Temperature Guage trivia

[Ken J]

Hi All:

I'll be attempting to repair my temp ("heat") guage this week, and in preparation I decided to check for leaks in the guage head and remaining capilary tube.

So I connected compressed air thru a regulator and pressure guage and gradually applied air to it until it reached 212 degrees.

I was surprised at the results:

Just off the peg (100 degrees)= 5 spi
Halfway (160 degrees)= 37 psi
Boiling (212 degrees) = 83 psi (!)
(Disclaimer- the guage I used was really cheap and the values given above may be off by as much as 10%)

While the guage head looks just like the oil pressure guage, I had expected it to be much more sensitive to lower pressures.

Thanks to "Kaegi" at the Power Wagon Advertiser site for sending me to the Dodge temperature guage repair site:

http://www.ply33.com/Repair/TempGauge.html

Anyways, thought you all might be interested in the pressures I had measured.

Thanks to all for all the previous help.