Vacuum Boost gauges

[Steve Wood]

Wrestling with Keith's problem or problems reminds me that I have had three different people express surprise to me in the past week when I suggested they buy a vacuum/boost gauge instead of one that reads only boost.

I was surprised that none of them knew the benefit of using vacuum to troubleshoot, or to identify when an engine was not operating properly.  To me, it is a "C'mon, Man!" moment.

It is one of the things that I frequently check when driving to see if all is well with the engine.

Ed just put up a chart in Keith's thread on diagnosing with a vacuum gauge....while there are many permutations of how the gauge may react depending upon the degree of the problem, it is one of the basic troubleshootin g steps.

We often ignore the basics and start looking for complex problems without recognizing some simple is wrong.  I suspect we did this with Keith's problem as we started trying to find out why the cam sensor is not working correctly instead of wondering if something basic was wrong.

[daveismissing]

Nice chart Ed.
Sent me looking, this may be higher res:
http://www.classictruckshop.com/clubs/earlyburbs/projects/vac/vacuum.pdf

[SuperSix]

Very nice.

I have always run a VDO VAC/Boost gauge - I like to watch gauges though.

[Top Speed]

Me too.

[ULYCYC]

Nice chart Ed.
Sent me looking, this may be higher res:
http://www.classictruckshop.com/clubs/earlyburbs/projects/vac/vacuum.pdf

If you double click on the one I posted it opens up High Res..

[daveismissing]

So it does, apologies for causing a disturbance in the force.
(the pdf is nice 'n small tho)

[SuperSix]

Saved

[Pyro6]

At the shop I bought a smoke machine. Talk about invaluable. If you see smoke, you're losing vacuum. In-car and PL especially, the vacuum gauge is the most important of em all.

[Charlief1]

One of the things I learned many years ago is the KISS method. Most of the time everyone gets into the fact that a computer is monitering a system so it has to be related somehow. Most of the time it's a mechanical issue which either sets a code or causes a running issue, but people still want to throw parts at it.   I've even been guilty of that once in a while and still have to step back and remember the rule.

[Steve Wood]

At the shop I bought a smoke machine. Talk about invaluable. If you see smoke, you're losing vacuum. In-car and PL especially, the vacuum gauge is the most important of em all.

I just call one of the local potheads to come over and exhale into the tb

[daveismissing]

Something like this?

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=445181&highlight=diy+smoke+machine

[Pyro6]

How many potheads does it take to smoke a V8??

[Steve Wood]

One, if he inhales