View Single Post
Old 07-10-2008, 05:02 PM   #11 (permalink)
cfg83
Pokémoderator
 
cfg83's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Southern California
Posts: 5,864

1999 Saturn SW2 - '99 Saturn SW2 Wagon
Team Saturn
90 day: 40.49 mpg (US)
Thanks: 439
Thanked 532 Times in 358 Posts
Johnny Mullet -

Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Mullet View Post
Wow. The old vacuum gauge I was using was an older one offered by JC Whitney and it did not even have a number scale on it, just a green "Economy" and a red "Power" display in it. I had no issues with it after 10 years of use in multiple vehicles until the needle fell off.
I ordered a couple of these last week and swapped one of them in :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/7771-post59.html
Quote:
Here is a vacuum gauge from the 1970's that did a similar thing to your speedometer suggestion :

MILEAGE MONITOR (vacuum gauge)
Auto Vacume gauge (vacuum gage) - Save gas and your engine
I got more than one because they're cheap and I want to be able to offer the option to my friends and family if they get the hyper/ecomodding/miling bug. The fellow I bought them from was also very nice. I think it is more accurate than the original one I got, but it also has an error. It is reading at the upper boundary of the "idle" zone when I am idling. As you can see in the above picture, the "off position" of the red needle is not in the white/zero area. That's what mine looks like when the engine is off. Since I have more than one, I was able to compare them. The other one I have is in the "off zone". Sooooooooooooooo, I plan to swap in the "accurate" one and see if I can turn the dial/background of the other one so that it is also reading accurately. This is actually stuff I like to do, i.e. get cheapy things and make them work better.

I still like the cheapy JC-Whitney one I originally got because the dial is more responsive (270 degrees versus less than 90 degrees). I might make my own custom "dial backing" if I have enough time to recalibrate/remap against a professional vacuum gauge.

Even when it's "broken", I am happy, because I learn something, .

CarloSW2

__________________

What's your EPA MPG? Go Here and find out!
American Solar Energy Society
  Reply With Quote