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Anyone running a set of gauges under their hood to help with testing/tweaking/modding things?
I've got enough open ports all over the engine bay that I could feasibly have one set of gauges in the cab, and another under the hood for when I'm tweaking things.
Gauges I'm considering:
Water Temp
Vacuum
Air/Fuel ratio
Wondering if anyone else has done this? Maybe has a photo of where they mounted their gauges, etc.
EDIT: Tried looking for other threads on this - didn't come up with much.
If you are under the hood tweaking that much you need to install gauges you better look into why you are under their that much.
Temp does not change that much going from inside the car to engine bay, so scratch that gsuge.
Larger face vac/psi gauge with rubber hose on it in tool box for when needed. If you have 1 of them small ones they are hard to see. Scratch vac gauge.
AF gauge, if you have money to run 2,1 inside 1 engine bay, keep the 1 in the cab and send me the other cause I don't have the money even for 1.
Now the only time the AF gauge would be any good under hood is setting idle mix and so what if the idle mix is off. I want to know what the AFR is when driving down the road when it really counts so in the cab it goes.
Now once you have the idle mix & jets dialed in what do you need that gauge inside?
It would be best to have a long wire on it so you can have it under hood and have it in the cab for tweaking only then return it to the tool box with the vacuum guage.
That's my .02
Dave - - - -
I have a voltmeter, oil pressure and temp gauge under the hood of my 64 Galaxies. I did not want to make the dash look tacky. The gauges are quite handy. As far as fuel/air, you will be better served to have it inside so you can work out cruise for main jets and work out the power valve as well. Many years ago when I was dialing in the Holley in my 78 F150 400, I welded a bung in a downpipe, put in an O2 Ensor and ran a wire to a test point under the lip of the dash. I then used a DVM to monitor the voltage. I was very successful with that and it cost little more than nothing.
An AFR gauge under the hood won't help much if any. If your carb is dialed in, AFR will be probably be between 11 and 12.5 at idle. Revving the engine won't tell you anything. Off throttle, under a little load is usually where you're at highest air/fuel ratio. Varying driving conditions is where an AFR gauge comes in for tuning carburetor circuits. Vacuum gauge under the hood isn't much more useful. But both gauges inside are very useful.
Oh, and unless the gauge was specifically built to withstand a lot of heat, it may not hold up well for long inside an engine compartment.
Jeez this thread sure is full of positive people lol.
Thanks for the suggestions and comments so far. I guess others have had better luck than me dialing in a motor?
If anyone does have pics of where they've mounted gauges under a hood I'd be interested to see them. Just makes life easy when something does indeed go wrong - wouldn't need to break out so many tools cause everything is already there for you.
Aaron, they're just picking a bit. My truck runs very well and I'm under my hood daily. I love it under there! You gotta learn somehow, and you probably only have your truck to learn on. So wear out them hood hinges, Brother!
I wish I had taken photos of the gauges I temporarily mounted under the hood when I was breaking in the engine. I had four gauges in a single row under-dash type mount. Oil Pressure, Water Temp, Oil Temp, and Vacuum. But I have no need of them under the hood now. Photo is what I have inside the vehicle
Nice gauges! How do you keep your shins from being chewed by that plate though?
I like that you've got all the gauges the same sweep and extremely similar gauge face/bezel. I too am trying to get all AutoMeter Z-series gauges... but dang are they expensive!!!
The panel is actually nowhere near my leg. Photo angle makes it look that way. When I try to deliberately touch it with my leg, my foot touches the air/heat plenum way before shin gets near gauges.
I like the Autometer Z's also. Too bad they don't make a Z series AFR gauge that has same face as the rest of the Z series. But the AEM gauge is close enough. One thing about those Z series gauges, they'll fog up unless you replace the incandescent bulb with LED bulb.
I mounted the gauges in the sixty four at various locations on the core support with standard single gauge underdash brackets. I used a toggle switch for the voltmeter so that there was no drain except when I wanted to see battery voltage. The gauges have survived surprisingly well.
With the large core support in these trucks you should have no trouble finding a suitable location.
also there should be no need for an A/F meter when adjusting idle mixture screws. Just turn them in all the way then back them out about a turn or turn and a half. Then turn them in until the idle stumbles, then open the ma an equal amount like about an eight or quarter turn.
The panel is actually nowhere near my leg. Photo angle makes it look that way. When I try to deliberately touch it with my leg, my foot touches the air/heat plenum way before shin gets near gauges.
I like the Autometer Z's also. Too bad they don't make a Z series AFR gauge that has same face as the rest of the Z series. But the AEM gauge is close enough. One thing about those Z series gauges, they'll fog up unless you replace the incandescent bulb with LED bulb.
Excellent info. Yeah... I didn't like the whole "chrome bezel" that most gauges have. I preferred to have less "bling" which is also why I painted my aluminum radiator jet black..
As they say "chrome won't get you home" hahaha.
Originally Posted by MBDiagMan
I mounted the gauges in the sixty four at various locations on the core support with standard single gauge underdash brackets. I used a toggle switch for the voltmeter so that there was no drain except when I wanted to see battery voltage. The gauges have survived surprisingly well.
With the large core support in these trucks you should have no trouble finding a suitable location.
also there should be no need for an A/F meter when adjusting idle mixture screws. Just turn them in all the way then back them out about a turn or turn and a half. Then turn them in until the idle stumbles, then open the ma an equal amount like about an eight or quarter turn.
Nonsense. Chrome adds horsepower, reliability, and a guaranteed 30% increase in resale value. Get on board. I had to make that gauge panel because I wanted my choke **** in it.
A side note I thought of...When you plumb your vacuum gauge, you can plump it to one of the intake runner ports, or to a constant vacuum port at base of carburetor. Run it to the carburetor or just below it if possible. If you have your vacuum line plumbed to a runner on a dual plane intake manifold, you'll only read vacuum from one cylinder. You could have a valve problem in another cylinder and never know it.
10-17-2018, 11:29 AM
