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How do I tell if the tacho cluster is from a 6 cylinder or a V8? 
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If it still has the VDO date sticker on the back, it will have a 6 or 8 as the single digit printed away from the date.
It's very rare to find a 6 cylinder VB tacho - most were V8.
A good instrument place can recalibrate the V8 tach to suit a 6 (and vice versa).
There's also redline differences - from memory the VB V8s were redlined at 5500 rpm, and the 6s a little higher - like 5750 rpm (not 6000 - it was between the white marks every 500 rpm). They lowered these to 5000/5500 in VH, and maybe even in VC with the introduction of the blue motors - but I'm not 100% sure without checking some old photos. |
Cheers,
Mick
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I didn't know about the redline difference the 6 and 8, this one is 5,500.
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Originally Posted by: commodorenut  If it still has the VDO date sticker on the back, it will have a 6 or 8 as the single digit printed away from the date.
It's very rare to find a 6 cylinder VB tacho - most were V8.
A good instrument place can recalibrate the V8 tach to suit a 6 (and vice versa).
There's also redline differences - from memory the VB V8s were redlined at 5500 rpm, and the 6s a little higher - like 5750 rpm (not 6000 - it was between the white marks every 500 rpm). They lowered these to 5000/5500 in VH, and maybe even in VC with the introduction of the blue motors - but I'm not 100% sure without checking some old photos. Mick, the two VB's here, one a 202, the other 5 litre, both had the same redline marking. I've seen the same tacho's in the VC HDT models too. Edited by user Sunday, 19 February 2017 11:11:12 AM(UTC)
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The Commodore SL/E fanatic. |
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VB V8s were redlined at 5500rpm. By VH, the V8 redline had dropped to 5000rpm. As I noted in my post, I am not 100% sure what the VC V8 redline was, and whether or not the 500 rpm drop may have lined up with the blue motor, or with the VH intro.
To get a tacho on a VB was extremely rare. 99.9% of VB tachos are 5500rpm V8 ones.
The VB tacho was only standard on VB SL/E - which was a V8.
For the 6s, Only the ultra-rare 6 cylinder SL/E towards the end of VB model run had one (dropped in VC SL/E 6 in favour of a vacuum gauge) and the only other way to get one was if you optioned up sports instruments on a VB SL. It's one such SL (a written off one-owner car, from a relative - firethorn red & with full options including harrison air & headlight wipers) that I wrecked out in the early 90s, that had the unique tacho. I ended up putting it into a 6 cylinder VC SL/E to replace the original vacuum gauge, and had that car for some time. That's the gauge I'm referring to where the redline started between 2 white marks that were 500 rpm apart, so it was either 5250 rpm, or 5750 rpm (I'm thinking it was 5750 rpm).
It looked very much out of place against all the other early Commodore tachos.
For many years instrument places have recalibrated V8 ones to suit 6s for around $20-25, and takes all of 10 minutes. It was common amongst my group of mates in the late 80s & early 90s to find a tacho dash from an SL/E and have this done if it was going into a 6. You just couldn't find a VB/VC 6 cylinder tacho - even back then. In VH they were far more common, as they came standard in the SL/E 6 cylinder.
I would suggest if you have a 6 cylinder VB one, which doesn't have a sticker on it, and it's actually calibrated to a 6, then it's more likely that it has been recalibrated during it's 35+ year life by an instrument place. |
Cheers,
Mick
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I have always taken the Holden red line to be just nonsense, in red 6 and V8's they start to valve bounce at 5000RPM and that's just a disaster waiting to happen.
The blue 6 cyl motors could go to 6200RPM maybe but the harmonic problem is always a problem from around 6200 regardless.
The old Valants had a yellow line and then a red line that was truly realistic, the yellow being mindful you are pushing it and the red to look out.
The ford redlines were some what more truthful in reality as to do with what engine it had in it, only 4800RPM for the crappy Cleveland V8's 5200 for the better ones and 6200 for the good ones.
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HK was the opposite, the GTS V8 used the 6cyl HK tachometer with 5500rpm redline. The SBC's especially the 327 was comfortable to 6500. At the Monaro release the GMH staffers who were in the car for every test wouldn't allow the Journos to exceed 5500 "as per the tacho". Just about all the road tests in magazines of the time were from those drives, other than the private car Rob Luck got hold of and showed what the car could actually do. |
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