Mechanical vs. Electrical temp gauge

[Jessie James]

I can't understand why anyone would want to try to run a water, oil, or vacuum line through the firewall and under the dash. What an incredible pain in the ass, and as some folks have found out when things go wrong it's a complete mess.

I always do electric gauges.

 

[folkenheath]

I am jealous of that gauge cluster sir

Thanks. It took more more than a few hours to get it that way.

 

[ryoken]

I can't understand why anyone would want to try to run a water, oil, or vacuum line through the firewall and under the dash. What an incredible pain in the ass, and as some folks have found out when things go wrong it's a complete mess.

I always do electric gauges.

water is the same effectively as an electric sender. it stays out at the motor despite the giant feed..

vac I don't see really as an issue, mine will be out at the cowl tho....

oil pressure I run inside mechanical... I think I've run tube on about 15 cars, and never had an issue... most failures are due to improper install, either with the ferrel/fittings themselves, or the often neglected chafe/strain relief aspects...


most electrics are fine and often desirable for the ease of routing, etc... the main reason people run mechanicals is the accuracy... tho the gap has closed recently, mechanicals have always been a more sure-fire reading over the decades... any drag racer from the 70's will tell ya that...

and in some cases, oil in particular, mechanical eliminates a possible failpoint.. the sender.... which, by far, is the most likely electric sender to have issues with... how many times will you here someone in here say "drop a mechanical on it"?

I deal with excessive gauge work on a daily basis with the boats.... very common failure to have electric oil senders leak... gotta do one on some russians boat by the end of the week actually...

electric senders have come a long way tho and not a bad choice in the majority of cases...

my final setup is..

tach - elec

fuel level - elec

volt 1 & 2 - elec

water temp - elec

trans temp - elec

oil temp - elec

stoich - elec

oil pressure - mech

speedo - mech

fuel pressure - mech - cowl

vacuum - mech - cowl

trans pressure - mech - cowl




the only mech in the cab being oil and speedo...

 

[DizturbedOne]

Also, like it or not, mechanicals last SO much longer. Seen plenty of 40 year old mechs, but have replaced hundreds of elec's only a couple years old.

Only time I've replaced a mech that young was a bad install/cheapo crap

Mech's are also friendly to trailside fixes, most of the time you just "need a new sender" on the electrics

I would not trust my oil pressure to an electric that may ground out/corrode/suffer under voltage problems and stop working or work incorrectly. oil pressure is too important to me... If the motor is turning over (even just with the starter), I want a pressure reading, PERIOD

I would have a hard time trusting the accuracy of an elec vacuum gauge

everything else is up in the air, and I would probably run elec as long as they have nice full sweep needles and not those stupid 90 degree ones that you always see in new stuff

I got my mechanical water sender for free so that's what I'm using. It works very well (better than the previous electric one) and there is nothing to really break. No water is transfered into a tube or the like, just a metal wire connecting a radiator probe to a switch under the hood, with elec wiring for the gauge

 

[ryoken]

hmm, didn't even know they made an electric vacuum.. had to just look them up... not cheap tho... just like fuel pressures with an isolator ain't cheap...

mechanical vac is a nobrainer for me.. I'm trying to get a working flapper in the cowl hood at some point anyway, so it's an excuse to get a vac source up there..

 

[Pookster]

I prefer electric. Just dont cheap out on it.