<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">I have enclosed a couple of posts I made in 2013 about this recurring issue…I hope they help..<div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Hi there</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I use several VDO gauges for my 2110cc square, oil pressure, oil</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">temperature, cylinder head temperature, voltmeter, ammeter and tachometer.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I do not use the stock oil dip stick so I drilled and tapped the cover plate</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">on the case and installed one of the two senders I use here. The other is a</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">dipstick sender, in a T-1/2 placement. Both senders run to a double throw,</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">single pole 15A switch at the dash for a final run to the gauge. The</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">cylinder head sender is on the number three upper case stud, (exhaust), not</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">on the standard spark plug thread. This is perhaps off by some degrees,</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">(cooler), but it is a reference only as the range of acceptable temperatures</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">is great.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">While I don't advocate for the universal use of all of these instruments for</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">everyone, I find my travels more informed, my tunes more accurate, my drives</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">more fun.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><blockquote type="cite" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Gene Berg has a bit of a rant about how poorly calibrated the temp <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">sensors were. Since he couldn't find any brand that was reliably <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">accurate, he refused to sell any.<br></blockquote><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"></span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I think Gene was a very innovative cat, but like all innovators he had his</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">quirks. This was one. He knew very well that gauges are never</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">scientifically accurate, but that a dependable reference could be</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">invaluable. He recommended and sold a dipstick idiot light for oil temps.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">More accurate? Really? Does it tell you that it's getting hot? Or, that</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">it's already there? Perfect.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I disagree with him on his recalcitrance here, (I suspect there were other</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">reasons for his dislike of the gauges...like competitive pricing). </span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">And, a few other of his opinions were equally bizarre and</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">under-informed...about T-3's, for instance, such as his warning about</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">running any jugs bigger than 88's in them...ridiculous. As soon as I get</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">home, I will be able to send pictures of my gauges installation and the</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">senders for same for those interested. Send me a PM for these.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Hope this helps.</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Best regards,</span><br style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">FE Meek</span></div><div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Hi there</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">When I was surfing in North Africa in the late sixties, (did I just admit this?), there were many air-cooleds on the roads. Today, even in these maintenance-intense third world areas, (Cuba comes to mind in keeping old iron moving), Morocco and Algeria have few, if any VW air-cooleds still running there and it is not, to be sure, because of a dearth of pieces and parts. But, I am not implying that a lack of gauges was the culprit either. It is simply a harsh, hot environment where even WW2 German transports, (some Ur-VW's), lie in sand-swept graves on the outskirts of towns and cities, stripped of usable panels for home improvements.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">But, Dave P is quite correct that VW, the "people's car" was modestly appointed for reasons both of cost and simplicity. My experience outside the insular worlds of car collection is that most folks don't look at much on the dashboards in any case...one of the reasons, no doubt, that modern cars have to put an audio reminder on the gas gauge when the tank is low...really?</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">This experience was reinforced in my college days when I made fair bucks, (for the times), doing simple, routine maintenance on Bugs and Busses for those unwilling or unwitting to do so themselves. "What are those red and green lights for anyway(s)?" was <b>not</b> an uncommon question in the day. So gauges? </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Remember, too, that even Porsche after 1956 took the numbers off of the oil temperature gauge scales, (even on the Carreras whose 4-cam race design redlined at 7+K), and today on the eponymous web sites there is continuing controversy as to the interpretation of this now seemingly amorphous green-into-red scale. And, these cars were built for the discriminating driver who presumably actually looked at the gauges.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">You never really know where the danger zone is....</blockquote></blockquote></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br>I have to take issue with this in theory. Whether we do so by "sense," intuition or comparative readings on gauges, (or better, all of these), it is clear that "we" can know the zones, variable and broad reaching as they often appear. Our cars are better maintained, more assiduously researched by those with an abiding interest in their longevity. But, as some posters over the years have noted, no matter how careful and observant we are, bad machining happens, bad judgment happens and the entropic arrow of time always happens. And, this last element of human existence is what we end up fighting endlessly...and losing. </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">But, I know that when I climb a pass that my oil <i>might </i>do well at plus 250*F, or my cylinder heads might survive in excess of 400*F, but I'm going to be increasingly observant of my senses, my intuition and my gauges and to try, in the short term, to avoid the arrow...</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Best regards,</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">FE Meek</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span><br><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPad</div></div></div></body></html>