After a month of agonizing over whether or not to fabricate my own pod, or use a rice-pillar pod, I went with rice (especially after I saw a 2011 GT-350 with an A-pillar pod - if it ain't too rice for CS, I guess I can deal with it - grin).

I got the gauges from SpeedHut, and the gauge pod is from Speed of Sound.





Since neither the 3.7 nor the 5.0 motors have temperature senders, I had to get a Tee sleeve and perform surgery on the top radiator hose. Here's a pic of the franken-hose as it sat in post-op, and then installed on the car:





BTW, I bought a new hose from Tousley for $18 to facilitate a faster (and dry) swap.

When I swapped out the oil pressure sender, I had to ground the sender wire to make the idiot light go out. I cut back the insulator sleeve about 6 inches, and snipped the wire. I then attached spade connectors on either end of the wire (just in case I had to reinstall the OEM sender later), connected a black wire to it, and folded the original wire back on itself so I could route the new black ground wire around the back of the engine. I attached it to the strut tower tab on the passenger side where other ground wires were already attached.

I connected the gauge power wire to fuse #35 with an add-a-circuit, and the illumination wire to the purple wire coming off the back of the headlight switch.

The SpeedHut gauges can be completely customized as far as appearance goes, including face color, bezel color, face font, needle color, and custom graphics on the face itself. I chose the characteristics that most closely matched the OEM instrument cluster, and then added the Ford Racing logo.

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to make the gauge lights to come on in the daytime like the instrument cluster does.
Counting the radiator hose, parts came to $550-600.

Observations (for the 3.7 automatic):

- Cold start oil pressure sits at 70-80 psi, warm idle is at about 30-40, and at WOT from a standing start, it pegs the gauge (my gauge stops at 100).

- Water temp sits at 200-205.

Tip:

You're going to need to partially drain the coolant in order to remove the top radiator hose for the required surgery. BEFORE you loosen the petcock, be aware that there's a metal tube sticking out to the side of the radiator (on the passenger side of the car where the petcock is). To avoid loosing any coolant on the driveway, I used an oil drain pan (that had screw-on lids), and attached a hose to the radiator tube to direct the flow into the drain pan. After it was sufficiently drained, I poured the coolant into a plastic jug that used to hold distilled water (use a funnel!). That kept my driveway relatively dry, and prevent me from having to buy new coolant.

Also, when you actually remove the upper hose, be aware that there's about a pint of water still in the hose. Be ready with a catch can of some kind.

 

Normally I am not a fan of the pillar gauges but that looks great!

 

nice work man, awesome

 

That looks better than I thought it would....nice job.

 

Does the lighting change with mycolor? That would be slick!

 

I'm sure it doesn't. Part of the order process is to specify the color of the LED. Since I don't have any of that fancy stuff in my car, I don't have to worry about it.

 

great choice on gauges...and mounting location!!! Congrats!!!

 

Awesome post! I just don't know if pillar gauges would still look okay with the top down.

 

Yeah, that's a tough call, as is any appearance mod. I don't see why it shouldn't look okay (if you like A-pillar gauges, which I in fact do not - :/ ).

 

I have to ask. Neither engine has a water temp sensor to use? Where does the factory gauge get its readings from

 

Had the same question...

 

It's an interpolated value that comes from the cylinder head temperature. The only motor in the lineup that comes with an actual water temperature sensor is the 5.4 motor in the Shelby.

 

Excellent work! I never heard it called a "rice pillar" and I am super sensitive not to cross over into rice land. I think it looks great. Why were you not reading voltage?

Whats up with the tennis ball hanging down from the ceiling?

 

I was trying to decide how to hook it up. They all function now.

The car wasn't even running when I took those pictures. The gauges retain their last reading when you shut the car off. If you turn the key back to the run position (without actually starting the car), they'll reset themselves back to zero. I emailed SpeedHut about it, and they said it's normal behavior.

The tennis ball is a parking aid - when my windshield hits it, I know I've pulled the car into the garage far enough to be able to close the garage door.

 

Makes sense, good research man, great job!

Now the question is, is there a part that can be used from the Shelby to put on our cars to get the reading? Or is it like tapped into a cast piece?

 

Well, back in the day, the water temp sensor was in thermostat housing.

If you wanted to drill/tap that, it may be possible, but I didn't want to dismantle the motor or spend the money on a new part (the housing on a V6 is $52 at Tousley Ford) in the event that I screwed something up.

On the Shelby, I think it's located on the lower thermostat housing. The housing on the Shelby is different from the GT.

A new housing for a 2011+ GT costs $92, and the upper hose is $38.

 

I also wanted to add if you do decide to do POD gauges for oil pressure/temp Glow shift sells a Oil filter sandwich adapter with 4 possible connections. I had this on my 2006 Mustang for oil pressure and oil temp. The adapter just goes between the filter and the engine.

 

The tennis ball is a parking aid - when my windshield hits it, I know I've pulled the car into the garage far enough to be able to close the garage door.[/QUOTE]

Lol very ingenious

 

Lol very ingenious[/QUOTE]

It wasn't my idea.

In fact, the ball was already in the garage - all I had to do was adjust its location for my car.

 

That's good info for people that want to add their own gauges but want their original cluster instruments to keep working.