No, you probably didn't see any defi gauges in F&F...the cars were moving much too fast

My statement on accuracy is this: How do you know any gauge is accurate? It must be calibrated...ok, so what do we calibrate with? The apexi or defi gauge? So that just really means that all gauges are used as a reference, because you'll never have a 100% accurate gauge. Therefore, my gauge goes up said PSI, and then I know that the overall system went up that PSI, is it really at 8, 10 or whatever it says? Who really knows, but you know what? I bet it's pretty dang close. Do you honestly think any of these gauge manufactures would let that much inaccuracy go? Even at 10% error, on our cars you're looking at 1 psi or less error, how do you know that's error or just changing weather.

For example:

For all the torque wrenches that we use at TRW, we have a torque transducer that we calibrate all the wrenches with. Just for some engineering fun, we got a snap on, a craftsman and a cheapo $20 click style wrench. Guess which one was most accurate?????
The much more expensive snap on with the nice polished handle? Nope, the $20 wrench was the most accurate of all 3. It might not have been as smooth and shiny as the others, but it worked and it worked better and think of all the money we could save over the snap-on's. We could have bought a fuel pump, or injectors, save up for a bigger turbo..etc..etc. GO FASTER.


Again, Nz, I've had 3 different autometer gauges: A phantom in my old talon, a sport comp and an ultra light in the 7 (liked the silver background better, sold the sport comp), and in both these cars, with all 3 gauges, everything was rock solid, the numbers made sense with no bouncing around...which is really odd that you had that problem. I've got an autogage tach, oil, water and volt in an old oldsmobile and even those don't give me any problems. The only time a boost gauge has ever stopped working is the one time pulled the vac lines off and for got to ziptie it back on, a few days later it somehow came off and gauge went to 0. You either had a really messed up gauge or something wasn't sealing right.

The fact of the matter is that this thread has gone waaaaay off topic, but I hate it when people dog gauges because they *think* they're crap, when nothing was done to truely prove this. Stating the above, I say that yes, apexi and defi are nice, I'm sure they're very well built, but in my eyes not worth the extra cash...that is all.

 

http://www.3dinstruments.com/dpcal.htm

I would imagine something like that is used to calibrate a pressure gauge.

Back on topic :

I normally use autometer phantom gauges, cause they were cheap and worked, but I actually really wanted a really nice boost gauge. It isn't mounted anywhere near my other gauges, So i'm not really mis-matching here.

Info on the pics below, I really like the way the apexi looks in the front, I also like the smaller wires (for the lighting) in the rear. I like the fact that they use vaccuum tubing and not hard nylon. Hard nylon is a little harder to work with because it wants to coil up all the time (just a small annoyance of mine in reference to my oil pressure gauge). I couldn't find a shot of the autometer in the rear, however their "fasteners" are a little more clunky and don't fit as snug behind the wiring.

Bottom line? Until someone buys one of those calibration units and does some testing... Then it's just a matter of personal preference IMO.

 

Do a search for Autometer. I never wanted an Autometer gauge, but I kew I didn't want one when I read a post that someones Autometer was off by 2-3 PSI from what a $120k Dyno machine said. Now what would your trust for calibration, a dyno, or a $50 Autometer gauge. The dyno's read boost to the 0.01 Hundreth.

-Robert

 

I agree, which is why I bought VDO instead.

 

I'm running my boost and EGT on the apillar with my water temp covering my stock water temp location *obviously from the pic* but i figure mount the gauges where you can see them best.

My autometer gauges that I had before i upgraded to the GReddy's were horrible. I didn't have an FCD in my car and yet i could see as much as 15psi without hitting fuel cut.

 

That's really wierd. Is there any VIABLE reason for that happening other then they just are not accurate, cause that shouldn't happen.

 

Just for craps and giggles I emailed autometer and requested their quality standards and testing procedures. I'll let you guys know what I find out.

If the gauge was off 2-3 psi, was it at the same source? Taking a reading at one place and taking it at another is not a good comparision.


Again, if something is off by that much, then obviously something is broken (gauge or car) and you could have called autometer to find out what was up. My buddy bought some liquid fills for his 66 chevelle and they started to leak. He called and found out that their was a slip up and some defective gauges were released and that they were sending him the new gauges. Problem solved.

 

Mine came from the same source (nipple under the BAC) But an electric gauge vs a mechanical gauge is a huge difference as the autometer supplied line requires you running it all through your car vs. an electric gauge were you have maybe 6" of vacuum line which will make that gauge more accurate.

Don't you have to watch the pressure with the liquid filled ones? The pressure would be different if the gauge was used in cali and then you drove to Denver...

 

The liquid fills are just for vibration protection. His chevelle is an na. The thing I have against electrical gauges is noise. You introduce any noise into that signal and your #'s will be f'd.

 

Well, a guy from autometer replied today. He said that ALL gauges they make are within +/- 2%...if you think yours is more then that, get it replaced or checked.

 

Thats incorrect

 

While we are bringing this back from the dead...

This is how I did it, and I'm very happy with it.