crash-harris
Breaker! Breaker!
Tip. Add a fuel pressure gauge. You will be glad you did
That's one of the items on my to do list, along with the normal set of 3 mechanical gauges and a pyrometer.
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Tip. Add a fuel pressure gauge. You will be glad you did
Many years ago, I installed a mechanical oil pressure gauge in my Dodge Omni (okay, more like DECADES ago....) daily driver. I thought it (and I) was the shizzz, until the line leaked right at the gauge head. It was then that it occurred to me, any vital, flammable, or high pressure fluids used to operate the engine should NOT enter the passenger compartment (this is why your heater core is right on the firewall, and not piped way into the HVAC control panel area). Just get an electric fuel pressure gauge and run a WIRE into the cab. Worst case is that the wire will chafe and blow the fuse for that circuit.So what size are our fuel lines?
I'm thinking of using a brass tee fitting right under the drivers seat on the frame rail with hose barbs and a shutoff valve on it so I can plumb a braided hose into the cab to the fuel pressure gauge. That way if it ever starts leaking I could jump out, shut it off and continue driving.
...Did you know that plastic corrugated tubing will rub through steel over time?
"Real time"? Um, from an electric sending unit to an electric gauge head, the signal is going over a copper wire at something close to the speed of light. Over, what, 1-2 meters, you're talking nanoseconds (if that; I don't feel like doing the math...) of delay. If you could react to a change in the reading in that kind of time, you're pretty darn good. The wire from the sending unit to the gauge head could stretch once around the Earth, and it would only have a delay of one-seventh of a second (although it would make for rather tricky driving.....).I've thought about this, although my entire reasoning behind mechanical gauges is to see data in real time, mechanically. Hence the shut off valve for the feed line to the gauge.
"Real time"? Um, from an electric sending unit to an electric gauge head, the signal is going over a copper wire at something close to the speed of light. Over, what, 1-2 meters, you're talking nanoseconds (if that; I don't feel like doing the math...) of delay. If you could react to a change in the reading in that kind of time, you're pretty darn good. The wire from the sending unit to the gauge head could stretch once around the Earth, and it would only have a delay of one-seventh of a second (although it would make for rather tricky driving.....).
You won't be able to shut that valve in "real time". You'd be very lucky if it only failed at a time where it wasn't perilous to pull over and cut it off.
(Hmmm, now I'm actually wondering, when the pressure changes in the fuel line, would the change in pressure going down the branch to the gauge head actually happen faster than an electrical signal from a sending unit right at the line picking up that same pressure change? Again, we're talking nano- or maybe pico-seconds, but......)