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Hey all,

I have a aftermarket temp guage, thats probe is too long, can i just cut it sorter to fit or are they tuned somwhow?

Whats your thoughts...

Smokey.

As in a mechanical gauge with a nylon tube to the sender? You can't shorten them, they are 'tuned' to the length of the tube. You have to coil up the excess to get an accurate reading.

But I have often wondered about the mechanical temp gauges, I mean, in different applications there will be different thermal influences on the tube. So in one car the tube might run close to say, the low side hose of the A/C and report a lower temp, whereas in another car it may run close to the exhaust and report higher....

I just run electrical gauges where I can....

I always used a mechanical (VDO - all brass) temp gauge on my Escort Twincam - the reason is that a mechanical gauge will react much faster to (possibly disastrous) changes than a (standard) electrical gauge.

It's more of an old school thing.....

r00fi wrote:I always used a mechanical (VDO - all brass) temp gauge on my Escort Twincam - the reason is that a mechanical gauge will react much faster to (possibly disastrous) changes than a (standard) electrical gauge.

It's more of an old school thing.....

i disagree.

the autometer electric water temp guage were imho faster to react to, and more accurate than the mechanical guage i ran beforehand.

my 2c.

An electrical gauge should update in less than 1 sec. If it doesn't, chuck it.

The temp guage is a wire attached to a long probe that screws into the block. Question is can I cut the probe shorter to fit? will it still give the same temp reading? I know I can test it before and after the cut to find the answer to my question by using a pot of boiling water. But if it doesn't read the same then its kinda too late....

Smokey

If it's electrical I don't see why not. Just make sure you connect the wires back up the right way around.