" NPT threaded hole in the side of the head between cylinders 1 and 3, but the stock temp sensor on this '75 corvette was 1/2" NPT. I considered drilling and re-threading to 1/2" NPT, but the bottom part of the sensor was large enough that it would have collided with the wall of the intake runner internally - therefore it was not possible.

On the other hand, a smaller 3/8" sensor could work if it had the same resistance-versus-temperature characteristic as the larger stock sensor, but it did not. Perhaps there is one that is another that would work, but I don't know which one it is.

Solution was simple - use the stock sensor in one of the 1/2" NPT holes in the manifold. The one on the driver's side was too close to the thermostat housing neck; the one on the passenger side was perfect (and that same location has been used on earlier corvettes).

BTW, even cruddy used stock thermostat sensors can be made to look like new by brushing by a wire wheel on a bench grinder - it looks like new brass again!

larrywalk

IIRC, if you are going to use a heater, that temp sensor is in the outlet location for the heater.

oldalaskaman

excellent

Dkarr

I have two taps on that side of the manifold, you can see the other plug beside it. I put the sensor on the outside in hopes that the heater hose (which will go into the other tap) would sort of cover it up as it goes over the top of it. That may look worse though... will have to try both ways and see which looks best.

Has anyone ever mounted a sensor on the top port of the water pump? That seems like a less obvious place that the manifold, however, I don't know that it would meter the temp correctly. Thoughts?

larrywalk

The top port on the water pump is an inlet to the pump; a sensor there would only feel the temp of the cooler water from the radiator. The best use for the top hole in the water pump is to improve the circulation of engine coolant from the intake manifold back into the block. This allows more uniform cooling of all parts of the engine; it was used on the high performance engines in the C2 and C3 corvettes. Here's a picture of the bypass on my LT1 motor; you will need to drill and tap for 1/2" NPT in the boss on your intake manifold at the front driver side:

oldalaskaman

wilcox sells a spal 3/8's npt sender that works fine.

6inarow

I wish I had seen this a month ago. I just replaced the heads and dont know enough to be able to make an educated guess on cylinder head upgrades so i replaced them with stocker 1.94's. PM me or post a link on these heads. What I am getting at is will they work with an otherwise stock 350 (1972)?

redman76

http://www.brodix.com/heads/ik.php

cv67

hate seeing mine too. Going to relocate them to the block cooling jacket drains on ea side of the block. You can use a reducer to make it work and youll get a true temp reading.

Dont mention it.

6inarow

sorry to hijack the thread. Any idea on cost of those dogs???

larrywalk

Hot water rises - true temp only at the bottom of the block, not where it matters. You might want to reconsider this idea.

Dkarr

I bought mine for $1,169 from USA Performance. They were slightly cheeper than Summit and actually had them in stock. I had to go with the 1021005's for my build because I'm running a slightly hot solid cam. You can get them a little less with just the standard hydraulic springs.

From the research I did these are about the best performance heads you can get for the money. AFR's will flow better but are much more $$$. When I get this thing back in the car I'll let you know how they work out

Dkarr

Bahhhhhh... this had my hopes up for a second. So are you SURE that this won't give you the correct reading?? This would solve the problem perfectly!