Help me make a decision here - Combo gage or stock Options

[bbrock]

My set up

It's just personal opinion, but I'd be inclined to go back to original only to get the fuel gauge back up in the cluster where I prefer. The location of the fuel gauge in the dash also looks too crowded for my taste. If I had a gauge like in post #13, I'd swap that in for my original combo gauge in a heartbeat.

[r_towle]

combo gauge is cool.

[pete000]

I like the 911 combo and the remote mounted fuel gauge AKA 914-6 GT

[Mikey914]

It kind of grows on ya.
I do have a replacement, but it’s a bunch of work to swap back. I can always do it later.

[gothspeed]

I like mine, it looks more stock than others. Mine is the same as this one, but with out the silver dot.

Very nice! The silver dot makes it 'look' right. who makes this one? Where to buy? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[deemsriddle]

I am at the point I my rebuild that it is gage time. I would like either a 3 or 4 gage unit. Where do I buy one. Pleas help an old man. Thanks. Deems

[Cairo94507]

Check with Palo Alto Speedometer, Palo Alto, California. Hartmut did my gauges and I love the way they came out. Not inexpensive, but top quality.

[mepstein]

Too much?

[gothspeed]

Too much?

one needs a road map to find one's way around that space .. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

[John]

The reason I never liked the 911 combo gauge only was because way back in the day, the separate fuel gauges were no where near accurate and lacked the idiot light for low fuel. We had one when we first put together the track car back in the 80's.

Before I started doing my version of the triple gauge kits, I got rid of the speedometer (not needed for the track), and put in a stock 914 fuel gauge. I went so far as to re-purpose the brake warning light at the top of that gauge as a low fuel warning. (The track car is still set up that way)





I understand some folks not liking the pressure gauge, but that is how most 911's were so I wanted to keep that in my 914-6 conversions.

One of my street 914's is using one of my triple gauges, but I don't care for all the numbers, so I'm using the stock 911 temp gauge, and a pressure gauge re-labeled in BARs like the later air cooled 911's {up to 1989}.

[type47fan]

I like the 911 combo and the remote mounted fuel gauge AKA 914-6 GT

This is my setup . . . .

[Steve]

I like mine, it looks more stock than others. Mine is the same as this one, but with out the silver dot.

Very nice! The silver dot makes it 'look' right. who makes this one? Where to buy? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

John made mine. He posted on this thread. I don’t know if he is still doing it.
He did an amazing job on mine, but turnaround was slow since he has a day job. Well worth the wait....

[Mikey914]

I do like Johns version. But given the condition of the vehicle, i was thinking stock was where i wanted to go. Its easier to do nothing, therefore, for now at least. Im leaving it.
The car also has a pretty trick offset oil cooler ill post up more on when cary has it on the rack.

[Racer]

Stock. Combos are for racers or posers (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

[r_towle]

Stock. Combos are for racers or posers (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

Nice board name... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/poke.gif)

[RickS]

Had to update my signature to reflect my new esteemed poser status. Thanks Racer for the reminder. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Greg, I appreciate your thoughtful analysis on human decision making. In is interesting to note that about 45% of our population interacts with the world and process data in a purely black or white, on or off, good or bad manner. The other 40% see the world in a non-binary manner, where multiple factors from multiple sources are analyzed, of course colored by personal bias, prior to making a decision. Call this many shades of gray. The remainder do not neatly fall into either camp and may fall into, drug abuses, mental defectives or mentally ill.

Until the advent of digitally based dashboards, where display can be selected, automakers found it far more cost effective to use Idiot Lights (binary warning) than using full gauge clusters with all their complexity. 914s being the bargain basement entry into VW-Porsche received, as you know, fewer gauges with more idiot lights than its higher priced 911 brethren. It’s a cost thing. There is no right answer for everyone

When I see my alternator light on, I can cross reference with the analog readout to see if I am in deep do do, if the volts are reading <12 Volts and going down fast, rather than making a best case guess how much farther I can drive. When the light came on, I continued to drive the car for short distances for two weeks (battery on charger during evenings) while I closely monitored if I had <12V. It works for me but recognize it doesn’t work for everyone. As for oil temps, if I am running at 240* I know how far hot I am running and to back off, compared to 280* when I know I need to shut it down rather than just back off.

We could take your binary argument to the extreme and say, people don’t need all the information provided by a fuel gauge, just a light to come on to tell you have some finite range remaining. No light, no issue.

In grad school I enjoyed taking classes inhuman factors engineering and ergonomics as well as human behavioral analysis so these are favorite subject areas as you can unfortunately tell.

[gothspeed]

I would like to find a custom 'combo' gauge with fuel on bottom and oil pressure on top. Then the idiot lights like the -6 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[sithot]

Here is a friend's combo gauge in his lightly modified 356B.

[98101]

^^^...and I'm the opposite. I think you can have too much information to the point it's distracting. I don't care what the value is unless it's out of spec, so I love me some basic gauges and idiot lights. I removed the center console and its gauges and use the basic combo with oil temp and lights.

This is probably true.

For some reason my car came with the gauges you'd expect, plus oil temp, plus cylinder #3 head temp, plus oil pressure, plus fuel pressure, plus manifold vacuum, plus voltage meter, plus ammeter, plus a wind up clock with a timer built in. In a modern car I guess a computer would watch all things things and alert me to any problems but this is my toy and it's fun pretending I'm piloting a WWII bomber. I guess this puts me in the poseur category. If I fire up the 123\Tune app I can also see spark advance and distributor temperature. I don't know why the 123 distributor has a temperature sensor since they didn't provide a way to incorporate it into spark advance (yet).

The oil pressure gauge may actually be practical, as it reminds me not to rev the new engine when it's cold. The oil temp gauge is helping me realize how long it's taking to get to operating temperature -- why I'm getting milky white condensation inside the oil filler lid. For cylinder head temperature, I might be better off with a klaxon. I do wish the brake warning light was properly hooked up to my parking brake.

TANGENT:
In 1985 I had a 1975 915 2.0 with the stupid progressive Weber set up and a 009. In the Arizona heat, the oil pressure light flickered at idle -- no gauge in that car. I was a dumb kid and there was no 914World. The mechanic said my bearings must be worn out, needed a rebuild... very expensive for a kid starting his career. During the rebuild, they told me there was a problem with my 2.0 heads, offered replacement heads (which weren't the Porsche ones of course). When the engine was back in the car, the oil pressure light flickered just as it had before.

[campbellcj]

I have a 4-way combo gauge and can attest to the statement(s) above that it's a bear to wire-up, but once done, I like it. Previously I had the small VDO gauges in the stock radio position - looked cool but for a track car you really need the info directly in front of you. Plus, the single quad gauge probably weighs less. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I don't yet have a large, bright oil pressure idiot light but that's somewhere on my list.