In days gone by, a lot of guys had a few gauges mounted in their firewalls to aid tuning. I'd like to do that on my next build, but I'm wondering, with all the plastic stuff being made now, would new gauges melt or perhaps the guts malfunction? I like Dali's stuff, but melting gauges might be over the top. Gary
I would definatly not use plastic oil lines from engine to guage. I had a truck catch fire because the plastic line that came with a pressure guage kit. Run 1/8 inch copper line. This happened on the way to take my wife to the hospital for surgery about 10 years ago. By the time I stopped the truck we had to get out through the flames coming from under the tank. I try to avoid plastic for some things and anything from china.
I read your post and I think your talking about cheap plastic gauges. Look for some vintage gauges on E-bay like SW or VDO. Your not going to burn your car down if you route your lines safe and install them correct the first time. I have had plastic oil lines on many race cars,street cars and drag boats and never had one leak or catch fire. Just use some common sense.
I think one of the best gauges to run on your firewall is a vintage vacuum gauge for easy carb tuning.
I normally don't agree with you just even if you are right. But this is a very good idea for anyone that is inclined to put a screw driver to one. Now back to being disagreeable. gnichols, I would be concerned about engine temps and newer gauges, it is easy to find older all metal and gl*** gauges or you can still get S/W guages in metal and gl***.
I'd agree on the older stuff. I'd also be leary of new stuff that looks all metal and gl*** but might have modern electroincs and plastic bits for needles, etc. On the flip side, folks like VDO make a lot of industrial / marine type gauges with plastic cases that are probably made to take some abuse. I've been thinking of rpm, vac, oil and fuel pressure mostly. Any more than that might get gawdy. Or perhaps one large 3n1 or 4n1 vintage dash gauge? Gary
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