Gun

What gauges do you guys recommend for the FD? I did a search not much found. I also posted a reply in another thread. Here it is:

Those gauges are really nice, I like the digital read outs. I also like the mouse ears gauge pod. I think at the rx7store you can get the carbon fiber for $350 or the fiber glass version for $170. And with those dual guages you could have 4 gauges in only 2 guage pods spots, and then replace the temp gauge in the dash and you have 6 read outs in 3 spots. But at 134 pounds a piece that would come out to about $600 total, ouch but I think it would be worth it. What would be the best gauges to get for the FD anyway, Oil temp, Boost, A/F, Temp, Water temp, EGT, Oil pressure? what do you guys say? I think it would keep the dash from looking so cramped, I dont like all those gauge pods all over the place.

Jere's a pic of the gauge posted by neo_omega:


OIL PRESSURE / OIL TEMPERATURE DUAL GAUGE

£133.69


thanks Gun

Dr Wankel

The two most important IMO for everyday driving would be a boost gauge an a water temp gauge.

MastaCow

I look at it this way: £133.69 is like 189 bucks, according to www.xe.com

189 bucks for two gauges = 95 bucks per gauge. PLUS, I save a mounting spot. I wouldn't get a digital boost gauge, but that dual oil temp/pressure gauge looks really tempting. Besides...I already picked up a boost gauge last week from Wayne at Phase 2.

I have no idea how accurate or reliable these gauges are. After what some of the guys posted about Apexi's EL series gauges, I'm a bit more cautious of what I'm throwing my money at.

Johnny

Boost
EGT
Water Temp..but I have a PFC so that's covered
A/F
Fuel Pressure

neo_omega

this is what i know.



SPA Technique Dual Gauges feature:

Backlit display
Selectable American/Metric units
Programmable built-in warning lights
Programmable low battery warning
Programmable external switching
Digital calibration
Billet machined sensors
Maximum values recall
Standard 2 1/16" (52mm) diameter

Gun

They look nice on the web page. I guess I can search the web and see if I find any other info on them reguarding their performance. Hopefully I find some info on them. I'll post back if I do. Thanks peoples

later Gun

Brad

I dunno, IMO those digital readout gauges would ruin the look...make it look like one of those early 90's Vette's. Yuk.

ttpowerd

I like defi guages...water temp and boost

Gun

Found some more info on the SPA Tech dual digitial gauges. Seems like they are a high quality product and they have cool features. Here's the info:

GAUGE CAPABILITIES

Our gauges are not the cheapest you can buy and we're often asked what makes them worth it. Well, the answer is the really cool stuff you can't do with any other unit. Let's use our DG106 Boost/Temp gauge as an example:


OK, you're looking at the front of the gauge. You can see the two separate numeric display fields, the fact that the gauge has backlighting, and the two programmable warning lights.

On our gauges, the warning lights are the start of the good stuff. You can set these lights to come on at any reading you like. Let's face it, after you've driven round the block a few times, the novelty of watching the gauge wears off. If the warning light comes on, it draws your attention back just when you really need to be watching the gauge. With this capability alone, the gauge can easily save you many times what it costs.

What you can't see in the picture is the multi purpose push button switch that comes on the gauge wiring harness. This is used in the first instance to program the gauge (which is easy and fully explained in the instruction manual). After the gauge is programmed, the button acts as a peak recall. Mount the button where you can reach it and you can check your peak values in a flash. Hide the button somewhere and you can check how other people have been driving your vehicle.

The other thing you can't see in the picture is the gauge's external switching capability. You can use this to drive another warning light, again at any threshold you choose, or use it to do something else entirely.

For example, some people have used the temperature side of the DG 106 to switch on water injection when inlet air temperature rises above a chosen point. This is a really great feature for highly boosted engines that are a bit short on intercooling capacity.

In principle, you could use the boost side of a DG 106 to override your vehicle's waste gate control - put yourself instead of the factory in charge of your boost pressure!

We have a customer working on using an exhaust gas temp equipped DG 106 as a shut down override on a diesel dually: the gauge will not allow the engine to stop until the turbo has cooled to a safe temperature.

The point is, this is a very powerful capability with uses that are limited only by your imagination. Just think what you could do with some of the other dual gauges in our range.

We've learnt that the best ideas come from listening to what our customers have to say. So if you have a good idea for an application for our dual gauges, please let us know. We'll be happy to help.


later, Gun

1FAST7

defi gauges. have the closest stock look and are very accurate.

1FAST7

neo_omega

I could care less if it looks stock or not. Most of our cars are modified anyway. I like it coz it's take up less space and will give me an actual number.

I emailed SPA Tech USA. They do mail order. But they charge more than order from England. So I will order those from England.

rotorhvn99

Which reseller are you looking at in the UK? I've been pricing SPA gauges in the states and have found the best prices from RacingForce http://www.racingforce.com/products/spa/dualgauges.htm. They are right around $200ish for most of the gauges. I would also be more than willing to buy from overseas at $189!

-Mike

Touring FD3S

How do they look stock? Maybe the numbers, but you have seen the green background, right?

neo_omega

I checked. Three gauges + Shipping from England to me just about $600 US.

BrianK

Might want to check out the Nordskog gauge set... they appear to match the interior AND they're likely less expensive being that they are made here in the US

http://www.nordskogperformance.com/index.html

jspecracer7

ymmm...Defi gauges...Gotta have EGT too though. Fuel pressure to make sure you're not running out of fuel. Oil Pressure to see if it's time to oil change. Oil temp just to have it. $600 seems pricey though. I bought 6 Defi gauges for $750...

