as title states, how many have actually linearized stock coolant gauge and liked it?
or who prefers aftermarket and leave the stock one alone?

discuss......

Los

 

It's not worth the work involved. By the time you're at that point in mods, you will have a PFC that will give you an accurate readout of coolant temps. Screw the stock gauge.

 

Done it, love it. The PFC is way to hard to see if your driving "enthusiastically" or on a track. One bit of advice. If you think you may want to remove the mod at a later date, instead of installing a jumper on the back of the gauge, run a longer wire to a place under the dash that you can reach. That way all you'll need to do is cut that wire and remove the potentiometer you've installed between the sender and gauge and your back to stock without pulling the cluster.

 

I've got a set of aftermarket gauges fitted in place of the stock oil pressure and oil temp gauges. They look close enough to stock, and the accuracy is a nice thing to have.

 

what gauge did you use adn can you post a pix of your setup with the gauges in the stock places. what size did you use? i'm thinking instead of a potentiometer just get multiple resistors and put a steady one. i dont' like the idea of a easily turnable ***, if i ever work on the car and hit it..... or having a big box thing under the hood. i dont' mind the mod b/c i'm in rebuil and my gauge cluster all ready out. just debating on doing it. i got a boost gauge. and egt, been debating on aftermarket water temp gauge or not. if i dont' get it then i'll get an oil temp and possibly something else.



Los

 

The pot is used to make it easy to establish the proper setting. Once that's done you can read the setting of the pot with an ohm meter, remove the pot and substitute the proper resistance using a resistor(s).

 

I agree, I'll be removing it some time. It's a silly large box that's unnecessary.

However, I LOVE having the stock gauge move, it's a very strange thing after so many years of ignoring it. In my case, I think ~75c is "cold"? It spends a lot of time below horizontal.

 

I used to be a big promoter of the mod. However, now, I have revamped. Its just too easy to add in an aftermarket gauge somewhere in the car. Plus, you have numbers on the gauge which you can quickly and easily read without having to "study" the gauge while driving.

Also, for the track guys, they can get the Peak/Hold/Warning gauges which IMO is a good idea in that situation.

 

I'll take pictures when I get home. I have some pictures of the cluster hacked up though:

http://kitsunedev.com/stuff/gaugeinstall/



Those pictures are with a set of autometers. I changed to a set of VDOs 2 weeks ago or so, but I haven't put the car back together yet so there's no pictures.

I've also converted the gauge rings from chrome to polished black, for a number of reasons. Mostly, I just didn't like the chrome trim rings.

 

And before anybody comments about the carpet, that's the carpeted room by the back door of the house. We carry yard waste and crap over it all the time, so it's dirty as hell.

 

was it hard to put the gauges in? i wouldn't mind a set of simple auto meters in there. but i'm tryign my hardest to keep the sleek stock look. i doubt i'll track very much. the car is a daily driver/fun toy when i can. so i'm not "too" worried about the peak adn hold. my greddy boost gauge/egt have peak and hold and i think pfc can peak and hold the water temp can't it?


Thanks Guys for all the comments adn help!

Los

 

work is simple and looks better than any aftermarket gauge.