Gauges ... What to buy?

[Grrrrrrr!]

So now that i have to look at installing the wideband gauge, its got me thinking about what other things I will need to keep an eye on. So i've decided Oil pressure, fuel pressure and AFR are all needed as well as the factory coolant temp gauge. Might install an idiot light for Oil Temp if i can find a thermoswitch at the right temp setting.

So now I need to buy gauges. My credit card ran away when i started googling Defi-link... but I dont want shit gauges. They will all be electrical gauges since the idea of running high pressure fuel and oil lines thru the cabin doesn't appeal at all.

What is a decent brand at reasonable prices? Anybody had bad experiences with Prosport gauges? Not concerned with wanky wanky stepper gauges with power on sweep , multi-colour illumination and other bullshit , just want guages that work, and will keep working.

[Shrike]

http://mlracing.co.nz/magento/index.php ... cturer=171

Thats the ones I use

If you Email Alex and say your from toyspeed he should give you some better pricing

He can also do any brand wideband 02 gauge with sensor you want

I just went for the basic white light smoked ones

The stepper motors are more accurate

You can run power to one guage and then link them together ive never had an issue

[Al]

but I dont want shit gauges.

[1I1]

Defi (and maybe GReddy) can run external warning lights that are peetty compact but very bright even in the day. Trade off like you say is they are $$$$.

RobertC on here is selling white face daisy chain GReddy oil temp and pressure and water temp gauges.

[Stott69]

I do beleive it may be illegal to run mechanical oil n fuel gauges in cabin. Id ward you off HKS gauges as Im having issues with mine, the newwer ones may be ok

[Akane]

but I dont want shit gauges.

But the credit card said don't be picky, and just pick up any old bag!

[WCKWGN]

i run auto meter phantom series... fuel/air , boost , and oil pressure in the caldina . never a problem

[Grrrrrrr!]

Lets see. Cheapest price for a complete assembled o2 setup from them is US$175 about NZ$210. throw $25 shipping on top of that and they are are going to be about the same price as what I paid for the innovate. so no, not cheaper.

More accurate.. Says who? (14point7 by chance?) And what real world advantage does that give you?

And I dont trust a company that list MAP sensors with -14.5 to 43.5psi, absolute. They obviously don't understand what absolute means. Like most "performance parts" companies that list 1:1 FPRs as rising rate.

[Akane]

All good brah, well best of luck finding your gauge.

[Shrike]

Lets see. Cheapest price for a complete assembled o2 setup from them is US$175 about NZ$210. throw $25 shipping on top of that and they are are going to be about the same price as what I paid for the innovate. so no, not cheaper.

More accurate.. Says who? (14point7 by chance?) And what real world advantage does that give you?

And I dont trust a company that list MAP sensors with -14.5 to 43.5psi, absolute. They obviously don't understand what absolute means. Like most "performance parts" companies that list 1:1 FPRs as rising rate.

mlracing should be in nzd

[Grrrrrrr!]

That wasn't referring to your post, it was referring to Akanes original post which has since been (moderator?) editted.

[Grrrrrrr!]

i run auto meter phantom series... fuel/air , boost , and oil pressure in the caldina . never a problem

What sort of price do those run to? Was looking at them online yesterday, and looked okay, but couldn't find a price for them locally.

[Grrrrrrr!]

I do beleive it may be illegal to run mechanical oil n fuel gauges in cabin. Id ward you off HKS gauges as Im having issues with mine, the newwer ones may be ok

A bit silly to run them in cabin in a race car where they are going to see higher temps and pressures, but probably not so much of an issue in the road driven daily hack. I doubt they are illegal. Cheers for the heads up about HKS gauges.

[pureadrenalin]

So now that i have to look at installing the wideband gauge, its got me thinking about what other things I will need to keep an eye on. So i've decided Oil pressure, fuel pressure and AFR are all needed as well as the factory coolant temp gauge. Might install an idiot light for Oil Temp if i can find a thermoswitch at the right temp setting.

How did you get to that list of gauges?

Do you really think you are going to make use of the info from a fuel pressure gauge? If something goes wrong that effects fuel pressure such that you are going to do damage to your engine, you won't look at the guage quick enough to stop anything.
Put one on the FPR, tune with it, then forget about it.

Same with AFR. Unless you are road tuning yourself, they are just a bunch of annoying lights.

