[T3] Gauges

[Jim Adney]

On 17 Mar 2011 at 20:19, Keith Park wrote:

> Yea, but when your pushing hard, like towing a boat or following Jim Adney
> across a desert you really do need to know whats going on and when to back
> off...
> 
> ;-)

Still, there's a lot to be said for just trusting good parts, good 
engineering, and good assembly technique. I once added an ammeter and 
an oil pressure gauge to my '68. The ammeter always read so close to 
zero that it was disappointing to realize that that was exactly what 
it was supposed to do, and the cheap oil pressure gauge eventually 
filled my battery compartment with oil when the line leaked. Up to 
then, it just showed that the oil pressure was always a little lower 
than anyone told you it should be. In spite of that, the engine ran 
more than 100 kmiles, until I removed it before selling the rusted 
out car.

Temp gauges might be more useful, but they are hard to install and 
hard to interpret, but getting to know how your engine feels, 
responds, and sounds are even more useful.

Frankly, the gauge I find most useful is my gas gauge. I record EVERY 
fillup and calculate the mileage on each one. Watching your gas 
mileage trends will tell you a lot, but you have to be religious 
about it. Nevertheless, my wife now records each fillup, too, and I 
check the results occasionally to see if anything appears to be out 
of sorts.

Finally, if Keith has trouble following me, we should all keep in 
mind that there's very little special about my engine and I have no 
aftermarket instruments. I DO have full flow oil filters, ported 
heads, shimmed valve springs, and counterweighted cranks. I don't 
think any of those things have any significant effect on head temp or 
oil pressure, but they do affect long term wear.

The fact that my engines haven't died on me yet (knock on wood) may 
just be due to luck, but I suspect it has more to do with sticking 
with mostly stock parts. I don't have VW's resources to invest in the 
R&D that is necessary to assure that upgrades in preformance do not 
result in downgrades in reliability.

I agree with Dave, that extra instruments are probably interesting 
and they are something you can install if you WANT them, but they 
will never make up for bad parts, or poor engineering or assembly.

On my later cars I've reduced the compression ratio, to keep up 
(down?) with the declining quality of gas. I always buy the cheapest 
grade and it's never been a problem, except for the rare cases where 
I got a little water in with it. The water makes the engine stumble, 
but it doesn't hurt it.

My '68 had terrible pinging problems, but at that time I had no idea 
what that was. It was standard "knock" and only happened at WOT and 
low rpm. To my knowledge, it never damaged anything, but I always 
tried to avoid making it happen.  

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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