How is this for and idea

[plkracer]

Or you can get brass fittings, although those may not be too cheap.

[Jerry]

Back from the hardware store copper would cost about $23. brass did not have the right pieces. Pvc $.63

[Admin]

Back from the hardware store copper would cost about $23. brass did not have the right pieces. Pvc $.63

as long as its threaded, glued pvc is not good for hot water.... if it was me and you want to save some cash, get a black pipe t and some galvanized hose adapters and thread them in...

[Admin]

This is brass but you get the idea, hose barb is what its called...

[Jerry]

The sender threads in the hose fits (tight) over the other two end

[dsrace]

Im with Ds on this one... then what you see on the gauge is actually what the fan sensor is also "seeing". Dont forget that many systems can have hot spots which can vary these results greatly. I like the idea of an inline mount, avoid any potential problems by either earthing it or mounting it to the frame.

I think its obviously harder to source 1" units than we would have thought, so why not just make it...not that difficult to do in a tidy manner, no reason why it couldnt be steel if you have limited alloy welding acess.

With regards to the 1 1/8" unit and 1" opening ... if you use enough lube..and push hard enough... mmmm best not go there... this is a family forum after all (isnt it?)

what I actually did this last time (solely because of room) was to tee into the block with a short piece and screwed both temp senders into it. neither are directly in the direct flow ( very close to ) but are reading pretty accurately. I tee'd into the existing temp sensor on the motor so the senders are grounded to the block right in front of the thermostat.

[dsrace]

[Nutz4sand]

The first shots are the pipe fitting I got at the hardware store. There was one fitting adaptor I needed and this slipped right in the radiator hose just between the thermostat and radiator. I was thinking of two so I could put one after the radiator too. Then I would know how much heat the radiator was shedding. Also handy if something starts going worng this could tell you before it got out of hand.

This above fits full size car radiators hoses on full size older ford trucks.
Your application on full size may vary.... Good plumbing shops have this stuff. Even to fit a motorbikes size radiator hoose I bet.

The bottom pics are more of interest to the minis maybe??
The green temp monitors are Venom RC car temp monitors for Nitro engines. They have a little loop at the end that goes around the motors cylinder and a thermocouple there sends the temp it hits to the digital display. These record highest temp and lowest temp and show current temp. (also F or Cel readings) 

The little black T fitting is a common automotive radiator hose fitting for flushing a system. They sell these at any car pats store and you can find them at Meijers (you used to be able to) and Wal-mart too.

I drilled a tiny hole in the screw on part of the flushing "T" after shoving the thermocouple in there so it would be in the coolant flow I put a tiny bit of silicone on the hole to seal it and let it dry. This seal WAS ONLY FOR  the JB weld!!!!! I would not trust just silicone to radiator pressure. It might hold if you filled the entire portion where the wire comes out thru the little hole but after the silicone had dried I used the syringe with the hose on it to reach in there and carefulley fill the area with JB weld to the bottom of the tube. I let it dry on the RC car tires you can see in the pics.

Once done I put it on my Honda Pilot just off the head. For a control group kinda thing I also had a second Venom unit you can see in the pics wrapped round the heads metal output port (Basically just like it would be around the cylinder of a nitro car) The two usually would read close but the one in the liquid always reacted far far far faster. It was also a few degrees hotter usually while running. This is due to (I feel) to the other also being exposed to air.

When the motor was not hot (ambient air temps) the two gauges would read dead on the same. 

This was just to show the little black "T" that some may be able to use like I did.
 

[Jerry]

I have seen the 1 inch galvanized coupler, i have heard to stay a way from the galvanized because the anti/water and heat will cause the galvanition to flake off.  Has anyone else heard that

[trojan]

Won't anything metallic, other than Ali, cause galvanic corrosion?

[dsrace]

Won't anything metallic, other than Ali, cause galvanic corrosion?

they sell the galvanized one and a plastic one. I ran one of the galvanized ones for 1 1/2 years personally, I took it off just before I sold it to flush the system. I didn't notice any flaking, but I'm not saying it isn't possible just never happened to me. search for a mini sprint site they probably already have what you are looking for.
what speed way sells is for cars 1 1/2 id hose.

is there a dead bolt or plug on the head in the water jacket that you can just screw your sender into?

[trojan]

Plastic is electrically sound but not necessarily structurally
Al comes before Zn in the reactivity series, so the Zn will cause the Al to corrode, they are "close" (in the series) so the corrosion should not be horrific.