440 Engine Temp with Aluminum Water Pump Question

[71_340Challenger]

I recently finish rebuilding a 440 that I snagged out of a 76 New Yorker in a farmers field. When I rebuilt it, I installed an aluminum water pump housing and pump. I purchased an Autometer temperature guage and hooked it up according to their directions. When I ran the engine for the first time last weekend to break in the cam, the guage was not registering anything. Does any one know if there are issues with using a standard mechanical temp guage in aluminum water pump housing? I also sent an email off to Autometer to see what they say, but I thought for sure someone here would have tried this before and could let me know if there are any issues or something special that needs to be done to make it work. Thanks as always.
 

[Plum6Pak]

A mechanical gauge should read in either aluminum or cast iron type pumps. It's just reading the temp inside and shouldn't be effected too much by the material of the housing. I installed a temporary one on mine as well just so I could see what it's doing and it works fine in the aluminum housing. If the probe is installed so it's not down inside the housing properly it may give you a bogus reading, not sure what the problem is unless it's just a bad gauge.

[MEK-Dangerfield]

I agree with Plumb,

  Being aluminum, should have no effect. I have to go with the basics. Is the sending unit(sensor) known to be good? Have you re-checked all connections to the guage?

  Mike

[Chryco Psycho]

if it is a mechanical guage & the line was bent or pinched & the ether was releaased the guage is now junk
 alum will conduct electricity the same as iron & will not affect the reading

[71_340Challenger]

Thanks for the input everyone. I did not expect there to be any issues with installing it in aluminum, but since it was not reading anything, it was the first thougth I had. I have not had the chance to do any additional troubleshooting to see if the gauge is bad. It is a new guage, so you would hope it would not ship from the factory bad, but you never know. When I opened the box, there where no kinks and the tubing was nicely looped, so I am going to assume for the moment that the line is OK. I will keep you posted. Thanks again for the help.