How many guages is too many?

[uflnuceng]

Ok... this thread will either get some good insight, or die a tragic death.

When I go to start modding my interior Im going to put some guages in most like and these seem to be the typical available ones depending on whom you choose to use (VDO, Autometer, etc.):

1- Speedometer
2- Tachometer
3- Engine coolant temp
4- Oil pressure
5- Oil temp
6- Voltage
7- Air/fuel
8- Brake fluid pressure
9- Turbo psi
10- Vacuum

The obvious ones are speedometer, tachometer, engine coolant temp and oil pressure.

Some people seem to go for oil temperature, but what good does that do you over engine coolant temperature? As your oil temperature rises your oil pressure decreases and vice-versa so for me as long as you have one, you're good with the other. Other view points on this one?

I can see the point of the voltage because that will let you know if there is an undue strain on your battery or if your alternator is dead or on its way out.

I can see the point of the air/fuel ratio because if you are running a forced induction or NA engine, you want to know if your injectors are up to the duty, if your spark plugs are in good shape and burning all the gas or are they fouled up and not getting complete ignition. Also is your fuel pump up to snuff by supplying enough gas as you go around a turn at high G's.

Brake fluid pressure is an interesting one to me. Since BMWs have one resevior for the clutch and brake system I think this might be a good thing to monitor, although we should probably feel this more in the brake pedal itself (whether it is getting soft or feeling faded). I probably wouldn't opt for this one.

If I go for a turbo setup a boost gauge might be nice, but can it really change and wouldn't it be fine just to place it in the engine compartment for when you are tuning?

Vacuum coming off of your intake is probably more important for the old hot rods that have things like vacuum assisted windshielf wipers, brakes, etc. I don't see how that would be something that would require plenty of monitoring.

Anyway... just something that was floating through my head while I was killing time at work.

Im becoming such a forum whore aren't I?

[nando]

brake fluid pressure? :rofl:

I can see it now, you're staring at the brake fluid pressure gauge instead of the road in front of you and end up plowing into the back of somebody.. :roll:

[Bryson]

Re: How many guages is too many?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are in the M3 cluster (oil pressure warning at least), I doubt 6 will be of any use to you, 7 will only be useful during tuning periods or analyzation periods, therefore it does not need to be permanently installed. 8 is a bad idea. 9 and 10 are the same gauge.
It looks like you need to install one gauge and one temporary gauge along with an M3 cluster. Problem solved :)

1- Speedometer
2- Tachometer
3- Engine coolant temp
4- Oil pressure
5- Oil temp
6- Voltage
7- Air/fuel
8- Brake fluid pressure
9- Turbo psi
10- Vacuum

[Tangent]

Re: How many guages is too many?

1- Speedometer
2- Tachometer
3- Engine coolant temp
4- Oil pressure
5- Oil temp
6- Voltage
7- Air/fuel
8- Brake fluid pressure
9- Turbo psi
10- Vacuum

1-5 - Good to have in any car.
6 - Not really necessary, but can be nice to have
7 - Useless flash on an n/a car, can save you from an expensive rebuild in an FI car
8 - Why in the world would you want that? It'll drop to 0 or nearly 0 when off the brakes and will only show real pressure while braking. If you brake hard enough to activate ABS it'll go nuts. If you put the sensor in the reservoir it'll never show any pressure, you'd have to put it in a line.
9 - Obvious use in an FI car
10 - Your boost gauge will pretty much cover this won't it?

[Hatchman]

when you cant remember which ones which... thats when you have too many

[jht3]

This is for a naturally aspirated track driven car:

Minimum:
Tach
Speedo
Fuel
Coolant Temp
Oil Pressure
Oil Temp
Voltage

Extras:
EGT (one for each cylinder)
Diff fluid Temp

I see those as all the important gauges. Oil temp lets you know when you can safely rev up the engine and is a much better indicator than coolant temp. EGT is more useful than A/F, especially if you have one per cylinder as you can see if an injector or plug goes south. Wideband A/F is helpful during dyno tuning, but i don't see a use beyond that.

on my m3 i'm missing oil pressure and battery voltage and those would be the first two i would add. Analog aircraft-style EGT gauges with individual pyrometers in each header pipe would be really cool. They make 2 needle gauges, so a pair of cylinders can be shown on the same gauge for easy comparisons (so for my m3 i'd need 2 gauges).

[Addissimo]

Re: How many guages is too many?

If I go for a turbo setup a boost gauge might be nice, but can it really change and wouldn't it be fine just to place it in the engine compartment for when you are tuning?

You definately dont want it in your engine bay- If your turbo setup is done the e30 way (pieced together with ebay parts) you need to be able to monitor the boost your wastegate is letting through... if your wastegate starts to creep slowly you'll blow your engine up...

[uflnuceng]

Re: How many guages is too many?

If your turbo setup is done the e30 way (pieced together with ebay parts) you need to be able to monitor the boost your wastegate is letting through...

Buying the kit directly from TCD. Only thing I would need to modify is the CAI. No piecing together for me.

[Addissimo]

good to hear- you still want the boost guage in the cockpit :)

-Addis