cylinder head temp gauges

[westypoo]

ive been trying to shop around and see where i can get a cylinder head temp gauge, or gauges. what are you guys running, and where can i buy it from. also what are good normal head temp #s? ill be turboing my type 4. so im sure ill se a little higher head temps.

[david58]

There has to be a way to make this work. Click to watch.





Description.................................Part No. Price
CHT VDO 2" W/PROBE 14MM 10-01423 $88.25


Description......................................... Part No. Price
WESTACH 254-20EDPP DUAL 4 POS. 10-00234 $56.95

The thermocouple lead is 15 inches long. The harness is 15 feet long. I called to see how much the thermocouple are but my phone lost connection.
So it looks like for under $200.00 bucks you could go store bought and monitor all 4 cylinders on the fly with the switch above.

Edit CP130 CHT Probe 14mm 10-00823 $18.95

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/i ... robes2.php

There was post today on the Type2 mailing list showing exactly how bad the VDO CHT gauge/sender is:

http://homepage.mac.com/ratwell/VDOGaug ... isited.txt [ed url 7/24/06]

I've been bothered by them for about year because there is simply no way to know what the real temperature the heads are at but it's a really important gauge to have. Gene Berg has a great writeup on how he hates them. They can't be calibrated and even if you could adjust it the technology is too simplistic to deal with ambient temperature changes. I've been using a Fluke DMM for my own readings: it's digital, dead accurate but not dash mount friendly.

Wouldn't it be great if there was a gauge with the following features:

- 2 1/16" (52mm) round size
- accuracy WITH cold junction compensation circuitry
- affordable

I finally found such a company in Dakota Digital [ed url 7/24/06]. I discovered them a few years ago when I was looking at a magazine article about their expensive beetle instrument cluster but I never went to their website to discover all of their other products (maybe there wasn't one at the time).

Not only do their gauges meet our basic requiements, they also have:

- digital display with night dimming
- microprocessor stabilized readings
- user adjustable flashing indicator

That's right. You can program it to flash at you when the gauge reads any temperature you desire between 300-600F. This is a miracle for bus owners: you no longer have to drive by the gauge: just wait for it to flash like a real idiot light!

The gauge is $109 without harness. Their harness only goes up to 14 ft. but they will make up a cutom length for you for an extra $5 (their wiring is thermocouple all the way to the gauge). Unfortunately, their ring terminal only fits under a 1/2" bolt so I decided to make my own harness.

If you purchase a new 14mm ring terminal or re-use your VDO terminal, buy a suitable length of k-type thermocouple from your local electronics surplus for 50 cents/ft. you be in CHT Nirvana for only a little more money than the VDO setup but for a lot more value.

I've tested this gauge simultaneously against the Fluke between 200-420F in the bus and the Dakota Digital gauge was only 5F higher throughout that temperature range so I know it doesn't wander. Because it's got the CJC circuitry, the gauge itself is also immune to freezing/heating and I tested that also in the house.

They also make matching OT and OP gauges. They aren'y exactly cheap but if you want to be warned when the oil temp is too high or the oil pressure is too low without driving by the gauges, these are the gauges for you.

It gets better: Dakota Digital uses VDO senders so you can re-use your senders with their gauges. I haven't bought either or these two gauges to prove it but that's what they tell me. Some of their gauges have programmable temperature ranges for maximum sender compatibility.

Their gauges are the old style with the mounting bracket on the back unlike the more modern VDO spin-loc hardware. Because of that I recommend you use the VDO rubber mounting plate instead of the metal plates.

Isn't this awesome? I chose the blue display with the black bezel.



Don't throw out your VDO gauges! VDO makes some really nice mounting hardware you can re-use.

[westypoo]

cool. awsome info. what i also realized (i think) is that could i just get away with just using an EGT gauge instead of a CHT gauge... are they more/less the same? also what are good normal head temps on a type 4 motor? and whats TOO hot?

[westypoo]

bump

[72bajaben]

http://www.egauges.com/ guages is their thing....and they are cheap.



i know that the VDO Cockpit Black series has a CHT guage.

http://www.egauges.com/vdo_mult.asp?Typ ... it&Units=E

$75.75 and it comes complete with the sender and wiring.

[Piledriver]

I bought a couple used aircraft dual CHTs off Ebay and an EGT for $16.

Alcon IIRC.

(yes, not temp compensated, but for the price, I can adapt)

The VEMS single WBO2 gauge (with EGT or CHT+tach for datalogging) is currently going for $299 shipped... IMHO money much better spent, as the TC head is temp compensated. (Comes with the WBO2 of course) and the RPM input/logging lets you use it as a pretty repeatable butt dyno in post analysis.

It can supposedly even do boost control... Not sure if that firmware is released yet. also has 2X 0-5v inputs to log TPS/boost/whatever... I'm trying to figure out if I can use the programmable output to drive a CIS-E or M meter through an output driver and some trivial electronics.

You could combine it with Westachs switch and log EGT OR CHT depending on your mood... You still need to buy or make the TCs.

It's a slick little unit for the price.

http://www.vems.us/eaw52.php
http://www.phattransmissions.com/VEMSWB ... EADME.html

[func412]

I use these.
http://www.falcongauge.com/

Guite cheap and works fine. Only issue is that there are no lights inside the gauge.