your most desirable gauges are ?

[fporro]

say,
there's enough room under heater/radio panel and above ashtray to fit up
to 8 ? 2 1/16" dia gauges.

which ones would you install and why ?
turbo guys, pls chime in too.

my basic needs are ...

- Volt
- Ampere
- Oil Temp
- Oil Pressure
- A/F ratio
- Fuel Pressure
- Vacume

optional...

- Differential Temp
- Transmition Temp
- Cylinder Heat Temp

[Tangent]

For either n/a or turbo I'd want Oil temp and pressure as first priorities. Then I'd want a voltmeter. The oil gauges are pretty obvious, you lose pressure or overheat the oil you kiss the engine goodbye. The voltmeter is also just a nice standard gauge to have available. After that I'd also add a good water temp gauge that displays actuall temperature readings instead of just a few lines and red.

For a turbo car the next critical ones are fuel pressure and a/f ratio to make sure you don't get detonation and a boost gauge to keep tabs on the turbo so you don't accidentally cram twice the boost you intended down the engine's throat. If the car isn't turbo I wouldn't bother with a vacuum gauge. It's more of a diagnostic tool than a standard monitoring tool IMO. As an option on a turbo car I'd get a pyrometer to keep tabs on exhaust temps. Unless I was doing serious track racing I wouldn't bother with diff or tranny temp gauges. Even if I was racing hard I'd probably just install coolers and pumps on the tranny and diff instead and not bother with gauges.

Depending on the kind of racing you plan on doing you might want to give up one of the gauge spots to plumb in a brake proportioning valve. Some switches for manually controlled cooling fans, fluid pumps for the trans/diff, or even brake or intercooler cooling spray could use those spaces as well.

[browntown]

fuel pressure can be under the hood, volt/ampere seems a lil overkill. My escort 8500 x50 will tell me voltage if I really care. If you have electrical problems or too much shit wired up, you oughta know with your multimeter and not need to look at a guage for it. a/f is more important on forced induction or highly tuned engines afaik but it has a cool factor to it. Anything more than 2-3 extra small guages will start to clutter things and look like an aircraft cockpit. my 2 cents