Water pressure gauge

Anyone fitted one of these to their SC?

Didn't know you could.. another gauge.. good. Be like my old truck anytime now.

Well I suppose you can, it is just a matter of finding the right place to break into the cooling system.

My reason for wanting to do this is I am putting on a new head & gasket. Have have the rad fixed, so then the cooling will be fully pressurised. I want to know straight away if the cooling system fails anywhere and I think a pressure gauge is the best way. For example, if the pipe under the bus going to the rear heater matrix fails I won't know until the water temp gauge moves up or down and by then it could be too late.

I had a look on the new head if there are any redundant or blanked off holes I could use, but there wern't any. I thought about drilling a new hole in the thermostat housing but dont want to do that cause I don't know if I cause other problems.

Once I find away of doing this I could then use a length of pressure line to a gauge discretly mounted ontop if the dash board, or I could get an electronic pressure sensor and have a red light come on or an alarm ring if the pressure drops. Personally I prefer the former.

I hope someone can come up with something, or if this is a bad idea, equally please tell me why.

Simon

I remember with the townaces, people used to add a more accurate temp guage (can't remember the brand...Clive might) as the Toyota one is an appalling average and slow to repond...ie: by the time it registers a problem its too late already.
Another option was a buzzer gizmo marketed by Mark. This modified the existing guage to read more accurately and sounded a warning at a temp level set by yourself.

I guess a problem might be (with pressure guage) if the level drops there will still be steam presssure regulated by the 13psi pressure cap. Even with the temp guage it could be fooled depending on where sited.

Makes me thing of the see thru tube level on the back of a fire engine...not sure what the best solution is, but I'd trawl some race car type sites + see if Mark still does the townace mod....I think Mark was the townace site owner

[quote="chrisandhiace"]the Toyota one is an appalling average and slow to repond...

and I thought they were real(ish) time

[quote="chrisandhiace"] I guess a problem might be (with pressure guage) if the level drops there will still be steam presssure regulated by the 13psi pressure cap. Even with the temp guage it could be fooled depending on where sited.

Yea, hadn't thought of that, though I was thinking of a catastrophic failure, eg. hose splitting or coming off a metal pipe, not a slow loss of fluid. A pressure gauge would tell you instantely, where as a temp gauge would take a while to catch up (and then I am never sure which way the needle would go; up 'cause the cylinder head is overheating transfering the heat to the temp sensor, or down as there is no contact with water).

I'll have a look at some performance car websites and do a search for Marks mod.

Tx

The toyota guages just creep up to the middle and stay there...if it goes any higher its a long time overdue.
Here's a link to the mason alarm...I don't have one but its good to know whats out there

http://www.townace.plus.com/ie/ietemga2.htm

Good luck with the pressure guage/combined alarm....it sounds like a good way to go...

I have done the water pressure gauge and it works a treat. I have taken off the small top hose and put in a tee and branched off a hose to the gauge. It gave a steady reading of 10psi. The big top hose still feels quite hard but it is only 10 psi which is the correct pressure for these cars. Now I plan to install it permantly on top of the dash board next to a water temp gauge which I havent yet got.

It is qutie a relief the new head is ok and the block is fine too.

Nice one!
let us know how you route it to the dash...
Where did you source the guage?

Well, its not pretty as the passenger seat is still off. Its just temparary to see if it works.

I am thinking of running the pipe down the left hand side of the car, across the front and past the brake master cylinder and to the dash.

I took the gauge of a piece of equipement that was being thrown out from where I used to work. I have seen them on the net fro approx £5.

My intention is to put a water temp gauge next to it because from what some of you guys say the Toyota one cannot be trusted.