Which Four Gauges?

[cheekychimp]

Okay need suggestions for the best four gauges for a daily driver.

My initial instincts say (1) Boost, (2) EGT, (3) Oil Pressure, (4) Water Temperature

But on a lightly tuned car I am thinking that maybe a volts gauge might be more useful? Better than breaking down one night due to a crapped out alternator without any warning. I 'will' have a fuel pressure gauge under the hood. Not possible to monitor as you drive obviously, but it's still convenient enough to check if there are fuel issues of any sort. I don't really feel that transmission/differential temp gauges or intercooler in and out thermocouples are necessary on a daily.

Any thoughts.

For those who prefer to keep gauges out of site in a daily, I'm going to be doing another one of these but using a stock coloured pod to match the standard interior: -



Thread is here.

 

[Lonewolf64]

I'd replace the EGT gauge with a wideband AFR gauge, but otherwise I think your choices look good. I can see the voltmeter gauge being useful in the case you mentioned but honestly I think with a dying alternator you get plenty of other warning signs that if you pay attention to will alert you to the problem. Keeping a multimeter in the car does just as well as a volt gauge and is not an expensive solution.

 

[JNR]

A better indication of charging would be an ammeter, but those are a PITA and not *really* needed; a voltmeter is nice to have though.

If I had room, I'd like to have a fuel pressure gauge, but obviously with an isolator. I prefer mechanical gauges, but electrical are accurate enough these days. Nice thing about electric is you could have two gauges in one, if you were to put a switch. For instance, use the temp gauage for both water and oil and the pressure gauge for both oil and fuel. You'd naturally need a dedicated sender for each type, but you could wire it up to the back side of your gauage panel to a switch (either 'left' or 'right', so to speak) and from the switch to the pertaining gauge; then you just select the one you want to read. Probably be a good idea to have an LED or some indicator to which one its reading. There's lots of options there.

 

[citymunky]

Wideband A/F --> EGT's.

 

[SouthCaliVR4]

I would trade water temp for volts & egt for wide-band myself so... Boost, afr, oil press & volts. I feel the fact water temp gauge is good enough If I'm sticking to a limited number of aftermarket gauges.

 

[SmoothCustomer]

Quoting Lonewolf64:
I'd replace the EGT gauge with a wideband AFR gauge, but otherwise I think your choices look good. I can see the voltmeter gauge being useful in the case you mentioned but honestly I think with a dying alternator you get plenty of other warning signs that if you pay attention to will alert you to the problem. Keeping a multimeter in the car does just as well as a volt gauge and is not an expensive solution.




THIS. Personally I will be running boost, wideband and oil pressure. Maybe down the road I will do volt meter and water temp but I will never do egt. I don't think it's useful to begin with, and at the cost of potential pre-turbo boost leaks, not worth it at all.

 

[Struc]

Voltmeters don't need to take up a whole 52mm gauge spot. Find a old jumptronix and mount it someplace if you really want a volt meter. Actually, don't the SPA Technique gauges have a low voltage warning built into them anyway? I seem to remember that from mine in the Spyder.

I have 5 gauges in the VR4. Oil pressure, Coolant temp, and fuel pressure are all mounted in a 3 gauge DIN under the radio, and I have boost and O2 (soon to be replaced by Wideband - crappy O2 gauge came with the car) on the pillar.

 

[Boostdtalon]

I have boost, wideband O2, and water temp. I'd like to add oil pressure eventually. So those would be my choices for four gauges.

 

[JSchleim18]

How accurate is the volt meter on say an Apexi turbo timer?

I'd say run the ones listed listed Paul. I'd personally switch to an A/F Wideband over the EGT but if you feel more comfortable with that by all means do it. Then keep the turbo timer if you have one on the volt meter screen.

 

[turbofonz]

^ My blitz turbo timer is .1 +/- volt with my DSMlink logs. I like having that right in my site vs. a big voltage gauge.

 

[cheekychimp]

I was in two minds as to whether to post up such a basic question as this but I am REALLY glad that I did now because the number of responses along a similar line have prompted me to think a little more about this. First of all, thanks to JNR for this: -

Quoting JNR:
Nice thing about electric is you could have two gauges in one, if you were to put a switch. For instance, use the temp gauage for both water and oil and the pressure gauge for both oil and fuel. You'd naturally need a dedicated sender for each type, but you could wire it up to the back side of your gauage panel to a switch (either 'left' or 'right', so to speak) and from the switch to the pertaining gauge; then you just select the one you want to read. Probably be a good idea to have an LED or some indicator to which one its reading. There's lots of options there.