...thanks Dragon

neo_omega

$600 three gauges can do $750 6 gauges work. I think I go with the 3 dual gauges.

Gun

rotorhvn99, this is the web address MastaCow posted, it's the place selling the SPA dual gauges for 133.69 pounds(around $189).

http://www.spatechnique.com/index3.html

No way the Nordskog gauges even come close to looking better than the SPA gauges and their not dual gauges so I'd still be stuck with six gauges while with the SPA I'd only need three, less clutter in the cockpit.. I think these would look good and perform good also. And as long as the backlite color is the same it will match good enough for me. Read the list of things you can do. These things would be great.

later Gun

neo_omega

Nope, I emailed them and the quote me $250 a gauge.

Gun

Where did you get the $600 price at? Directly from SPA Tech? If not were, let us know. And lets us know how they work when you get them since you probally get them before me.

later Gun

neo_omega

I will get it from England. As i said above, SPA tech quote me 250 each not include shipping. But a British reseller sold them for $600 included shipping. I actually email SPA back and tell them their prices are extremely high. They probably think I'm some F&F moron?

Gun

Yea but can you let us know who the British reseller is that gave you the $600 price for the three gauges plus shipping to the USA so we can get that deal to?

thanks Gun

suganuma

i guess it depends on your use

if youre just driving around town and have time to actually READ numbers then good for you.

but when racing i usually just glance at the gauge to see where the needle is at. granted when not under certain conditions i can look at the numbers to get a measurement, but id rather just arrange my gauges so i can read the gauge and not a number.

seems simpler to me. you can arrange things so they arent cluttered.....you just have to think outside of the box....

neo_omega

Peak holding, Memory recall and programmable Alert setting ring a bell?

maxcooper

I have an analog boost gauge, because I like to be able to watch it move in time. Of course, I also have the PFC Commander and AVC-R that measure boost, but it is much easier to mount the gauge where you can see it.

I also have two SPA gauges. One is water temp and fuel pressure and the other one is oil temp and oil pressure. I like the digital gauge for water temp, because the important range that you need to read is small compared the entire range and the temp changes slowly compared to boost. Reading a number off the gauge is actually quicker than trying to read it precisely off an analog gauge for this application, IMHO. Another nice thing is that they do peak/hold. So I reset the gauge before each session and read the peak after I pull off. You can also set alerts. The gauge has a bright LED for each reading that you can adjust to go on at whatever set point you are interested in. They also have an external trigger that you can hook up to another light or buzzer, or disable your boost control (drop boost to spring pressure). The external alert can be set separately from the internal alert.

It is a challenge to mount the oil temp sender. I was trying to put together a remote mount oil filter setup, but I never arrived at anything that seemed like a good solution. You have to mount a temp sender in the flow of oil, or it won't be accurate (you can't mount it at the end of a hose, for instance). You want to measure the temp of the oil going into the engine. I ended up getting a Mocal temp sensor mounting block that I will splice into the -10 oil line that goes from my thermostat to the oil filter mount (where the oil goes into the engine). The -10 line was part of the Crooked Willow oil cooler setup, but I am sure that there is some suitable way to splice the stock line, too. However, the Mocal temp sender block has much bigger threads than the SPA sender, so it might be preferable to get a block of aluminum with a hole through it for oil flow, attach some fittings on each end and drill into the side to mount the sender.

I have the water temp sender mounted in place of the sensor for the stock gauge, which is in the rear side housing near the oil pressure sender. It threads right in, which is nice. This should also be near the hottest spot on the motor as the coolant flows through both rotor housings before it passes the sensor. But it is a little higher than the spark plugs, so I am sure it would be hotter lower. Removing the stock sensor from this location has no effect other than disabling the stock gauge -- the ECU does not even look at this signal. I have had two senders fail in two years, which I think may be due to the extreme vibration of this position, but replacing the sender every year is not that big of a deal. It is about $30 from http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/. When the sensor fails, the alert light flashes and the display shows a fault, so you'll know when it goes bad.

I plan to mount the oil pressure sender in place of the stock unit. I am not sure yet what threading challenges will present themselves. Or how long the $100 pressure sender will last. It is okay to mount pressure senders at the end of a hose, so I might make a SS braided hose for this and mount the sender on the body to reduce the chance of failure.

I've had the fuel pressure sensor plumbed into the fuel feed line near the steering shaft using a bunch of small pipe stuff from the hardware store. This will have the gauge reading a bit higher than the rail pressure, but it isn't too far off. I will be replacing the stock fuel pressure regulator with an Aeromotive unit mounted down on the fender below the brake booser, and moving the fuel pressure sender to the port on the new regulator, perhaps at the end of a small rubber fuel injection hose. It is nice to be able to use hardware store pipe fittings for this.

I'll be replacing the stock oil pressure and water temp gauges with the SPA units. A few people have done this before. The green doesn't match, but after contacting SPA and taking the gauge apart, it seems like it isn't practical to change the color of the backlight, so green they will be. Another issue is that the SPA display goes totally black when the gauge is too hot, so you might need to install a little fan or get some air to blow across the gauges from the HVAC system. I've had the WT/FP gauge on the a-pillar for a while, and it does go black on hot sunny SoCal days, but it clears up when you start to drive and get the interior temp to a reasonable level. One nice part is that these gauges are shallow, and shouldn't require as much cutting as a traditional gauge. I understand you still need to do some cutting to clear the connector on the back, however. You'll also need to find a spot to mount the little red button that you use to access the gauge settings and show the peaks.

Sorry for the long post, but that's all the info I have gathered about this stuff.

-Max