Newbie with questions

[azjim1]

A little background. 10 plus years ago I bought a 65 Chevy C10 Longbed Fleetside pickup. It originally belonged to a friend of mine in high school and he had painted it, custom wheels, stereo, sidepipes!, etc. and we used to go cruising in it etc. Anyway he sold it to a guy I worked with and that guy needed money and sold it to me cheap. So, it has sat for all these years and even been moved by flatbead tow truck into its current position in my garage. So my son turned 16 this summer and has been guilting me into fixing it up. So we have started!

Not having done much of this kind of thing since I was a young man and not ever owning a Chevy before I will no doubt be having some questions along the way and this forum seems like there are a lot of knowledgeable people to ask so here I am.

Not having much money these days (economy, daughter in college, etc.) I have started working on it with the intention of getting it running again hopefully without spending too much money over the winter months (I live in Phoenix so won't be doing a lot of wrenching in the summer!) and then slowly over time doing the hot rodding stuff I want to do to it as time and money allows.

So we have started with a intake manifold swap. The truck had the original 2 bbl intake but came with a 1968 cast iron 4 barrel intake that I got installed last weekend. I have a rebuilt quadrajet that I bought on ebay a few years ago that I will install. Anyway the first problem in need of a solution is the 4bbl intake does not have a mounting hole in it for the coolant temp sensor. So my thought was that I would buy a water neck with the threaded boss for one in it . . . but I have the original oil filler tube so I have to use a straight water neck and all the ones with the sensor holes that I have found are all the 45 degree angled ones that will run right into my oil fill tube. So now I am thinking about a spacer under the water neck and have found a couple with either 3/8" or 1/2" holes in them for sensors, etc.

So a lot of background for hopefully a simple question . . . I believe the stock sensor is 5/8"? Is there a 1/2" or 3/8" sensor that will work with the stock gauge?

Thanks!
Jim