I was wondering if the analog engine guages from Vans are a good deal? Obviously they are not as fancy as the Electronics International, but do they get the job done? By the way, this is my first post. Glad to be among you. Am in final planning stages for either an 8 or 8A. Look forward to the build.
Van's Air Force
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Use the Vans engine guages
- Thread starter aerotim
- Start date
gmcjetpilot
Well Known Member
To analog or not
If you like analog than it might be a fine choice. However you need to be aware some of their gages are subject to EMF, where transmitting on the radio caused the gage needle to deflect full scale. I know at least two of their gages that seem to have a tendency for this. It is fairly common. Van's advice to one builder was ignore it, because it did not hurt the gage. That would not work for me.
I know for sure the MAP gage can do this and I believe the amp meter. I helped a guy with a jumpy MAP gage. I had him reroute the wires away from the coax. I think that is all we had to do. If that did not work, the next thing to try would be using shielded wire or twisting the wire pairs together. If that did not work EMF could be going thru the gage case or transducer itself a metal shield might help? So this may be an installation issue, and looks like it is solvable. Several people have had this issue, while others have not.
I have heard of small complaints about the oil pressure gage being erratic (not from the radio) and something about the tach installations. The gages have been around since 1999 and I think overall they are OK. As long as they are electric I think that is great. I don't care for mechanical OP and FP gages, since you want to keep the hot oil and fuel lines out of the cockpit as much as you can.
However to add my opinion I much prefer the digital engine monitor. The GRT EIS-4000 can be had for less than $1000 with all the basic functions: EGT, CHT, OT, OT, Tach, OAT. If you add all the bells and whistles (L&R fuel level, Fuel Flow, FP, AMPS, MAP) it is about $1600. The nice thing is it monitors all functions and warns of exceeding a Hi or LO limit. This of course has 4 channels of EGT and CHT. A lot of bang for the buck and a real safety item with the alert function but not as sexy as all those little analog gages. As far as EGT and CHT you could use a switch and get all 4 cylinders, but I find the digital engine monitors are much more useful. Van's sells a Electronics International Smart Analyzer, but it will end up costing more than just going with a EIS-4000 in the first place. I like the bar graph display better.
George
If you like analog than it might be a fine choice. However you need to be aware some of their gages are subject to EMF, where transmitting on the radio caused the gage needle to deflect full scale. I know at least two of their gages that seem to have a tendency for this. It is fairly common. Van's advice to one builder was ignore it, because it did not hurt the gage. That would not work for me.
I know for sure the MAP gage can do this and I believe the amp meter. I helped a guy with a jumpy MAP gage. I had him reroute the wires away from the coax. I think that is all we had to do. If that did not work, the next thing to try would be using shielded wire or twisting the wire pairs together. If that did not work EMF could be going thru the gage case or transducer itself a metal shield might help? So this may be an installation issue, and looks like it is solvable. Several people have had this issue, while others have not.
I have heard of small complaints about the oil pressure gage being erratic (not from the radio) and something about the tach installations. The gages have been around since 1999 and I think overall they are OK. As long as they are electric I think that is great. I don't care for mechanical OP and FP gages, since you want to keep the hot oil and fuel lines out of the cockpit as much as you can.
However to add my opinion I much prefer the digital engine monitor. The GRT EIS-4000 can be had for less than $1000 with all the basic functions: EGT, CHT, OT, OT, Tach, OAT. If you add all the bells and whistles (L&R fuel level, Fuel Flow, FP, AMPS, MAP) it is about $1600. The nice thing is it monitors all functions and warns of exceeding a Hi or LO limit. This of course has 4 channels of EGT and CHT. A lot of bang for the buck and a real safety item with the alert function but not as sexy as all those little analog gages. As far as EGT and CHT you could use a switch and get all 4 cylinders, but I find the digital engine monitors are much more useful. Van's sells a Electronics International Smart Analyzer, but it will end up costing more than just going with a EIS-4000 in the first place. I like the bar graph display better.
George
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Think carefully about Van's gauges
My experience is that Van's gauges last around 400 hours, in 4 years. Specificaly, the MAP gauge suffered from the EMC problem described by George, then quit entirely. The oil pressure was next (quit on base leg into Osh last year - rather bad timing). I then replaced all the engine gauges with an EIS-4000 - I now have five 2 1/4 holes and one 3 1/8" (tach) holes in my panel! That revealed that the CHT was reading 30 to 50F low (now have 4 CHTs), oilt temp may have been 10 or 20F low as well.
The fuel gauges, voltage and fuel pressure were reliable until removed - I am still using the fuel gauges.
My vote would be with the EIS-4000, it only took a day to retrofit and has been great for 60 hours now. It is probably more expensive than a panel full of analogue gauges, but I have more information than I had andit takes up much less space.
Pete
My experience is that Van's gauges last around 400 hours, in 4 years. Specificaly, the MAP gauge suffered from the EMC problem described by George, then quit entirely. The oil pressure was next (quit on base leg into Osh last year - rather bad timing). I then replaced all the engine gauges with an EIS-4000 - I now have five 2 1/4 holes and one 3 1/8" (tach) holes in my panel! That revealed that the CHT was reading 30 to 50F low (now have 4 CHTs), oilt temp may have been 10 or 20F low as well.
The fuel gauges, voltage and fuel pressure were reliable until removed - I am still using the fuel gauges.
My vote would be with the EIS-4000, it only took a day to retrofit and has been great for 60 hours now. It is probably more expensive than a panel full of analogue gauges, but I have more information than I had andit takes up much less space.
Pete