This is such a simple idea but at the same time it is simply brilliant /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worthy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/applause.gif I am a little limited here because I have to go with the combinations that SPA produces for these gauges and obviously you can't buy an "OIL" gauge and expect it to read Oil Temp and Oil Pressure. But SPA do make this: -

So Oil Temp, Water Temp, Oil Pressure and Fuel Pressure could definitely be achieved in this way. I have seen toggle switches like this before.

I don't think it would be impossible somewhere down the road to get some custom plates cut with "oil" and "water" and "oil" and "fuel" on them which would make for a really clean install. So seriously, thanks for that idea. Options for the other gauge are limited. The only really viable combination options left for the boost gauge are these.

I'll have to give that some more thought.

What I was surprised about was the consensus to go with an AFR gauge over an EGT one. I was under the impression the AFR was only really useful when tuning something like an AEM EMS or DSMLink etc and that once everything was set you wouldn't monitor it much. I take it the AFR is much more useful than that? I actually have one of these sitting here that is left over from the other build.

It might be a bit big for the dash pod but I'll see if I can find somewhere else a bit more discrete to mount this. I won't be using the A-pillar on this car!

 

[JNR]

Those are cool gauges and I'd like to see how the switch idea works for ya, if you go that route. Something I was planning on doing at least, but with analog electric gauges (however, with the ones you show, you could get 4 gauges in one opening).

I was trying to find some google images of the type of switch I had in mind, but not sure the style you'd prefer. I originally thought of a rotary 3-way switch, where turning it left would be say operate the water temp, middle would be neutral and turning it to the right would operate your oil temp, let's say. I'm sure they make switches that have a light indicating which 'side' it's on, although looking at it you be able to tell. Or, maybe on the guage cluster, you would install a yellow light for oil and blue for water, or whatever. So many options. I suppose it wouldn't have to be a 3-way (as in, don't think you'd really need a 'neutral' (both off)), but not sure...They also make some nice rocker switches that do the same thing, with pressing 'down' it operates one thing and pressing 'up' it operates the other.

But yeah, keep us posted if you go this route, as I'd like to see it. Unfortunately for me, it's something I don't see getting around to for some time, although I had it all sketched out along with the other 1000 things I'd like to complete someday /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I don't see why it couldn't work though, since I imagine they all work off either a 12 vdc or 4-20 mA type variable signal, ot whatnot.

 

[cheekychimp]

I think it would work since the spare parts listed on their site just stipulate, pressure, temp sensors etc they are not fluid specific, so as long as they operate within the required range I really see no reason it wouldn't work.

It also opens up silly options for the remaining gauge. If I choose the boost/temp option I think you might be able to do something similar. How about two boost sensors, one at the turbo and one at the intake manifold to check for boost leaks on the fly. Also whilst I still think an in and out intake charge gauge is a bit much for a daily I suppose it would be quite useful for monitoring the effect of water injection on intake charge temp.

 

[mitsuturbo]

Why have a gauge for boost when you can just let your EBC tell you what the boost/vac is? I just use my SBC-iD for boost/vac. An oil pressure gauge is ESSENTIAL. I have a nice EGT, and will continue to use it. It's kinda nice to have, as it definitely shows up when the timing is off somehow, or combustion is not happening properly. I just got my first wideband, so i think i may end up ignoring the EGT gauge, from what i've been hearing. We'll see.

Oil pressure is the #1 gauge i'd go with, as it is EASILY the single most important gauge on the car. WBo2 would be 2nd. Boost and volts could easily be handled by a boost controller and/or turbo timer. After that, i'd go with (3rd) a fuel pressure gauge, and 4th, MAYBE the EGT. Although... i'll never put an egt probe PRE turbo again, given another option. I've seen/heard too many horror stories about the probe breaking off and wiping out turbine wheels!

 

[4thStroke]

While the oil pressure gauge is nice to have, I think the dummy oil pressure light we have is better in a way. Not too many people watch this gauge regularly, as with any gauge (unless they specifically are paying attention for whatever reason). The dummy light comes on when the oil pressure is low and is more likely to be seen.

However, I'd still consider using this gauge if you are using up to 4 gauges.

I only use boost/vacuum and AFR, and my car is pretty high strung.

 

[Lonewolf64]

The problem with our dummy gauge is by the time it comes on you have nearly 0 oil pressure anyway and the damage is already done. The point of the oil pressure gauge is to alert you to a possible low pressure condition before it leads to damage. Same thing with our stock coolant gauge. It is stuck in the middle over a very wide range of temperatures. Also the gauges that cheeky posted have built in warnings flashes if the temperature goes up past a predetermined point or if the pressure drops too low. I know because my brother runs that kind of split gauge for his coolant temperature and oil pressure.