My new project

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Finally got a day off today and bought a few gauges as some of mine didnt work(oil pressure and fuel guage and amp guage).
So I bought a 3 set with oil psi, temp, and volts) . I plan to use a brass t fitting with a couple nipples to splice into my heater hose for the temp guage because when I used a pipe wrench on the hose fitting that's threaded into the head it wouldn't budge at all and I'm afraid of damaging it.
My question is this, how many of you all have done this(I've seen a few good photos of what I tried to do) and about what difference in temp should I expect if I had been able to thread the sensor into the head instead of in the hose 3-4 inches away?
10 degrees? 15 degrees? Also it's a non ac car so I believe water should be flowing constantly in the heater lines correct?
 
Jegs has a thermostat spacer that goes under the thermostat housing to hook a gauge up.
 
sireland67 said:
Jegs has a thermostat spacer that goes under the thermostat housing to hook a gauge up.
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Awww man, I wish I knew that before I bought all the brass fitting I needed to do the installation already, cost me 25$ . I'll probably look into it and consider switching to that jegs one later. At least then I get to see what the difference is.
 
I also spent 2 hours digging in my storage unit to find my feeler guage so tomorrow I can set/check my valve lash. I plan to do it warmed up but engine off. If I find anything off or out of spec by much I'll do another compression check when I'm done and post the results tomorrow. I'm hoping that will shed some light as to why I have 1 cylinder so low on compression .
 
Update. Today I installed my new mechanical gauges and that took longer than I thought it would but came out ok.
Now I can tell when I have oil pressure so that's good , sits around 50-55psi when idling.
Next I adjusted all my valve lashes and it was quite interesting. I followed what many said to do on here and made sure to do a short drive and get up to operating temp then when I checked them I found most had zero gap. Some took at least one whole revolution of backing off before I could get a .004 feeler guage in between. I set all the intake valves to .010 while the engine was hot. Then put the valve cover back on and ran it for awhile to get it back up to temp.
Then took the valve cover off and did all the exhaust valves to .020.
When I put it all back together and ran it it had a very slight hard to hear tapping sound that wasnt there before. I believe this is a good thing because now it sounds like the 273 I had before when it ran good.
Now the good news. I did another compression check today after everything and get much better results doing the exact identical process as last time.
Heres my new numbers
1= 145psi
2= 150
3= 130
4= 110
5= 157
6= 150
Much better than last time but still down on cylinder 4.
It runs and idles alot smoother now too, I'm so happy. Worth the 8 hours I spent today (I know that's a long time I'm a noob). Anyways I think I'm going to replace the plastic oil pressure line with a copper one next oil change, for looks as much as reliability.
 
Heres a few pics

20191001_125537.jpg
 
This took me forever but I'm getting the hang of it. Maybe I'll try with engine running next time.

20191001_135936.jpg
 
Oldmanmopar said:
I haven't seen a slant that clean inside for a long time, Like since back in the 70's. Did you rebuild it?
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I just got the recently, the previous owner had it for 11 years and said it was rebuilt alittle over 7 years ago. He only took it out on weekends but I'm planning to use it as a daily.
 
Ok so now I'm going to install a new battery and alternator, heres why.
The other night going to work my headlights were dim and my voltmeter showed less than 11 volts. When I tried to drive home the car died as soon as I turned on the headlights. So I hooked up a portable charger to the battery and left it under the hood and drove the remaining 2 miles home. So the system wont charge and it only runs on battery. The battery and alternator both seemed old so they'll need replacement soon anyways. I got a new battery and ordered the new alternator and then went under my dash and found that the ammeter has never been bypassed even though it didnt move. So I cut the red and black wires and wirenutted them together and wrapped it thoroughly with electric tape.
I next cleaned the bulk head connector contacts as best I could and they seem ok.
So heres my question. and I know this has been explained alot and I've researched it already I'm just looking for a few quick thumbs up or agreements so I know I'm doing the right thing for reliability. The new alternator has a power post, a ground post and 2 feild terminals.
I plan to connect the black power wire to the power post, the small (blueish)wire to the feild terminal and then connect another 10guage with fusable link wire from the power post to the starter relay big post that has 2 wires already. Do I need to do anything with the other small feild terminal on the alternator like connect it to the ground post? I want to hook it up right the first time to avoid any problems or shorts.
 
Uugh, ok the shop called and got my new alternator in so I picked it up and even had them bench test it first and it put out 13.8 volts and passed no problem.
I installed it as I planned and ran a jumper from the alternator large post to the starter relay large post and started it. It runs fine but no matter what I do it wont show more than 12.3 volts at the battery when I rev it up. Also as soon as I disconnect the battery terminal on the battery it dies immediately.
If the battery supplies power through starter relay just fine and the alternator is wires directly to the starter relay..shouldn't it stay running if I disconnect the battery?
 
Does the battery have full charge in it.
What does it have volts wise not running?
 
I just swapped out the voltage regulator with one I found in the trunk.its now making over 14 volts. Does this look ok to you?

15705736842466652410787535001604.jpg
 
And it goes down running?
Have you put in a different voltage regulator?
Also clean all the hot and ground points.
 
Sorry posted the same time.
That looks a little high.
But it may be trying to charge the battery.
Do you have a 120 household battery charger?
Not starting with a full battery charge can give you issues.
 
sireland67 said:
Sorry posted the same time.
That looks a little high.
But it may be trying to charge the battery.
Do you have a 120 household battery charger?
Not starting with a full battery charge can give you issues.
Click to expand...
I dont have a battery charger. But since I just changed the VR it seems to be charging ok now so I'm super stoked.
I will monitor it closely over the next couple days . At least now I've eliminated some of the weak points and now my headlights are brighter.
 
Just make sure it does not over charge.
 
sireland67 said:
Just make sure it does not over charge.
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Good point, what should I look for? Just keep checking the battery voltage when the engines off and worry if it gets past 13volts? 13.5? I'm not sure when to worry.
 
that thermostat spacer wont work on a slant, I tried it for my temp sender. ended up with a similar set up to what you installed.
the bolt spacing is off for a slant.
 
I ran a double field terminal alt on my 64 while having my original rebuilt. I grounded one of the field terminals because that's the general instruction. Worked great.
 
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