blazinyellowbeast

When buying Auto Meter Gauges, what exactly is the difference between electrical and mechanical? I think I have a good idea but I'm not sure.

Another question, I'm going to get an oil pressure gauge and water temp gauge to put in when I put my car back together just to make sure, how hard are these to install. Should I go with the mechanical or electrical gauges. If what I'm thinking is correct, wouldn't mechanical be better.

Thanks guys for any help.

Twisted

I went with electrical, although I haven't installed them yet. From what I understand, the benefit of electrical is not having to pipe hot oil into the cabin for your oil pressure gauge. I haven't yet gotten a straight answer on which is better though. Some say mechanicals are more accurate, and some say electricals are. I did, however, have a local 5.0 guru strongly recommend electrical gauges, so that's what I got.

The installation of the electrical gauges should be fairly straightforward. I'm going to use a test light and wiring diagrams to make sure I get it right though.

Twisted

By the way, where are you mounting the gauges? I ordered a panel from this place:

http://gaugeplates.com/ford_fox.php

Pure5.0

I have heard (although have never seen factual evidence of numbers) that mechanical is more accurate but I think both are the same.

Mechanical the unit that is doing the measuring (pressure, boost, temp, etc) is in the guage itself.

Electrical has a unit that is considered a sending unit that measures and then just sends a signal to your guage.

I prefer electrical.

4fit?

Mechanicals are slightly more accurate from what I can tell. I went electrical Oil Press and Water Temp. Install is very straight forward. if you want your stock gauges to work as well as the new autometer units, you will need to use the adapter log for the oil pressure gauge and for the water temp you will either need to drill and tap another place in your manifold or buy the FRPP thermostat housing that has a threaded boss on the top to mount the sending unit. I will say that the housing is prone to leaking, especially if it has to be removed when it's been on there for a while. I'm fighting that battle right now and have decided to just get another housing since they are less than $30.00. HTH

7upedition

my understnading is electrical is less of a risk for mess and easier to install while mechanical are slightly more accurate, i'd get electrical if i were buying them!

4fit?

Exactly true. However, for very important stuff like fuel pressure, I would suggest mechanical. I'm going to run mech fuel press and nitrous press out on the cowl.

Twisted

But both types are more accurate than the factory 5.0 gauges, correct?

blazinyellowbeast

Wow, that makes alot more sense, thanks for all the info guys. I was a little off in my thinking on the mechanical vs electrical units, I'm kinda glad I asked now. I think I will go with the electrical units now.

4fit? do they have the adapter for the oil pressure gauge at summit, what about the thermo housing?

Twisted I was looking into the gauge pod that takes the place of the factory clock in the SN95s but I might have to look into those other panels where you got yours. That would probably look good.

Thanks again.

4fit?

Absolutely. I like knowing that my temp is 180 instead of somewhere inbetween the M and A in NORMAL. [8D]