- Home
- About Us
- Join/Renew
- Member Benefits
- Member Pages
- Log In
- Help
- Museum Store
Gents,
It is not that i don’t trust my dozen or so Moto meters, but for giggles, I would like to wire a modern water temp gauge into my Series 80.
Most of the gauges that I see available are 12v, or cost $$$$ because they are for 6v Porsche cars.
If I wire a 12v gauge into the car, which is a 6v system, will it work accurately?
I have a 6v to 12v inverter mounted in the car, is that the easy way to do this?
I may have just answered my own question, but if I do it in this fashion, I will need to run three feet of wiring to get from the inverter to the gauge.
Also, when going from Positive Ground to a Negative Ground gauge, do I just reverse the wiring on the gauge, Positive to Negative, Negative to Positive?
Electrics are a weak spot for me, as I really HATE IT when things go POP!, and fry the equipment.
What do you all think?
On My Series 33, a hole is drilled in the water passage on the side of cylinder head between number 5 and number six cylinders. This was threaded to take a bulb type gauge which is mounted under the dashboard on the left side. These gauges are available at any parts house and require no electrical hookup.
Paul,
Thanks for the info.
Could one connect this type of gauge arrangement to / through the radiator?
Perhaps, I should just stick with using a Moto Meter as the definitive water temperature indicator and stop fussing around.
Peter
I suppose the temperature bulb could be installed in the upper radiator tank, however, it may be difficult to find a gauge with a tube that is long enough to extend from the radiator to the dashboard. The problem with a Motometer is that it lags behind the actual engine temperature. As along as there is no overheating problem, this is probably OK.
Peter,
My 1928 Series 36 has a period bulb type mechanical gauge (also a Boyce Motometer)mounted to the left side of the steering column. The bulb is mounted into a hole on the thermostat housing. I am not familiar with the Series 80 so I don’t know if that would be an option.
My assumption is that this gauge was installed to allow the use of the optional archer.
Dave
Picture #2
Peter, you MAY have an aperture on the right rear vertical portion of your cylinder head in which a bulb-type fitting could be inserted.
Thanks, Gents!
Several months ago when I was trying to find out how the the remote hydrostatic liquid temp gauge for the ’35 worked and found several articles on the radiator top mount Boyce motometer and learned it is not truly a temperature gauge but relies on being in the steam vapor /air mix at the top of the radiator without being immersed in the liquid water. The idea was that since liquid water reaches a fixed temperature while it boils off (for a given atmospheric pressure in an unpressurized system), a bulb in liquid teels teh liquid temperature but doesn’t really tell you anything about how fast the water is boiling out and whether the engine is actually overheating. The motometer was designed to show the rate of boiling I believe, and some water was expected to evaporate in an open unpressurized system. Bottom line, don’t expect the two to agree with each other, and it is possible the motometer is a better indicator of overheating if not actual temperature. I just stated 200% of what I know – its been a few months.
I imagine some of others familiar with the teens and twenties cars can elaborate/correct me on this.
Jim
Boyce motometers are the gold standard of period temperature gauges.
They are simple, accurate, and rebuildable. They can be tested on
your stove in a pan of water. The only reason to have an electric
modern gauge invading your period interior is if you can’t see to
your radiator(see an optometrist) or you are planning to try your
luck at Bonneville Raceway.
Tony,
You know that I am blind as a BAT, and you should know about BAT GUANO!
I am just fussing a bit, but a Moto Meter is a bit tough to see while driving at night.
That said, driving at night is probably the only time when a Series 80 will not run hot.
Peter
Jim,
Thanks!
Peter
I found the comment about Series 80s run hot interesting. Is there a consensus on the cause for this and the recommended cure?
There is lore around the PAS that someone should write a book on Pierce-Arrow cars and entitle it “The Cars of the Night” because the it is when they do not run hot, but it is mostly a joke.
My Series 80 really does not run hot too often, but when it does, it needs a good On-the Car radiator flush.
In the past, when it was bad, I would do an Off-the-Car radiator flush using 10-mol acetic acid (commercial strength vinegar) and hot water. That would fix things for years.
However, now that I no longer have a traditional grease packed water pump, I can stick with the On-the-Car radiator flush.
Too much or the wrong kind of water pump grease can clog the radiator. A radiator can be otherwise internally partially clogged or lose some of its capacity through deterioration. I have even heard of engine blocks which still have some core sand in the coolant passages when rebuilders go into them: you know it probably gave mysterious trouble when new that was never solved. Water pumps can have impellers which are corroded partially or completely away, or which are slipping on the shaft, depending on how it is made.
We use citric acid to flush cooling systems and oil piping at work; most of the commercial flushes at the parts store also seem to be citric acid now.
I drove the 1927 Series 80 I bought from Ev Young 20 miles in 95 degree weather in July and it did not get hot at all. Not to say that it won’t ever but I considered that a pretty good test.
Randy,
Good for you, Ev Young’s car is excellent.
I rode with him at the Minden Nevada Meet and boy can he run a stick shift.
No grinding gears from him.
We were climbing hills like no tomorrow and the car ran as cool as a cucumber.
Great purchase!
Peter
There is no reason to have your radiator get clogged up. Use the ‘footy-stocking’ filter in the upper inlet tube into the radiator tank. Push enough stocking in so that it is visible when looking down into the radiator neck.. when you see the stocking has collected a golf-ball sized bunch of rust chips and grease-globs, remove it and replace it. The footy stockings are $1.00 at the dollar-store for 2 pair.
Even a CLEAN iron block and head will generate lots of rust chips and crud. I was amazed at the junk in my ’25 S80’s footy-stocking after a month driving it after the complete overhaul of the engine, which included baking the head and block in an oven to burn off any old grease, and release rust chips, followed by an hour in a steel-bead rolling rotisserie blaster. It looked NEW when I put it together, I looked as well as I could into the water passageways in the block, using a bore-scope.. and I still got a lot of crud in the stocking..
Series 80’s do not run hot. if everything is right. mine with a factory style radiator runs at 160*, even in 90*+.. It will run hot if the water pump is letting air into the system, or lower radiator hoses are letting air into the suction side of the pump. The air mixes with the hot water, which reduces it’s cooling ability, THEN the engine will run hot..
Greg Long