What do you have for gauges?

[lastyear4gt]

My fiance bought me the triple gauge pod from PFYC. I think I am going with the stewart warner maximum performance line. I have a few possibilities. These are the possible gauges:

Oil pressure- for sure
Oil temp
trans temp
Boost/vac- for sure
Fuel pressure
Volt meter
exhaust temp

I had toyed with doing 3 and a 2 5/8" gauge in center/center vent. Now thinking about just sticking to the 3.

I am thinking oil pressure, boost/vac, trans temp. The car already has coolant temp, oil temp I dont know if its that important, volts not a big deal, exhaust temp maybe if it was turbo. Fuel pressure, again not really sure if its a big deal.

Any opinions?

[mr_eh]

boost/vac ? you have a blower?

[ganut]

I have:

boost/vac
trans temp
oil pressure

I'll also be getting:
wideband a/f
and possibly one of those interceptor gauges from pfyc

[lastyear4gt]

boost/vac ? you have a blower?

Yeah I have one of the eaton kits for the 3.4L

[tenspeed]

I would go with the Aeroforce Interceptor gauges first, a boost gauge and what ever. The pod uses 2 1/16 inch gauges.

The Interceptor covers a lot of ground, you might want to consider a dual Interceptor and a boost.

[SpyhunteR]

I'm running AEM wideband gauge, Fuel Pressure Gauge, Boost gauge, and the Aeroforce Interceptor gauge.

[AaronGTR]

Yeah I have one of the eaton kits for the 3.4L


I would definitely get a boost/vac gauge and a fuel pressure gauge (make sure to get the wide sweep,they're easier to read and more accurate). You want to know how the blower is acting and the fuel pressure changes with the kit as well. If you get into tuning with the blower later (which you should anyway) you'll eventually end up changing to an adjustable fuel pressure regulator and changing injectors and you WILL want an accurate fuel pressure gauge inside the car that you can monitor while you're driving. For the third I'd get trans temp... and a cooler if you don't already have one... so that you can monitor it and see how efficient the cooler is. My only reasoning behind this is that the oil pressure and temp stay pretty stable on this engine and don't often have problems. The trans is known to burn out at boosted power levels though and knowing the temp can let you know if you're overworking the tranny or if you need a larger cooler.


Myself I have all five of those. I have the trans temp and oil pressure in 2 5/8" gauges in two of the center vents (I invented that mod, you're welcome ;) ). Boost/vac, oil temp, and fuel pressure in the gauge pod. Like you I wasn't worried about coolant temp or volts, and most the of A/F gauges out there aren't wideband so they aren't useful. You have to have a real wideband controller. The innovate motorsports LC-1 gauge is good if you want to shell out the cash for a wideband. I use the LM-1 so I don't use a A/F gauge with mine. I just data log it.

[harvester45]

Right now I've got a oil pressure, boost/vac, and narrow-band a/f. Like others said, the next gauge I'd get would be the Aeroforce scan gauge, it's probably one of the best ones to start with.

[lastyear4gt]

Thanks for the input guys. I think I am going with a 2 5/8" boost/vac in center/center vent, oil pressure, fuel pressure and trans temp in the pillar. For the most part that should be everything I need to know while driving.

[el nino]

is it hard to get a gauge in the center vent?

[AaronGTR]

Not really. I wrote a "how-to" on it once but I can't find it. I think it got lost in one of the site crashes a long time ago on the old server.

[cavingman]

I have autometer cobalt boost/vac and an aeroforce, very little I cant watch :)

[xonelith]

I have a speedhut fuel pressure installed in my centre vent. I'll be getting a wideband gauge eventually once I deem it necessary (using an LC-1 and scanning through HPT). You would need, as Aaron stated, a boost gauge and a tranny temp.

The gauge install is pretty easy. I'm not sure how Aaron did his, but I assume it's the same way... we used plexi for the mount and the vent block. I have pics of it installed on my website.

[lastyear4gt]

I dont think if you go with a 2 5/8" gauge you need plexi glass to mount the gauge. From what is see in AaronGTR's pics, I could just take the vent out, use the bezzle and install 4 set screws with nuts and basically clamp it in place or, just urethane the bezzle to the gauge and install it one piece.

Hey Aaron, I assume all there is to installing the vent gauge (in the location I want) is to block off the vent, install the gauge to the bezzle, remove the stereo, drill a small hole in the vent pipe to run the wires/vac line out, run them to and through the grommet in firewall and secure all the wires and lines. Is this correct?

[AaronGTR]

Actually, I didn't use any plexiglass or set screws at all and I didn't have to block off the vent either. The 2 5/8" gauges are such a close fit you don't need it. Just pop out the vent, take apart the outer ring so you can remove the spinning ball, then put the front half of the outer ring over the gauge bezel. You won't re-use the back half. I just used some glue around the back side of the ring to hold them together. Goop, clear silicone, even RTV will work. Let it dry and then you can push the gauge right into the vent and the ring will hold it in place. You can just drill a 1/4" hole in the bottom of the vent tube to feed your wires thru. You can remove the radio to do this if you want, but if you just remove the speedo/gauge cluster and the glove box you can reach thru from either side with both hands to feed the wires above the radio. Run the wires from the drivers side dash behind the gauge cluster (over the steering column) then over the radio and up into the vents, hook them up, push the gauges in and you're done. You can shove something in the two un-used vent tubes or put some tape over the holes if you really want, but the gauges block off the air and there is enough flow that you'll still get lots of air out the remaining vents and won't notice any difference.

[lastyear4gt]

my only concern about blocking off the vents is that in the summer with the AC on I would figure you may get some moisture/fogging in the face of the gauge?

[AaronGTR]

It's possible I suppose but I've never really noticed anything. I don't think it would get cold enough to do that, but then I don't run my air all that much either. It should be easy enough to block them off though so why not.

[SpyhunteR]

my only concern about blocking off the vents is that in the summer with the AC on I would figure you may get some moisture/fogging in the face of the gauge?

nope.