To Poor To Buy A Pillar Pod?
To Poor To Buy A Pillar Pod?
I was. I had borrowed a mechanical oil pressure gauge from my uncle to try and diagnose why my oil pressure was reading low after installing the air/oil cooler. He wanted his back, but I wanted a gauge to keep an eye on. So, I managed to scrape together (borrow) enough cash to get a cheapo ($15) mechanical oil pressure gauge from the autoparts store. I figured, its better than nothing. I didnt have any place to mount it. It came with one of those brackets youre supposed to screw to the dash board or whatever, but I didnt want to do that. I think it looks tacky like that, not to mention putting holes in my dash. So, I was trying to come up with where to put it when Stephani (a friend who was in my car) said she remembered a picture I had shown her a while back that had shown someone who put a gauge in the drivers side vent hole. I thought that was a pretty good idea, so I looked into it. Sure enough, it looked easy enough, and a damn good fit too. So thats what I did. I went to the junk yard and got a spare air director thing, and broke all the middle of it out, and the gauge slides right in. Since the air director is tapered, the gauge wedges in there nicely. So, I popped the air director "ring" that I had made into the vent, and pushed the gauge in. Fits like a glove 
. I took it out, and began planning how to run the oil line and the wires for the lights. I took my pocket knife and cut a "+" into the side of the vent tube closest to the door, and ran the tube through there, along with two wires for light. After than, I just ran the tube under the dash safely away from anything that could cut or break it (I plan on upgrading it to copper when I get a few bucks ). I zip tied it up and out of the way making sure it wouldnt kink anywhere, and just poked a hole in the stock wire harness that goes through the firewall and ran it through there. The tube comes out of the firewall, goes under the brake booster, and to my oil block. The light wires just got spliced into the wires for the dash lights, so the gauge light comes on with the rest of the dash lights, and also dims with them too. It was a pretty basic install, nothing really too hard other tahn trying to route the damn tube for the gauge . Anyway, here are some pictures for you all to enjoy. I like it there, it works well. the steering wheel blocks a little bit of it, but I can see all that I need to . Also, In the shots comapring the two gauges, the engine was cold and the oil was a little thick. Normally at an idle it sits at 35 PSI, and 3,000 RPMs is 65 PSI. Actually, I had just started the car and the gas gauge was still on its way up when I took those two pictures, haha . Also, the gauge came with a regular old white bulbe and no bulb covers so it was a little too bright. I took some old stage ligthing gels that I had, and covered the buld in some red. It makes it the right intensity, but its just a little more red than the rest og the gauges. Oh well, at least its not glowing right in my face now . Let me know what you all think .
~T.J.
Heres an overall shot of the dash with the gauge in place:
A picture showing the gauge reading vs. the stock gauge at an idle:
A picture showing the gauge reading vs. the stock gauge at 3,000 RPMs:
. I took it out, and began planning how to run the oil line and the wires for the lights. I took my pocket knife and cut a "+" into the side of the vent tube closest to the door, and ran the tube through there, along with two wires for light. After than, I just ran the tube under the dash safely away from anything that could cut or break it (I plan on upgrading it to copper when I get a few bucks ). I zip tied it up and out of the way making sure it wouldnt kink anywhere, and just poked a hole in the stock wire harness that goes through the firewall and ran it through there. The tube comes out of the firewall, goes under the brake booster, and to my oil block. The light wires just got spliced into the wires for the dash lights, so the gauge light comes on with the rest of the dash lights, and also dims with them too. It was a pretty basic install, nothing really too hard other tahn trying to route the damn tube for the gauge . Anyway, here are some pictures for you all to enjoy. I like it there, it works well. the steering wheel blocks a little bit of it, but I can see all that I need to . Also, In the shots comapring the two gauges, the engine was cold and the oil was a little thick. Normally at an idle it sits at 35 PSI, and 3,000 RPMs is 65 PSI. Actually, I had just started the car and the gas gauge was still on its way up when I took those two pictures, haha . Also, the gauge came with a regular old white bulbe and no bulb covers so it was a little too bright. I took some old stage ligthing gels that I had, and covered the buld in some red. It makes it the right intensity, but its just a little more red than the rest og the gauges. Oh well, at least its not glowing right in my face now . Let me know what you all think .~T.J.
Heres an overall shot of the dash with the gauge in place:
A picture showing the gauge reading vs. the stock gauge at an idle:
A picture showing the gauge reading vs. the stock gauge at 3,000 RPMs:
Last edited by RotorMotorDriver; Jan 26, 2003 at 09:15 PM.
Thanks for the compliments . I like it there. The cool part is that since its using one of the air director ring things, I can still pivot it like you can to adjust where the air goes to adjust the angle depending on how Im sitting or recline the seat or whatever. Its kinda cool .
~T.J.
. I like it there. The cool part is that since its using one of the air director ring things, I can still pivot it like you can to adjust where the air goes to adjust the angle depending on how Im sitting or recline the seat or whatever. Its kinda cool .~T.J.
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looks great!!! i usally mount the boost guages there if the customer wants a low-profile look... you can see the guage frome there easily too...
~T.J.
Banned. I got OWNED!!!
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 4,666
Likes: 2
From: chatsworth,Ca.
run the boost line , and light wires down the air duct(it leads down to the nut cooler vent), make a small hole in back of the vent tube, and go from there to the dash light wire (red with blue stripe)and boost line to intake manifold
Cool cool . Well I was thinking that when I buy the Auto Meter gauges that I might leave one here, and then just add the dual pod, and then I could have the three I want...Im still not sure though. Im gonna send that pillar off to www.gaugepods.com and see how much they will charge for a full pillar to hold three gauges. Ill let everyone here know as soon as I know. Then I can try and collect pre orders so they can start making them .
~T.J.
. Well I was thinking that when I buy the Auto Meter gauges that I might leave one here, and then just add the dual pod, and then I could have the three I want...Im still not sure though. Im gonna send that pillar off to www.gaugepods.com and see how much they will charge for a full pillar to hold three gauges. Ill let everyone here know as soon as I know. Then I can try and collect pre orders so they can start making them .~T.J.
Airflow is my life
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 6,736
Likes: 2
From: Orlando, Fl
**** yea nice job !!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey now you need to change your avatar sig. Oh and speaking of a-pillars, go back on mazspeed and help out with the mod please. The guy, CAg8or I think, needs to know who you spoke to. He cant get any answers from these people.
Hey now you need to change your avatar sig. Oh and speaking of a-pillars, go back on mazspeed and help out with the mod please. The guy, CAg8or I think, needs to know who you spoke to. He cant get any answers from these people.
is that a sony xplod head unit?
**** yea nice job !!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey now you need to change your avatar sig. Oh and speaking of a-pillars, go back on mazspeed and help out with the mod please. The guy, CAg8or I think, needs to know who you spoke to. He cant get any answers from these people.
~T.J.
EDIT: Changed the avatar text just for you Carl, lol
.EDIT #2: Im not a liar
. Man, is it just me or are they a little more harsh over there?
Last edited by RotorMotorDriver; Jan 27, 2003 at 02:52 PM.
Always broken.
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 208
Likes: 0
From: San Diego, CA
Your 83 GSL and my 85 GS have some very very different dash-guage-clusters (I mean the stock ones like voltimeter/speedometer). Do you know if they updated the dash in 84?
Mod looks great, though. Keep it up man =)
Mod looks great, though. Keep it up man =)