fitting an aftermarket tacho

[littlered]

hi ive got a nice aftermarket tacho i want to fit,my dad fitted one in my last car but i fancy doing this one myself,any advice would be great thanks.
also its a 1.4 26,000 what would be the correct redline for setting the gauge(as i need to set a limit on the gauge for the shift light)
and PLEASE dont tell me i dont need one!!!!!!
as i know this but just like the look lol
cheers carlyle

[Chris_C]

Not convinced anyone will tell you you don't need one, they are damn useful

OEM redline is 5500 for the 1.4, though it doesn't like going up there at all unlike the 1.7 and will just get noisier at the expense of power

Wiring, I'd imagine your gauge has a +ve, GND and signal wire, and the bulbholder has either one or two wires as well. Find a switched positive for your +ve, GND to chassis somewhere, and run the bulb holder wires to something like the cigarette lighter or clock bulb holder so that it comes on with sidelights. Signal for the gauge will come off a grey wire from your renix, but if you search you will likely find that runs up to the instrument cluster in your car anyway as you have a late one.

[Alex Laidlaw]

Is the redline on the 1.4 really that low? Does the 1.4 have any kind of rev limiter on it either?

[volvodspec]

5500 rpm is where factory rated it's max power.

a healthy b14 can rev beyond that. topspeed with a CVT vehicle can be reached at 6300rpm, that's about 170km on gps.
a manual healthy b14 can cope with 6500 before changing gears.

Chris, you really should try driving a manual with a proper serviced B14 and then you might want to adjust your post a bit

[Chris_C]

My B14 was healthy mate, twas surprisingly nippy compared to the other 300's at the first few V3M meets. It's been.... 5 years nearly since I drove one though but I just remember being hugely surprised at how much more the B172 wanted to rev compared!

Granted, I used to rev mine round to just over 6, but I'm not sure it did much

[kaos]

dunno weather my rev counter was fucked, but i did see my old b14 hit 7K a couple of times. could have been at the time to do with water in the distro fucking it up maybe etc,

by now if youve been driving it hard ( eg. pedal to the medal on the straights ) you should have figured otu whens best to shift to get the most out of the car, i knwo mine droped back a bit on the revs when it hit max in each gear hence i always knew when was best to change so you should be able to set it to what you want.

[volvodspec]

yeah b172k is indeed a difference compared to b14 i agree but i do think that a well serviced and good running b14 revs good and keeps giving power up to 6500

[Ride_on]

They are more useful as an engine gauge that a driving aid IMO. I used to use the dots on my 345 speedo to indicate max revs, I had a rev counter but never fitted it permanently. Most coils, including the renix have extra connectors for rev counters/timing lights for tuning. The renix its round connectors from memory, useful for my gas analyser rev counter.

[Alex Laidlaw]

Ah right that sounds more like it. If peak power is produced at 5500rpm then the ideal shift point will always be somewhere after it. I rev mine to 6000 when rallying and it sounds very happy there (unlike my previous rally car, a Lada Riva which did start to sound like it was protesting after 6000), I thought I was well under the red line (maximum permissible engine speed) at this stage.