ECT install

[jesilvas]

So, I FINALLY installed the ECT probe for my 4th gauge this evening. For a year, I'd been contemplating where to put it. I could've put it up by the coolant filter, but I don't have it filtering all the time so I wouldn't always get a reading up there. So on the port on the side of the pump, same issue, not always flowing to filter.
I wanted to put it with the OEM sensor, but there wasn't much room next to the thermo housing. So today, I finally realized what to do. Just extend the height of the sensors. I'll show you.



First I drained the coolant.





Not sure how much exactly, but it seemed like 5 gals or 6.



Took a 3/4" wrench on the drain for the radiator and the same size, just shorter wrench for the OEM sensor on top of the pump.






Then I added my little contraption. A 4" pipe nipple and 3/8"NPT tee at the top for two probes.





And of course my wiring. It's never the neatest, but it works and won't be damaged.



Now my problem is I have an air bubble at the top of that stand pipe. I even had the top probe off till i got coolant up to the top of the pipe but there must've been more air in there so I'm gonna drive it a while until I'm tired of hoping the air comes out, which I don't think it will. I'll probably just wind up leaving all the coolant in and pulling out the top probe, plugging the hole real quick, retefloning the probe, and putting it back in to ensure there's no more air up there or any in the system that can get in it.

Watcha think?

[Freedombyforce]

I actually did the same thing on a F150 gas burner back a few years ago. I ended up melting a hole in the piston due to the truck running lean all the time. The computer thought the truck would never get up to operating temp so it would lean it out. Personally I don't think you will ever get an accurate reading with a set up like that unless you come out the top and tie it back into some of your other plumbing you got ran everywhere. This way you would have flow by the sensors.

[jesilvas]

Yea I never updated this.
It had an air bubble, then once I got the air out, it was too far from the circulating coolant that it never hardly read anything.
So I just put the gauges probe right before the coolant filter. I don't drive enough to fully warm the truck if I leave the filter flow open, so I don't get a reading most of the time. But at least it's installed

[Freedombyforce]

I saw some of your other posts you were worried about tying the filter line in at the Thermostat housing. I see the 6.0's and 6.4's go to a heater hose. Did you ever find out a definite answer if the thermo housing was ok?

[CSIPSD]

That will not work. A temp sensor has to be in the FLOW of coolant. What you have built is a great big stand pipe that (as you have noticed) once has filled will never reach operationg temp...

T into the heater lines if you want.

[goats]

Originally Posted by CSIPSD

That will not work. A temp sensor has to be in the FLOW of coolant. What you have built is a great big stand pipe that (as you have noticed) once has filled will never reach operationg temp...

T into the heater lines if you want.

^ this......

[jesilvas]

Originally Posted by Freedombyforce

I saw some of your other posts you were worried about tying the filter line in at the Thermostat housing. I see the 6.0's and 6.4's go to a heater hose. Did you ever find out a definite answer if the thermo housing was ok?

Thermo housing? It comes off the side of the water pump below the housing.
My issue is that with the filter flowing, it is bypassing enough coolant into the radiator that it's forcing the thermo open by a pressure differential, therefore taking longer to warm up. I've tested this, and it's true. Granted, I don't drive but five miles to work, so it hardly warms up anyway, but even if I drive 20+ miles, it still takes longer to warm up.

Originally Posted by CSIPSD

That will not work. A temp sensor has to be in the FLOW of coolant. What you have built is a great big stand pipe that (as you have noticed) once has filled will never reach operationg temp...

T into the heater lines if you want.

Originally Posted by goats

^ this......

I have a vacuum gauge in the heater line so that it will stay closed in the off and max ac position. So that will be out of the question most times.

[Freedombyforce]

I understand what you are saying, and definitely believe it could happen. My question is do you think it would make a difference if you tied it into the heater lines instead of the water pump plug just below the thermostat? Or does it not make a difference, you are still bypassing the thermostat and causing a pressure differential? I'm about to get my kit in from Dieselsite, but I noticed Sinister had their 6.0's and 6.4's tied into the heater hose.

[jesilvas]

The heater hose tie in on the other motors may be due to a water pump limitation to tap into it. We're just lucky to have that extra test port.
Heater hose will work perfectly fine. The heater hoses do not bypass the thermostat. They are designed to flow coolant out of the block after it's hot, then right back into the pump, which will the go back into the block as long as the thermo is closed.
Running the coolant filter out of the pump then goes into the degas bottle, down to the base of the radiator, up the radiator, then into the upper radiator hose and into the thermo.

[Freedombyforce]

So it sounds like the better alternative than the test port is "T"ing a heater hose. The other problem I could think of with the heater hose would be is the coolant filter robbing enough fluid flow from the heater core to make a difference on cabin heat? Or with the Flow from the heater core dumping back into the Pump/block, is there enough back pressure to force fluid through the filter?