Get:
Oil pressure
Oil temp
Water temp

Stock water temp is usless at telling you anything quick enough.
Case in point, hill climb last weekend, my car sits at about 90 deg water temp. We got up to 107 deg on the start line. My radiator fans wern't going (bad fuse holder). Stock gauge was still sitting pretty.

I run a dual oil/water temp gauge from these guys:
http://www.veisystems.com/d1-instruments.html

NZ re-seller ignitionautosport.co.nz

[Akane]

More gauges means you're hardcore.

In all seriousness, I only have a boost gauge, and when you're making decent power levels you won't even have time to check that, your eyes are supposed to be on the road when you're boosting. Maybe a quick glance and that's it.

[Grrrrrrr!]

Cheers for the comments, those VEI gauges look interesting.. and space efficient. Was looking at the innovate MTX-D range for the same reason.

Wideband kit is already 80% installed, needed to replace the O2 sensor, and it will be useful for diagnosing current excessive fuel useage (if the bung o2 sensor wasn't the only problem). Mainly intended for seeing the effects of changes rather than watching while on track.

Fuel pressure guage on the fpr is okay at setting rail pressure (if you have an adjustable FPR), and even testing FPR by appying a fake reference pressure, but it wont tell me when the fuel pump is failing to keep up with full boost and injectors flowing.
I figured going back to the dyno everytime the boost gets wound up or some other change is made is going to be more expensive than buying a gauge and checking it myself.

Interesting bit about the damping on the stock Water temp gauge, might pull a spare cluster to bits and see if I can figure out if there is a simple resistor or cap I can change to get it to respond faster. Hopefully its just a passive RC filter.

[Guss]

i would have to agree with the comments against the fuel pressure gauge, had one for a while purely for diagnostics, was neigh on impossible to watch while driving (a story about someone collecting a curb comes to mind) . Blanked it off and welded the bung back in. AFR gauge is so much more obvious with all the flashy lights n shit.

Don't see how track or road application changes the pressure and temp you'd see with mechanical oil and fuel pressure. no flow means temps not going to raise much in the line and releif valves mean pressure will be the same. Had a mechanical back in the day in a mini, makes a HOT mess really really quickly .

cheap gauges Vs expensive gauges. if it's consistent does it matter if it says 90PSI or 80PSI ? are you really interested in the absolute value or how different it is to what is 'normal' for the conditions at the time?

[Grrrrrrr!]

i would have to agree with the comments against the fuel pressure gauge, had one for a while purely for diagnostics, was neigh on impossible to watch while driving (a story about someone collecting a curb comes to mind) . Blanked it off and welded the bung back in. AFR gauge is so much more obvious with all the flashy lights n shit.

Heh, wouldn't be doing full boost test runs before my morning coffee on the way to work, or anywhere there are likley to be random leggy brunettes. Was also thinking of using a camera to record the gauges and check on laptop later. (Until i get an ecu with logging.)

cheap gauges Vs expensive gauges. if it's consistent does it matter if it says 90PSI or 80PSI ? are you really interested in the absolute value or how different it is to what is 'normal' for the conditions at the time?

Yep, i understand where you are coming from, particularly with respect to oil pressure. For temps and AFR i'd want it pretty accurate, and repeatable.

[pureadrenalin]

In all seriousness, I only have a boost gauge, and when you're making decent power levels you won't even have time to check that, your eyes are supposed to be on the road when you're boosting. Maybe a quick glance and that's it.

During a hill climb, I don't have time to check anything. I check them on the start line, then again across the finish line.

My brother-inlaw was giving me a running commentary from the passenger seat on the boost gauge vs rev's at the last hill climb as we were at altitude on a stinking hot day and the car felt down on power, funny enough, heaps less boost.

I tend to use digital gauges for temps (things that don't change fast), and analog for pressure.
Hence those VEI ones are quite good. Take up less space with two temps to a gauge.

Also, another thing I like about them is they don't supply you with the wiring (sounds backwards eh?). Gauge manufactures that do supply the wiring with their gauges are always build for a front/rear engine layout, so the cabling is too short for a mid/rear, and you have to splice bits in.

[WCKWGN]

autometer phantoms where normally $220 plus i think .. tho the oil pressure i got off TM brand new in box all 5/8 fittings etc for $160 delivered

pm if you want his email address i guess he would help. think he does buy prices on sets of 3 gauges. i removed a defi visual boost display that illuminated up onto the screen tho was dam hard to see in dunedin super sunny days