Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

I think I wanna get some gauges and put them in a gauge pillar because it looks really neat and it would be nice to have some extra info. I want to get a triple gauge pillar. I have already decided on two, trans temp and A/F ratio.

So...What should I do for a third gauge? I was thinking fuel pressue but it's $215!!! Anyone?


I also have some questions:

1) Will a mechaical fuel pressure gauge work instead of electrical? Is it nearly as accurate? As difficult to install? It's about $170 cheaper too.

2) Do all gauges come with proper senders? I was looking at the AutoMeter Carbon Fiber Ultra-Lites.

3) Is an Oil Temp gauge basically the same thing as a engine temp gauge?

4) Is a Water Temp gauge any good? Is it really that important to know?

5) Is it fairly easy to install gauges?

6) If I buy a gauge pillar, can I count on it being the same color as the rest of the interior?

Thanks a lot! Please feel free to just quote this and put the answers below the questions. Thanks!!!

LS1MONSTER

iTrader: (1)

I can answer some of your questions. I have the triple guage pod set up. I have water temp, and 2 a/f ratio gauges for each bank. The pod is black so it will be darker. The water temp gauge needs a sender..no sure which one. I hear the stock temp gauge isn't to accurate. This is all on my floor..I just don't have the time to install them. Hopefully some others will chime in. OH..and trans temp guage can only be on a A4 tranny.

MOBE

I would scrap the a/f guage idea. They aren't that accurate and really won't be benefitial, IMO.

Unless your force feedong it something (n2o, s/c, turbo) you really don't need a fuel pressure guage, but it would be a good third choice for a guage over the trans temp and a/f.

I would go with a water temp guage, because the 99+ guages are a POS and basically a dummy guage. Its nice to actually have an accurate working water temp guage.

An oil temp guage is nice to have, and a trans temp guage is ok, but its more benefitial for an A4 (A4 trannies get hotter than M6s).

<font color="red">"OH..and trans temp guage can only be on a A4 tranny." <!--color--></font> Not true. But, like I said... They are more benefitial to A4s.


1) Will a mechaical fuel pressure gauge work instead of electrical? Is it nearly as accurate? As difficult to install? It's about $170 cheaper too.

Yes it will work. Yes its as accurate. More dificult.

2) Do all gauges come with proper senders? I was looking at the AutoMeter Carbon Fiber Ultra-Lites.

Yes

3) Is an Oil Temp gauge basically the same thing as a engine temp gauge?

It can be, but most engine temp guages in a stock guage cluster measure water temp. (oil and water temps do vary from one another)

4) Is a Water Temp gauge any good? Is it really that important to know?

Yes

5) Is it fairly easy to install gauges?

Yes, its not brain surgery.

6) If I buy a gauge pillar, can I count on it being the same color as the rest of the interior?

I believe guage pillars come in black only.

<font color="#666666"> <!--color--></font>

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

Ok, so I got water temp, A/F ratio, and still probably tranny temp. Comtemplating replacing tranny temp but not sure with what.

Ok...How do these things install?? It says it comes with fittings but I don't when where and how they go. Is it really easy? Thanks.

Fast SS on TNT

iTrader: (1)

I would NOT install a mechanical fuel gauge in your car. Its dangerous, and highly illegal at the track. You actually have fuel sitting in a line less then 2 foot from where your sitting. If you were to crash, and the line was broken while the fuel pump was still running.....not to hard to see what could happen.

I have a dual gauge pod, tranny temp gauge and A/F gauge. The A/F is completely worthless, and is going to be replaced with an electric fuel pressure gauge. I would stick to electric gauges, running any type of mechanical line into that pillar sucks. I tried to run a mechanical nitrous gauge into a single pillar, and the line was impossible to get right, and the gauge popped out every time I hit the gas. Then it had a nitrous leak....not worth it.

MOBE

You can get power to the guages from the fuse panel on the side of the dash on the driverside. There is a 15amp (red) fuse in there for the guage cluster. Take that fuse out, strip some of the wire back, and then "sandwitch" the wire between the fuse and the terminal block. Easier than soldering, and has worked just fine for me. I used an 18 ga. speaker wire. You are going to need to run the power wire and a ground wire, and since speaker wire conveniently has 2 wires run together it seemed like a logical choice. You only need to run 1 power and 1 ground, as you can splice off that one to the other guages. The fewer wires the better.


For the lights, I tapped off the dimmer roller switch, so they could be dimmed along with the rest of the guage cluster. If memory serves me correct;y there are 4 wires coming off the dimmer switch, and the white one is the one to tap off of. Use a light tester, just in case. Again, I used some of the same speaker wire for the lights since you need to run a wire for power and 0ne for ground. Here again, you only need to run 1 power and 1 ground and splice off to the other guages.

After the guages are all wired up right, run a wire from the sender terminal on the back of each guage to the corresponding sender location. Make sure to give yourself plenty of wire to play with.

The trans temp sender is very easy to install on an M6. Just take out the tranny's drain plug and install the sender using the biggest adapter that comes with the guage.

The water temp sender is a little trickier. You can either install it on the passenger side head, back near cyl. #8, or you can drop the starter and remove a drain plug (using an 8mm allen wrench) in the block and install it there. I don't remember the adapter size off the top off my head.

This site may help. http://xse.com/leres/ss/gaugepod.html

I have personally never installed an a/f guage, so I don't know how to install the sender. The guage itself though, probably wires up like the rest of them do.

I was trying to be not so negative about it in my previous post, but like Fast SS on TNT said,... "The A/F is completely worthless,...". I would think about going with another guage over the a/f, unless you just like looking at colorful objects.

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

Ok, I have a general idea on how I'm going ot wire them.

More Questions:
1) How do you actaully get the wires to the fuse box?

2) There are two wires for the lights, one is for ground, does the other just go to the dimmer switch?

3) How did you hook up your water sender if the thread size is all messed up?

4) When you route your wires back to the fuse box, then up to the cluster, do you use existing wires and wire loom?


Thanks a lot!!!

Pat-Man

iTrader: (3)

If memory serves me right, the dimmer switch is in series with the hot side of the lights.

MOBE

<font color="blue">Ok, I have a general idea on how I'm going ot wire them.

More Questions: <!--color--></font>
<font color="blue">1) How do you actaully get the wires to the fuse box? <!--color--></font>

<font color="red">Run the wires down the a-pillar into the dash, take off the kick panel to gain access. Find a good ground location for the ground wire, and feed the "power" wire through a small space beween where the fuse box and the dash meet. <!--color--></font>

<font color="blue">2) There are two wires for the lights, one is for ground, does the other just go to the dimmer switch? <!--color--></font>

<font color="red">Re-read my previous post about that part! <!--color--></font>

<font color="blue">3) How did you hook up your water sender if the thread size is all messed up? <!--color--></font>

<font color="red">Not sure what you mean about "all messed up". You use a threaded adapter. <!--color--></font>

<font color="blue">4) When you route your wires back to the fuse box, then up to the cluster, do you use existing wires and wire loom?
<!--color--></font>

<font color="red">Not sure what you mean by, "back to the fuse box, then up to the cluster." (???) There is no "back to, then up". The wires go from the fuse box and the dimmer, to the guages. Thats it! You will not be using any existing wires or loom. You will have 2 wires (1 power and 1 ground) going from the fuse box to the guages. There, you can splice off of those to all the guages. Same with the wiring for the lights. Run 2 wires (1 tapped into the dimmer roller switch and a ground) to the guages, and splice off to the other guages. This way you don't have a ton of wire runs. <!--color--></font>

<font color="red"> The wires for the sending units you will run down the a-pillar into the dash. Then run them through the dash over to the passenger side to the grommet in the fire-wall behind the ECU. From there you will run them to their respective sending unit locations. Be careful where you run them. You don't want them laying on the headers or somewhere they might get damaged. <!--color--></font>

Smoke_Ford

Yes, you NEVER EVER want to bring fuel past the firewall, into the cabin. The A/F gauge looks cool, and is accurate enough. You might want to consider a vacuum gauge, especially if you have a cam. The only problem, is I bought a boost gauge with vacuum on the left side of zero. Everytime I go WOT the gauge snaps to zero, it looks like it wants to hit boost, but it never does. =( Still a great gauge.

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

MOBE, thanks for all of your help! By wires, I meant the sending wires. For the tranny temp sender I was just thinking of routing the wires through the loom that goes to the tranny.

You say you have to route the sending wires to the passenger side to get them through the firewall. How is this done? Do I need the remove the dash or is these a special way I can go.

As for the water temp adapter issue. On the site you gave me it said that the water temp hole(by #8 cyl), is metric thread, and will not fit any of the english adapters that come w/ the gauge. What did you do for this? Why can't I use the sensor that is by the #1 cylinder? Won't it support two gauges? Would require some fabbing up of wire...Thanks a lot

MOBE

No problem! Help is what this site is for. I just ran my sender wires through their own looms. It might be a PITA to try and run it in the existing loom.

No need to remove the dash. As I said, run them down the pillar into the dash. Remove both the driver side and passenger side kick panels. Once those are off you can easily feed the wires over to the passenger side from the driver side. After you remove the ECU, you will see the black grommet (2.5" dia.) in the fire wall. Take a coat hanger or another piece of wire and feed that through the grommet from the engine bay into the car. Find the end, attach your sending wires to it, and pull them through to the engine bay. Make sure you mark the sendind unit wires so you know which one goes where.

I originally ordered the asorted metric adapters from Auto Barn. But... Installing the sender by cyl#8 proved to be a bit difficult for me. One of the "keepers" on my Stage 8 header bolt was covering part of it. So, I dropped the starter and put it in the drain plug on the block. Very easy! You WILL want to drain the coolant first. Unfortunately, I don't remember what adapter I used. I didn't make note of it. I just used the one that fit. I'll see if I can find out witch one I used for ya and post up later.

I suppose you could use the stock sender for both guages, but, I don't know how accurate it will read. I have not tried this, so I really don't know. I personally wanted to have the two seperate from eachother because I wanted to see what the temp differences were between the two.

Good luck!

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

......cool. Kinda a dumb question. Whats a kick panel

I think all of my questions have been answered. Ummm....Do all the sender wires have to come through the firewall hole? Thats a big detour for the tranny temp sender.

Oh ya...Can you possibly explain how these adapters work? The gauges say they like come with 3/8" and 1/2" fittings.

Thanks a lot!

MOBE

"Whats a kick panel?"

The "kick" panels are the panels down near your shins. Driver side is directly under the steering column, and the pass. side is right under the glove box.

"Do all the sender wires have to come through the firewall hole?"

Not necessarily. Thats just how I did it. If you can find a better/shorter route to run the tranny sender, go for it. You might be able to get to it some where around the shifter?

"Can you possibly explain how these adapters work? The gauges say they like come with 3/8" and 1/2" fittings."

The guages come with a few standard size adapters (like you mentioned). The sender itself is 1/8". You figure out what adapter you will need to fit the application, and then the sender threads into the adapter. Make sure to put some teflon tape on the treads.

Hope I've answered your questions clearly. Let me know if you have anymore.

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

So to make the senosr fit into a hole, I need to find the thread size of the hole, and find some sort of adapter that has that thread size on the outside, and 1/8" thread on the inside? If thats the case I know a pretty good place that will have that for sure


One more thing I'm blurred on is where and how to hook up the power(+) wires for the gauges. Where and how do I put them into the fuse box?

And does the pillar go over or replace the stock?

I can't wait until I do this! It's gonna be so much fun!!!

slow

iTrader: (7)

A pillar goes over stock, or uses part of the stock one, as there is no full replacement for the 4th gen cars abailable.

For the water temp, you can use a 98 water temp gauge, in the pass head, and it will work fine.

99+ are 2 wire, you do not want to tap into the computer lines.

Ryan.

TheDogofWar

iTrader: (2)

if you want to use a mechanical fuel pressure guage, Autometer sells them with an isolator. I believe I paid $100 for mine.

The isolator is a diaphram that transfers the pressure of the fuel to a antifreeze/water solution. The fuel never passes the firewall, only the antifreeze solution.

MOBE

That is incorrect. A "guage pod" attaches to the existing pillar. A "pillar pod" replaces to whole pillar. http://www.tbyrne.com/ls1catalog.html Go to the LS1 F-body catalog, click on guages, and scroll down to the bottom of the page.


That is correct. I think it will be easier to visualize when you have the stuff in hand.


As I said before... You can get power to the guages from the fuse panel on the side of the dash on the driverside. There is a 15amp (red) fuse in there for the guage cluster. Take that fuse out, strip some of the "power(+)" wire back, and then "sandwitch" the wire between the fuse and the terminal block (when you stick the fuse back in it will hold in the wire). Easier than soldering, and has worked just fine for me. All you need to do is run 1 power wire, and 1 ground wire to the pillar. From there you can splice off to all 3 guages.

rodent

iTrader: (1)

My Autometer 3 guage pod is referred to as a "pillar" so I assume its a "pillar pod".
http://www.autometer.com/hp/2003_cat...eworks/16.html

When I installed it, it tells you to install it over the existing plastic pillar and you have to drill through both and install these plastic pins. It won't install without the stock plastic pillar.
http://www.off-road.com/~sspickler/pics/ta/gauges

Ferocity02

iTrader: (60)

Ya, I heard that the gauge pillar just covers up the stock.

Anyways, the place that I said will have the adapter for sure doesn't. Can you tell me where you got yours for the spot behind the starter. And what size was it? Thanks