Gauge Setup; What would you monitor? Need Input

[325ix]

stock coolant gauge already tells you temp accurately enough if you make sure it's working properly (really not that hard). no use having redundant gauges, especially if it's a street car.

either AFR or MAP gets my vote. oil temp really just tells you when it's OK to romp on it, maybe not important on a race car, but again, a street car is different. of course, you can also use a pressure gauge to guestimate oil temp too, because your pressure at idle will drop significantly as the oil heats up.

Hmm, I was under the impression that the stock water temp gauge was really not very accurate and may be reading the same temperature over a vast sweep of the needle.

[nando]

no, BMW didn't start "buffering" the coolant gauges until around the E36.

[325ix]

no, BMW didn't start "buffering" the coolant gauges until around the E36.

Ah, I know my e39 would read the same temperature throughout the gauge except basically in the blue and red zones.

[bastianshaw]

coolant temp, oil temp, oil pressure, and AFR.

This

[MC Hammered]

Hmm, I was under the impression that the stock water temp gauge was really not very accurate and may be reading the same temperature over a vast sweep of the needle.

I am not sure of the e30 gauge but in newer cars this is true.

Most OEM senders used we measured can have a variation around +/- 15 degrees, but the needle shows no change as the ECU is happy since the reading is in its acceptable range. The Water/Oil/Trans temperature sender I supply error range = 2% or +/- 2 deg

Been trying to tell Josh to turbo his ride as it would make decision making easier!

[TobyB]

I look at water temp, oil temp, oil pressure primarily,

and then also do trans temp and diff temp. The trans temp is never a problem.

The diff gets warm.

I also log AFR, revs and throttle position. When I rob the box off the other race car,
I'll log 2 g's and steering position as well. (Innovate LM1. It's old, but it works)

The logic on oil temp is to be nice to the motor- it takes a LONG time
to warm up, and unless it's 'green green green'
then it's not a big challenge to softpedal it just a bit until the temp comes up to
operating.

Also, I had an air pocket (or something) in the oil system once, and my cooler didn't work
for the first oil change. So I was seeing 250- 270 f at first in cool ambients
when I was nosed under someone.
Drain and refill (same type of oil) and now never see much over 220.

Anyway, that's what I do. Fuel pressure's smart to look at... but I don't, yet, as the
AFR doesn't show problems.