what gauges should i get?
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 8,319
Likes: 1
From: North Carolina
what gauges should i get? right now i have coolant temp gauge and air fuel gauge (wanted to make sure the o2's were doing alright with the headers and didnt stop oscillation on me) well now im goin to be doing heads and cam and wonder what if anything i need to get to monitor the motor and make sure everything is runnign ok. any ideas?
TECH Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 7,036
Likes: 1
From: Lake Zurich, IL
ECT (engine coolant Temp) gauge definetly good
W/an auto Trans Temp gauge is good, but w/a manual not as important
Fuel Pressure gauge is handy
The AFR gauges are pretty but unfortuanetly that's about it heh (I had one for about 1.5 years, dumped it and replaced w/a Wideband O2 AFR Gauge so at least it's accurate)
If you're doing any road racing , Oil temperature is good
But... if you're concerned with constantly monitoring the car, definetly get some sort of logging software (preferably w/a tuning software built in like HP Tuners) ... the gauges are good to tell you if you have a problem right now for the things you're monitoring... but you're not always looking at the gauges... whereas w/some logging software you can go back later and see what's happening and try to figure out WHY it's happening
W/an auto Trans Temp gauge is good, but w/a manual not as important
Fuel Pressure gauge is handy
The AFR gauges are pretty but unfortuanetly that's about it heh (I had one for about 1.5 years, dumped it and replaced w/a Wideband O2 AFR Gauge so at least it's accurate)
If you're doing any road racing , Oil temperature is good
But... if you're concerned with constantly monitoring the car, definetly get some sort of logging software (preferably w/a tuning software built in like HP Tuners) ... the gauges are good to tell you if you have a problem right now for the things you're monitoring... but you're not always looking at the gauges... whereas w/some logging software you can go back later and see what's happening and try to figure out WHY it's happening
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 8,319
Likes: 1
From: North Carolina
yeha i have hp tuners already, i jsut didnt knw if i should get a new gauge or if it wasnt a big deal,i have the pod already set up and didnt nkow if i should monitor anything else. but i guess im alright with what i have and that i can log it
TECH Regular
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 476
Likes: 0
From: Pleasanton, CA
Im not really sure what your doing(road course, drag, daily driver). But really there isnt a need for any new gauges. Unless your running boost or nitrous, none of them are a must. About the only ones you probably need are to get the stock OEM rpm, speedo, and the rest of those gauges changed to 200mph gauges. Fast Toys has that on sale, but you have to pull and send the whole unit away for calibration. Other than that though, not really necessary, i would say though if your getting a big cam to get a fuel pressure gauge atleast, but still not very necessary on a H/C car. And i would look into just getting the codes in your computer for the o2's deleted.
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 8,319
Likes: 1
From: North Carolina
i have hp tuners all that code stuff is taken care of. i have silver face gauges with ws6 on it, so im not gonna get those changed. its gonna be a drag/daily driver. like you siad i prob dont need anything else but i didnt know if doing that i needed to keep an eye on anything. thanks
TECH Regular
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 476
Likes: 0
From: Pleasanton, CA
Yeah, just as long as you dont get them like the ricers do. But if your gonna do nitrous on top of theis other stuff, which you can do a safe 100 shot. Then you will need a fuel pressure gauge and a nitrous pressure gauge. So you can make sure both are going in at the sametime. Well good luck with whatever you do. And hey another good idea for you mgiht be to put those gauges in your A/C and heating ducts in the middle of your dash. Looks nice like that.
