The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Chevrolet Temperature Dash Gauge

I believe that the Chevy trucks had a dash temperature gauge that was 100 to 212 degrees. Did they also have a gauge that was 100 to 220 degrees? If so, what years did each gauge cover? Were either of these gauges electric and not the capilliary type?

All 47-55 Advance-Design temperature gauges were capillary-type.

I do not know about 212 vs 220 years.

Not sure about the years either, but 212 is the boiling point of water alone at sea level and 220 with glycol coolant mix, as the boiling point rises.

The sender and gauge are the same, only the bezel is different.

IIRC, the 212 gauges were in chevies, and the 220 gauges were in jimmies.

Don't quote me on this, but I believe we had this discussion before. The Chevrolet cooling system went to a pressure system (4psi) in the catalog in 1953 and I believe because of this they bumped the boiling point up to 220°.
I had to replace my 1950-212 gauge this summer but all I could find were the 220 gauges. I also switched to a 4lb cap at that time and haven’t had any problems.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

if you happen to order a reface kit from JimCarter it will have BOTH of the temp decals in the kit. I'm using the 220 because I'm going with a V8 in my 52

Hey Fred, I don't see how you could interchange the graphics because of calibration.
Denny

The reason I posted this is definitely about calibration. I saw someone selling a used dash gauge for a Chevy truck on Ebay that was a black face and the temp range was 220 degrees. The early GMC trucks had an electric gauge (with a temp sender that worked for both the 6v and 12v gauge as I understand) while the Chevy's stayed with the capilliary. Obviously, some GMC's also had the capilliary gauge as well). The TS-6 sender so widely sold by the repop vendors for the electric gauges does not calibrate with the early GMC (late 40's to early 50's) electric 220 degree gauge. Always reads low when the engine is hot. I'm still working on trying to find the proper sender to work with the early GMC gauge. Know what the OEM part number was but still not able to cross reference it to a proper replacement yet.

Denny, you are assuming these were calibrated from the factory. At best +/-2%. It is important to match sensor resistance with gauge impedance.

You can offset the gauge reading with a resistor at the back of the gauge. Depending on the resistance swing of the sender, you will either have to go parallel or in series with the sender. using a volt-ohm meter, if the sender resistance goes up when it gets warmer, add a small resistor (10 ohms, 1/2 watt) to the wire to increase the gauge reading. If the resistance of the sender goes down when it gets warmer, then you will have to parallel a small resistor to ground (about 1000 ohms, 1/2 watt). You may have to pick up an assortment from radio shack.

I think it's safe to assume that Denny will not be looking for electrical components to aid in calibrating his 1950 Chevrolet truck temperature sender/gauge?

You got it Tim, no electrics involved on my side of the seat. I thought at first we were talking about the temperature gauge for an AD Chevy truck. The decal for a 220° would not be calibrated to a 212° head and vise versa; of course an 8° temperature difference either way probably wouldn't be noticed.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL