I need some advice on the four most important aftermarket gauges to install on a track car. So far I have boost and water temp. I was thinking for the other two I would get fuel pressure (electrical of course) and oil temp??

 

I would just install a PFC if I was you, that would eliminate the need for a water temp gauge and maybe a couple others, giving you more room for others. as for me, once I finish making my car a track car i'm planning on running: boost, oil press, oil temp, wideband, and fuel press. I listed 5, but it has a stock oil press gauge, I just wanted another aftermarket one to better keep an eye on it. Since it is a track car, I would recommend a wideband for you as well.

 

I have a microtech dash in my race car to display watertemp. I have fuel pressure, oil temp, boost and wideband gauges and rely on the factory oil pressure gauge.

In all honesty, when you are racing, you have very little time to look at gauges, so going for a gauge make that has a warning light it by far the best way to go.

 

I know others say it's overkill, but personally, I like to know as much information as I can. And arguably one shouldn't pay too much attention to gauges and more on driving. Where that's true to a point, it doesn't take much on a short straight to check 'em.

That said, I never really worry too much about oil temps as all my days, the stock dual coolers seem to do a good enough job. I think at most, I've seen is about 240ish, and I'm not worried about that at all. Not as a peak anyway. There's also an assumption here that you've upgraded some coolers given it's a track car, so I think that may be less of an issue.

You're right on with fuel pressure. Really easy to see if you get a little starvation from low fuel conditions and the like. It would be a tossup for an EGT or AFR... Given it's a track car, I'd opt for EGTs.

I assume you're looking for a 4 gauge pod in the center?

 

i guess it all depends on the level of tune, but critical ones are really oil temp, oil pressure, and coolant temp. To me anything more is excess information if you have a well sorted car. I like my AFR gauge but its pretty useless on the track, as is a fuel pressure gauge. For fuel pressure to work you need to sit it beside a boost gauge and do the math to see if its right... Although a boost gauge would be alright to make sure your not overboosting.

 

PFC and commander (or similar set-up) to monitor water temp, and intake temp, then a wideband and boost gauge, maybe oil temp for peace of mind

 

If you are limited to four I would pick... Oil temp, coolant temp, EGT, Fuel pressure,.... for a track car

In my own street car I have boost, coolant temp, oil temp, oil pressure, fuel pressure, EGT and wideband

 

Banzai has it pretty down, I'd run oil temp and water temp for sure then with the remaining two look at either EGT, Boost, or FP. Another thing to consider is not running a gauge for certain other things like oil pressure (I think equally if not more important than FP) just run a warning light. The main two though is oil and water temp. You can get away with hot water for a bit if needed to limp to safety as long as you keep a eye on the oil temps.

~S~

 

Agreed. For oil pressure warning, I hooked up the low oil level warning light in the stock cluster to a hobbs switch (set for about 15psi). So now it indicates low oil level and low oil pressure.

And sure enough, it worked and gave me an immediate heads up after the dreaded front cover o-ring blew out one night.

 

I keep my PFC Commander monitoring 4 sensors(with peak hold): Intake Temp, Water Temp, Injector duty, and Knock. The only ones I really look at on track are Water and Intake Temp. I go back through after the session is over and check all of my peak readings for all monitored sensors.

As for other gauges in my car: I have Oil Temp, Fuel Pressure, Boost, and a wideband A/F. I run the stock dual oil coolers and have never had an oil temp issue. As most others have said, you won't really be checking the gauges while driving. If something starts acting up, it's nice to be able to see what's going on.

 

I am going for boost and wideband on centre speaker location and oil temp and two egt gauges in din. Stock oil pressure gauge and power fc for water temp and everything else.

 

if you're roadracing (non schools) in traffic, the driver won't look at the gauges unless you tell them too...

the car just needs to be built right, the drivers are the people who think the car handles BETTER when the wheel falls off!

on a rotary car, you need a tach, oil and water temp, everything else is useless unless you're datalogging it to look at later

 

I have water temp, boost, AFR. I want to add in a fuel pressure, just need to figure out how without being tacky lol

Seth