VAP

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/AudiWorldPics/2000/gauges.JPG"></center><p>With the eminent K04/IC/OC/225 intake/exhaust conversion coming up on the 15th I thought maybe I oughtta find a home for these little guys toot-sweet.

Both boost and oil pressure gauges as of this morning are unfunctional but installed. Mance dont do gauge-installs... makes me crazy. Too tedious and fidgety for my liking... just doesnt suit me. I'm good at big behonking mechanical stuff but wiring and running tubes requires an entirely different personality... like a stereo installer with mechanical knowledge.

Oil temp gauge will go into the lower pod housing. It cant be installed even temporarily due to its capillary tube is too stiff and rigid to be coiled tightly enough to be tucked into the pod. It'll be installed when it can be uncoiled and routed thru the firewall and plumbed into the oil cooler return line thru Aeroquip ss hose w a "tee" connection fabricated in-line with dual outlets. Oil cooler will be an "Earls" and mounting location to be decided during IC install as to whether it goes in right or left lower grill.

Oil pressure gauge is also mechanical and will be a pretty straightfoward install with little problem getting its small 1/8" diameter tube thru the firewall and into the oil return line as part of the same in-line tee fitting where temp is picked up.

Boost gauge provided the most challenge, fun and satisfaction as far as how it is incorporated into the left upper dash vent. Did have to use a new Egyptian cotton washcloth to stuff into the duct behind it so I would force all the air that used to go thru 4 vents and now thru only 3. If you dont block it off you'll be heating and cooling the dash internals with a noticeable drop in CFM's of moving air.

I had to butcher the vent itself once removed, saving only the much-heralded dimpled trim ring (bezel) and its inner sleeve for a friction/interference fit into the dash housing. Took longer to figure out how to disassemble it than it did to make it fit. That vent is pretty complex with a lot of gear drives. But I discovered it can be pried away from its mating piece with a blade screwdriver. After deciding to keep the bezel and press-fit sleeve it was then only a matter of a Dremel tool with a sanding drum to open up the internal bezel I.D. to accomodate the gauge body. I left it a tight fit so the bezel has to be rotated back and forth as its slid up the gauge body until it snugs up against the rear of the gauges aluminum bezel. After that its just a matter of hot-gluing the sleeve that proveides the friction fit in the dash to the rear of the dimpled bezel and push it back in. Once done it looks about as close to stock as is achievable IMHO.

Gauges are all Auto Meter "sport comp" series. Pod mounted gauges are 2.125" diameter while boost gauge is 2.625" diameter (2 1/8" & 2 5/8" respectively).

Pod is mounted by wedging its lower corner into the tight gap between where the dash meets the A-pillar. Top is then held in place with (are you ready for this!?!) a cut up ss steel hose clamp. Look closely and you can see the "worm" holes for the screw to turn it. I just measured the length required then cut it to length. Then fashioned a "hook" on each end by bending the band tips with needle nose pliars then tucked it under the rubber weatherstrip and over the A-pillar decorative shell. On the windshield side I just looped the mild hook again over the A pillar decorative shell. I will buy a larger hose clamp later today so it only appears as a ss band rather than a cut up hose clamp.

All gauges will be wired into the dash-light brightness feature. I might have to shuffle some bulbs with different watt ratings to achieve the same illumination intensity as the dash at a given setting. "That" is something I am willing to do.

I chose the Sports Comp series gauges due to their almost perfect match of the TT's interior trim. Satin aluminum bezels, black faces and white numbers that are a very very close font/typestyle to whats used in the TT speedo/tach/temp/fuel level gauges.

Pod is also Auto Comp and part number is in the archives. Gauges ran just under $160. Took about an hour and 15 minutes to do this with an hour being spent on making the left vent work with the boost gauge.

Just Plain Cliff

(OK, so my eyesight is worsening with age) although I spotted the hose clamp decor right away!

QuaTTrochick

<p>MY2000 180QC
Lake Silver/Aviator Gray

spindocttor

Wow! Can you come over and do the same to mine?

Colonel Bogey

Hey guy, this looks great.

Last night I was watching the best road racing series going (BTCC) and once again noted the short, wide LED data block that was displaying 3 to 4 blocks of information. Please don't infer by my question that I think it might be a better solution than you have cuz what you have looks GREAT! Rather, did you consider the LED route (of course you did) and why did you decide to go the mechanical route? Accuracy, $$, install ease...<p><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/AudiWorldPics/2000/cbsigx.jpg" borders="0">

VAP

I'm of the old school. Dont trust eclectronic gizmos. And its extremely difficult to read a lot of led numbers and take it all in while driving agressively/competitively. Once these gauges are installed and hooked up they will all be rotated counter-clockwise to where the needles/pointers are at the 12 o:clock position denoting normal operating temp/pressure/boost, so I dont have to read/understand what the gauges are saying unless I instinctively see one of them much above/below its straight-up position. I can do that sublimally without focusing on a particular gauge unless its out of its normal range. LED's dont allow for that. With them you have to focus on every bit of information given and mentally do the mental math on if thats a good/bad number. There's but one gauge I want to do that with during the heat of competition... the tach. None of the other gauges matter unless they are to the "right" (mainly) of a straight up orientation.

All comes down to "at-a-glance" gauge monitoring while doing a dozen other things simultaneously. I havent found anything yet that betters "needle-north" reckoning... at least for me.