Gauges for Diesel VW Beetle baja

[greenehoosier]

I am building a Diesel VW beetle baja. The car is mostly done, now, and I have a rebuilt 1.5 diesel engine mounted with a KEP adapter. I am now to the point of adding some gauges. Can anyone recommend a set of reasonably priced/decent performing gauges or set of gauges- with sending units that will work for this application. I am looking for a coolant temp gauge, Volt or Ohm meter and an oil pressure gauge. I already have a vacuum gauge. Any thoughts/recommendations? It is a LONG way from the engine to the dash, now, so all gauges must have electronic senders. I would prefer the 2 1/16 gauges for ease of mounting in the dash- or even a trio on a panel to mount under the dash.Thanks!
Randy

[bajacalal]

A lot of us run the VDO gauge pods (with the corresponding senders) that were an option on the VW mk1 Cabriolet. It bolts right into the area around the shifter of many of our cars. You could either use that or just use the gauges by themselves in the Type 1 dash.

[theman53]

If it is going to be turbo I would use the Westach EGT gauge in my build thread with the micro 1000 probe. Both will be under 100.00 shipped I would guess. If not, I got some autometer overstock 2-1/16" off ebay pretty cheap.

[greenehoosier]

Thanks for the input. I am still gaugeless, but, I will look into the e-bay ones. How can I be sure that the oil pressure sending unit will work in my application? I understand that the volt/ohm one is pretty generic but the oil pressure one will have to be compatible to this application. Does anyone have a autometer part # that has the correct sender? Thanks again...This car will be a mpg demon when I get it done. I am hoping for 50+mpg. Possible>>??

[Bugsy_malone 666]

Was just flicking through and noticed what your doing, sounds quite cool

What I will say I have noticed is for the most part all temperature gauges made by VDO seem to be calibrated the same, on my baywindow camper I am using an oil temp gauge as a water temp gauge, I also had a porsche 944 fuel/water/lights gauge and with my bus up to temp the porsche gauge read the same as the oil temp, the fuel gauge read about the same as the the original baywindow bus one.

The only thing you will need to look out for will be the fact that you can get 5bar and 10bar oil pressure gauges, they have to be used with the correct pressure sender.

If using in serious application I would steer clear of the cheap rice look gauges found on ebay, while they look pretty good and are an indicator of sorts I found the oil pressure ones to be rubbish! Really inaccurate.

I think if I were you I would look for VDO gauges/senders on ebay/junk yards or autometer stuff, tried and tested.

I am putting a Golf GTi motor in a beetle myself, with that I will probably run oil pressure/water temp/oil temp(as my oil cooler will be seperate not part of the main coolant system). If your 1.5NA is stock then why have more than the original golf did gauges wise? stock beetle speedo will tell you what you need to know in the way of lights/fuel/speed, then unlike an aircooled you just need to keep an eye on your water temp. Thats all I have as unless your higher end of performance, why have too many 'worry' gauges? Do you really need to monitor your EGTs? if its a stock motor vw didnt fit a mk1 golf with an EGT gauge

So thats my preference, in my bus I have oil temp as the water temp gauge, a volt meter for the leisure batteries and an oil pressure gauge thats not connected lol.

Something worth hooking up while adding all your stuff in is a light on the dash thats connected to the fan with maybe an override switch, that way if water temps are high you can see when your fan is running and if your unsure you can flick the switch to check its getting power. I have had it a few times with air locks where it would get hot and I would have to check the fans to find they work fine but its actually low on water and airlocked.

Hope this helps

[Vincent Waldon]

You probably know this already, but a vacuum gauge is of no use on a diesel's intake manifold... with no throttle plate and a pretty unrestricted intake manifold diesels produce little or no vacuum.

However... they can be useful tee'd in between the fuel filter and injection pump... particularly if you run less than pristine fuel, WVO, etc... as the fuel filter clogs up the vacuum gauge will rise.

The preceding was a paid advertisement sponsored by Fatmobile... our resident vacuum gauge groupie.  

[greenehoosier]

Thanks for the input, guys. The car is still moving forward. I bought my gauges and I am happy with them, senders and adapters next. I am going with a host of gauges because I am going to be commuting and I want to be well informed, especially when it is a non-stock application that is untried. Cheap insurance. I am working on the wiring and plumbing now.

[Bugsy_malone 666]

Mine was untried or tested when I first did mine, but I would say oil pressure/water temp/fuel gauge and speedo is about all you need. Then the addition of an indication light that your radiator fan(s) is working when it does get up to temperature.

As mentioned a vac gauge probably wont tell you much and to be honest EGT gauge you shouldnt need to be worried about in a stock application, its when you start turning it you need to keep an eye on EGT's due to extra fueling etc.

I certainly thing its a cool idea, its what I'd do I wanted to build a diesel volksrod somewhen as I think it would be cool to have something slammed and burning veg oil