Marin,
I was waiting for you to chime in. Thanks!
Rich
'60 Series II 109 sw
----- Original Message -----
From: Faure, Marin <Marin.Faure@PSS.Boeing.com>
To: 'Land Rover Mail Group' <LRO@works.team.net>
Cc: <paddlers@nwlink.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 11:50 AM
Subject: LRO: Re: instrument panel
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001 20:01:47 -0700
From: "Rich & Lori Williams" <paddlers@nwlink.com>
Subject: LRO: instrument panel
>So while I'm at it, does anyone have any good suggestions of something else
to add. I don't want to make this look like the panel on a F-117 but I was
thinking about also adding a vacuum gauge and an hour clock.
In my never-to-be-humble opinion, there are only five instruments
really necessary in a Series. These are tach, manifold pressure,
oil pressure, water temperature, and fuel level. Anything
else is nice to have, but not really relevant. You'll know if
your electrics are working by how the engine sounds when
it cranks over, how the lights dim, etc. A speedometer is
irrelevant, and the odometer is useful only for timing oil
changes. However, I have neither in my SIII, and simply
change the oil when it starts looking dirty. But the two
instruments I monitor constantly while driving are the tach
and the manifold pressure gauge. The tach, of course,
tells you how you're doing in relation to the maximum
rpm of the engine. With a redline of only 4,250 rpm,
it is very easy to find yourself running at only a few
hundred rpm below that to keep up with traffic. I have
made it a policy in the last 28 years to never run
above 3,000 rpm outside of the occasional venture
above that when pulling into traffic, and have enjoyed
28 years of almost trouble-free engine performance.
The manifold pressure gauge is just as critical, because
it tells you how hard the engine is working. This is extremely
important today if you are running a stock engine on unleaded
fuel. One of the main contributors to valve seat erosion is heat,
and the harder you work the engine, the more heat is generated.
A tach alone won't tell you this, because you can work an engine
very hard at a relatively low rpm. A manifold pressure gauge is
the only way to know how hard the engine is having to work, and
when it's time to shift to a lower gear and a higher rpm to reduce
heat and pressure.
___________________________
C. Marin Faure
(original owner)
1973 Land Rover Series III-88
1991 Range Rover Vogue SE
Seattle
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