I bought the Shoebox Eletronic Engine Monitor from Van Cafe and use it on
both of my vans. I have cable pig tails in both of my ECU's so I can switch
the monitor between vans as needed.That unit has paid for itself time and
again. Whats really nice is you can drive the van down the road and at the
same time get monitor readouts at the driver's seat. If one wishes, the
unit can be mounted in  a convenient spot. You can do all that it does with
a good multimeter but you have to be stopped somewhere with the hatch open.
This thing plugs directly into the ECU for read outs and you can see whats
going on from the drivers seat as you go down the road. You do have to
understand engine operations to interpret the readots it gives you. But the
manual that comes with it tells you sbout that.

It's not cheap, nor is it cheaply made, and there are some variations of
the unit that will lessen the pain of purchase. This ECU monitor is
apparently a variation of the earlier monitor by Daryl Boehler. That you
could build yourself. But this unit is more refined.

The only shortcoming with it for me is that I wish it had  a tachometer.
That would make it much handier when actually working on the engine.
Sometimes when working on the enngine the tach on the dash pod is hard to
see, or the tach is inoperative. A tach in the nmonitor would sure help!

John

On Feb 25, 2017 11:12, "Sean Garrett" <doit.outdoors@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Or vacuum issue, or intake manifold leak at gasket. I had an 81 that acted
> like this. Find a mechanic that has a smoker (it blows smoke into all
> vacuum hoses and manifolds. Incredible useful device for finding any type
> of vacuum/intake leak.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Feb 25, 2017, at 9:49 AM, ed donnen <spliced.surprise@GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > I'm thinking about an instrument cluster that will tell me what's
> happening
> > to my 91 2.1L DoKa as I drive.  Here's the problem:
> >
> > Starts right away.  A block later we die.  Sometimes starts again,
> > sometimes not.  Sometimes idles at stop signs, sometimes not.  If I park
> > for 5 minutes, maybe we start again, maybe not.
> >
> > It's time I solve this problem.  So the problem might be electrical, or
> > maybe fuel-trical.   Fuel-trical?  Fuel-trackle?  Well, a fuel problem.
> >
> > Is there a diagnostic cluster I can put on my dash so I can monitor my
> > engine?  Or lacking that, what is the first steps in driving diagnostics?
> >
> > ed-91 DoKa, mostly parked in my driveway.
>