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Vacuum Guage Testing For the Complete Idiot

Engine vacuum means the amount of vacuum the piston draws from the top of the stroke to the bottom of the stroke. Excessive piston ring wear, leaking head gasket, burned valves, and worn valve guides will affect the intake vacuum stroke. 

If you have, say, a 1980 SA 200, the engine is forty-six years old, so you are going to have internal engine wear. Every item in that engine that moves-wears. What wears first and the most gives you the first problems. Watching the vacuum gauge can put you in the right direction first.

Reading Your Vacuum Gauge; Tips and Tricks

1. Only read engine vacuum at idle speed. High speed tells you nothing!

2. Take a vacuum rereading when stone cold. Make a note and do a second reading when the engine is hot. Compare how much difference? Write is down.

3. Look for a "shaky" needle. The more shake, the more worn your engine has become.

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