283 water temp guages

"I have a '61 Chris Craft

"I have a '61 Chris Craft Sea Skiff 30' open boat with Twin 283's. The water pump has two chambers each cooling half the engine. Right now it looks like the wire to the water temp guage is from one side only of each engine. That leaves the other side unmonitored. Is that correct. The old manual says "It is necessary to have two guages or warning devices for each engine". How does one accomplish this practically? I really need 4 water temp guages. It obviously did not come from the factory this way. Could I connect both sensors to the one guage? Would I then see a composit reading, double reading or the highest reading? Thanks"

"Hello William,

I have a la

"Hello William,

I have a late 50's Chris with the 283 (actually a 327 block) and it has a temp sensor on each head. Some of the old gauges had a red light that would come on on the starboard or port side of the gauge if things got hot. That 4-port Sherwood is a pretty nutty device with two impellers, it's actually two pumps in one.

I have thought about installing an "H" section sort of like the H pipe hot rodders use to bring two dual exhaust pipes together to increase torque, but installing a connection or plenum so the pump feeds ONE main circuit, split to each head, instead of two circuits, one to a head.

WIth one dedicated circuit to a given head, it's quite possible the pump will be delivering more or less water to one side of the motor.

You could install a switch to switch from one sensor to another, but not both at the same time. That way you could do a check while under way, switch from left to right, check temp, and be gone.

Here's a thread on that Sherwood, by the way. Happy reading

http://www.network54.com/Forum/424840/message/1134077503

Regards, Paul"

Thanks Paul. Nice link to the

Thanks Paul. Nice link to the Sherwood pump. I ordered a Sierra engine warning system with a sensor that sounds a horn at 200 degress. Think I'll mount one on each engine on the side not connected to the water guage. Your switch is a good idea but I'll forget to check. What do you think?