Cylinder Head Temp Gauge, Step By Step Instructions Options

[StratPlayer]

I believe all the vdo cht gauges comes with that much wire, I know mine did.

[Jake Raby]

The resolution of the VDO gauge does not require a special extension wire. I have compared results with the same gauge by hooking it direct or through a 20 ffot lead wire. The speed and accuracy was spot on either way and repeatability was better than expected.

I only sell Westach and SPA gauges in the store- not VDO gauges. The SPA and Westach do require the special extension wire.

What I meant by saying that 5th gear kills engines is this:
Your car weighs the same in any gear- remember that. As speed increases and aerodynamics effect the vehicle and you continue to gear up as you shift load is increased on the engine. Since the car weighs the same and load increases more heat is generated simply because load= heat.

When you couple this fact with the fact that the engine is aircooled and the fan driven at 1:1 off the crank things get more interesting. This is because in a lower gear the load is still present or even multplied and with a lower engine RPM the cooling fan is less efficient in producing volume and pressure to get the air to the hottest parts of the engine. This heats heads up fast! Since most people are cruising around at this low RPM in 5th sooner or later they have to hit 4th or even 3rd gear . At this time the load is decreased and a burst of cooling air blasts over the heads with high pressure and volume- Voila, now you have a cracked head and have added yet another insane heat cycle to your cylinder heads.

This is so common with 914s that we are seeing more and more heads that have been so thermally cycled that they are junk and can't even be welded on safely to be repaired.

So the moral of the story is that RPM is your friend- use it. DO NOT run your engine at less than 3500 RPM in 5th gear or you are killing your heads. I shift into 5th at 4200 RPM and don't run in that gear below 3800 in my car- even with exceptional DTM cooling. Lower revs and high gears also kill oil pressure and increase rod bearing wear through point loading.

Anyone on this list can do the same tests I have with a cheap CHT gauge and some attention being paid to the results... Run this engine like it were an airplane- If its not turning somethings burning!

[Britain Smith]

Jake...I have searched your store every way that I can think of and I still cannot find the gauges. Help Please.

-Britain

[Jake Raby]

Britain,
The gauges are not on the store site just yet. I have only recently decided to sell them through the store and I'm still awaiting my stock order.

I have a dual CHT gauge that is very nice and monitors botjh heads at one glance. I also have another dual gauge that has oil temp and head temp in the same unit as a dual as well.

[bd1308]

jake any update on the guages?

[JmuRiz]

I'd like to know as well, my VDO CHT sender must be off becasuse my temp never gets into the 200's...might as well get a dual gauge when I replace.

FYI: The R.A.T compound had a power surge the other day and a lot of the computer equipment got fried, so the type4store etc might not work quite right.

[lapuwali]

QUOTE (JmuRiz @ Aug 3 2005, 10:11 AM)

I'd like to know as well, my VDO CHT sender must be off becasuse my temp never gets into the 200's...might as well get a dual gauge when I replace. FYI: The R.A.T compound had a power surge the other day and a lot of the computer equipment got fried, so the type4store etc might not work quite right.

Where do you have the sender mounted on your VDO setup? The sender itself is cheap ($15-20 from aircooled.net). Have you tried swapping the leads at the gauge? The "rest" position on the gauge is usually 150-200dF, so it's possible you're not getting any reading at all.

[JmuRiz]

OK, I'll look into a new sender...I thought that the resting place would be far-left. I'll check my setup and get a new sender and hopefully that'll fix it. Thanks!