I'm looking for some basics, not ones that need to be in my face but not a waste of my time or money either, for a project i'm working on. Should I go with electric or mechanical, besides the obvious what's the difference?

I see a lot of people use an Oil Pressure gauge, is the stock not very accurate because it seems redundant to me. Would it be better or Oil Pressure or Oil Temperature?

Water Temperature is good to have right?

Would a Pyrometer/EGT gauge be beneficial or should I do something stupid like a voltmeter?




Any help would be appreciated! Name what your 3 would be/are

 

I have the Aeroforce gauges which are scan gauges and read most of the computer parameters. I have 2 gauges so I can display any 4 parameters at one time. You can also set them up to scan and display different parameters for certain time period. As to the factory Oil Pressure gauge , and there are several threads about this , they're not really gauges that show the actual pressure. They're on and off just like the oil light , only they have a needle instead of a light ...

 

Makes sense. And I'm definitely familiar with the Aeroforce Interceptors, I'll will eventually have a dual set up going somewhere else along with my wideband gauge.

So I guess right now Oil Pressure would make a lot more sense because of that, so I guess those three wouldn't be bad.

What about EGT's?

 

These are the 4 most popular one's from what I've read.

Boost/Vac
Fuel Pressure
Wideband A/F
Water Temp

 

I'm going for usability to, from what I've learned from another forum the Oil pressure gauge in our cars is more of an "on or off" thing than an actual gauge, seems like something good to keep an eye on.

 

BUMP: Anyone?

 

For me since i am an auto i am going for oil press, trans temp, and fuel press, but once i go SC i am going to have the same but add Boost/Vac and wideband O2

on the case of mechanical and electric the mechanical uses pressure from what ever you are useing it for to get a reading, so if it is fuel pressure, there is a line somewhere in the fuel line to get a reading where electric uses signal from a sensor to get the reading. Mechanical is best used for boost/vac and if you want the guages mounted outside the car.

 

So for say, fuel pressure, your saying electric is going to be superior to mechanical?

 

yes and safer, you use this http://www.steeda.com/products/fuel_...port_block.php and you can easly add the sensor. If you look at the picture you will see a mechanical guage, the electric guage you put a sensor in the block and run the wire inside to the guage.

 

That's what I was planning on. Thanks for a straight answer just what I needed!

 

Just get your Aeroforce guages now and hook up a fuel block and wide band, then let the guages scroll through other parameters. I had 2 Aerforce guages along with Autometer fuel pressure and boost guages, and ended up removing the Auto's with just having the Aero's do it all; plus more.

 

So if I am reading this correctly, you can get Aeroforce gauges to do it all including the job of a wide-band A/F?? I knew they could most of the other measurements and were basically limited to amount of sensors you installed, but thought you needed a separate WB. Which model Aeroforce gauges did you have? Asking, as I am patiently awaiting my new SC and am pricing out gauges (along with an SOS pillar pod) right now.

 

Each AF guage has two or three analog inputs; you can use any one of them to hook up to a wide band controller and system. So to clarify from my last post, no technically the Aeroforce guage itself won't ready A/F ratio, it still needs a WB system with controller; BUT the Aeroforce guage will display the readings coming out of the WB controller (assuming the controller uses a 5v output, 99% of them do)..... that way, you don't need a dedicated WB A/F guage mounted somewhere in the car. You can get the WB A/F controllers from PLX Devices, Innovate Motorsport, etc. Even Aeroforce Tech themselves are supposedly introducing their own kit to interface with their guages directly; you could try contacting Todd at Aeroforce.

Hope that makes more sense LOL.......

 

Man, I am liking the Aeroforce approach. And when comes down to it, you can get away with a 2 gauge set-up (instead of 3) and probably not spend much more than going the traditional route considering a good wideband gauge set-up is going to run almost $400! If I read things right, a dual Aeroforce set-up is $400, Innovate WB controller is $200, then a couple other sensors...

Granted it is a little more than the traditional route, but out of the box you can just plug this in and have a ton of customized data including a programmable/built-in shift light (another thing that one would not have to buy)!!

It looks like the Aeroforce WB is still not ready yet, but since this is a winter project I could just grab the dual set-up now and then either wait for theirs to get released or worse case grab an Innovate in the spring. I will definitely be calling Todd soon and maybe have another present for myself under the tree!

 

I'll post some pictures when I'm finished so you understand why, but for what I'm doing and where their going I don't want them right now. The interceptors are definitely coming, and that's awesome that they can hook to a wideband controller that's really good to know, looks like I'll only have to invest in 2 Interceptors after this to finish my set up.