I've seen a lot of threads on here concerning idle issues as of late. While some will invariably be electrical and/or faulty component related; there are plenty of times where the ol' vacuum gauge will help you immensely. I've noticed in my area that as car electronics become more advanced; the amount of new drivers who can use a vacuum gauge diminishes....
If you fall into the category I just mentioned; please take the time to familiarize yourself with the following links. They may save you time and money.
Hope they help.
http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/186.cfm
http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/vacuum1.swf
Reading a vacuum gauge will just tell you if you have a vacuum leak, there's lots of other stuff that will cause idle problems.
I figured the second sentence of the original post spelled that out....
If you know how to use it, a vac gage will give clues about late ignition timing and burned valves or a head gasket blown between cylinders, it's also useful when setting carburetor idle mixture...
Most vacuum leaks large enough to be obvious will cause uncontrollable high idle, but with FI other components come into play as well...
I use my vacuum gauge all the time and the oldest car I own is my Thunderbird. It's great for checking for leaks, timing, or other changes you make to an engine.
has anyone ever considered a larger vac storage container and if there would be any if at all a net gain in doing so?
reason i ask is that in my bronco, i have two of them the size of an older style metal coffee container.
its a 351w.
manual heat system with cruise so nothing really fancy...
the need for such large volume of extra vac storage illudes my lack of education on vac class 101....
excuse my ignorance on the topic but i feel like our cars are under sized in vac storage as in ours are the size of a soft ball inside the pass fenderwell.
further more, my wifes VW Ghia has a vac container that is equal to the volume of a tissue container,, its not square but volume wise it is comparable for this converstation/question i have. The ghia is a 180deg 1bbl carb 4cyl