Replaced my oil pressure and water temp gauges
 

Well, after the V8 swap I was left without functional gauges for both my oil pressure and water temp. After 2 months of driving around everyday without that information available to me I decided to do something about it.

Since the stock gauges never worked very well anyways, and because I didn't have the Mazda senders anymore I decided to go with aftermarket gauges. I went with the Defi D-Series because they're amber and the font is pretty close to the stock gagues.

And, since I'd seen Max Cooper's setup with his in dash SPA gauges, that's the route I took.

It turned out OK and reasonably clean. There are some details to it that still bug me a little, but by and large I am happy that I'll have some functional gauges, and I didn;t have to mount them on the A pillar or at the speaker channel. Those areas will be open for boost, EGT, and Fuel pressure when I get around to turboing the car. :bigthumb:

Here's some pictures for those that are curious/want to criticize. ;)

First step was to get everything apart and then dremel out the area to mount the gauges in. Basically the entire bevel had to go. I just kept grinding away until I could press the new gauge in. It's a really tight fit, so no real need to glue anything or bolt anything into place

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...postid=2872302

Hmm... no pics! :D

*edit*

Beat me to it! Looks great so far!

Working on it. :)

Both gauges in place


https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...postid=2872330

Next I had to cut out holes in the old covering so that the gauges could poke through. Just circled the area I needed to cut out and ground it out using a cutting bit on the dremel


https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...postid=2872346

Also had to grind out the old mounting posts and light tunnels from the previous gauges

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...postid=2872360

Starting to assemble everything. Got the pieces together and ready to fit into the hood.

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...postid=2872413

And finally pictures of the results. I had to grind away a bit of the hood to get the bezels to poke through cleanly. I'm not terribly thrilled with the angle the gauges are mounted at (the angle of the camera doesn't help), they're a little crooked for my tastes , but they are in and as soon as I get the block adapters for the sending units they'll be functional. Also, the silver on the bezel doesn't quite match the chrome ring around the other gauges. :(

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...postid=2872469

Here's a night shot. They're MUCH brighter than my other gauges and the color doesn't quite match. :(

And I realized as I got everything back together that one of my bulbs is burned out. So now I'm going to have to rip everything apart again and put some new bulbs in. :hf:


For those that are curious I routed the power and sending unit wires through the old light bulb holes, so I didn't have to cut my trace at all.

All in all though, not too bad. When I put the new bulbs in I'll see what I can do about correcting the little flaws it has now, but I'm not sure what I can do about the gauge angle as they're seated all the way against the back of the cluster. I'm marginally pleased at this point. I'll just be happy to have functional gauges again.

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...postid=2872497

Looks pretty good!

Very mice work! Could you just paint the bezels black? So they blend in with the hood better? ( Even the way they are it doesn't jump out toooo bad.) I'm glad you posted this as I was wondering about the possibility of doing this. ( Do to the fact that I can't stand the look of A-pillar gauges or the center speaker pods.)
Nice work again!

Yeah, I've been debating painting the bezels black since my chrome is so flaked and chipped anyways. With the way the silver stands out it's not a bad idea at all. Just get in there with some model paint or some pinstriping. :)

Thanks Jeff. You'll get to see them in person in a few weeks. Hopefully they'll work by then.

I agree, looks prett good! Perhaps you are being too discerning? ;)

Also could you grind off/cut-out some of the white backing plate to relieve the pressure on the gauges?( Maybe helping in correcting the angle problem.) Or are the mounting tabs for the assembly back there?

Perhaps, but that would totally suit my personality. it didn't turn out as nice as I'd envisioned, so I'm a little disappointed. I'll get over it.

I ground as much as I was comfortable with off of the backing plate. The gauges are semi "press fit" in at this point and don't really "mount" to anything in the cluster. The white backing is just giving it a good are for the back of the gauge to press against.

The crookedness/angle is actually being determined by the hood, and grinding that down is nervewracking since it's still visible when your're done.

shoot, forget that gauges, i want more pics from the v8 swap

Why are you only getting 2psi of Oil Pressure at 900 rpm??

BTW, very nice set-up!

No sender yet. :) The temp reading is the ambient temp under the hood too because neither of them are in the block yet.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wingsfan
but they are in and as soon as I get the block adapters for the sending units they'll be functional.

oops- you beat me to your own answer

I have some pictures posted in the other engine conversions forum, some in the racecar tech forum, and chronicled the swap/buildup over at torquecentral. Just go search over there under the username Drewman and you should find most of the pictures.

Well that explains that!..., But, what's wrong with your fuel gauge??. It's marking FULL. That HAS to be an error, or is your last name Gates????? :)

Good luck with your project!

V8 = better mpg :D

Seriously though, notice I have 4 miles on it from the gas station. :)

Actually that's not too far from the truth!!


Please post a few photos of your engine...................(had to wipe the drool off my chin) as soon as you can. :)

Thanks.

No it IS the truth. I get about 15-17mpg city, and on the highway I can just stuff it in 6th gear @ 70 mph its turning around 1700-1800rpm and I get 30mpg+ :crzyeye:


How 'bout some video instead :D

http://lellis62.home.comcast.net/ls1_openheaders.wmv

And yes, that is the world's smallest air filter. ;) It's not on the car anymore.

How cool is that!!! Awesome. What type motor is that?? HP??

LS1. It only made 310rwhp/310rwtq untuned with a poorly designed cold air intake. Final tuning with the new CAI is a week from Friday.

310 rwhp,...not a bad number to start with!! Imagine what a good cam and some fabricated headers will do??

I have thought about doing the same thing with my dash and think that I may have the courage to try it now. Your setup looks awsome (so does Max Coopers) . Thanks for the great writeup as well.

Motor is cammed and has an LS6 intake manifold. It's still running off the stock fuel map and is majorly rich with conservative (emmissions friendly) tuning/timing. The cam is fairly large, and from talking with various people it sounds like it may actually be too large for my stock cylinder heads.

In other words, the cam and the heads might be fighting each other instead of working together, hence the lowish number.

I'll expect a pretty big jump with the new CAI and tuning. I'm not going to guess how much I should see, but I won't be surprised to see 50-100hp gains. The tuning and the previous CAI setup are that poor.

Cool. I like it more today now that I've ridden in the car for awhile. The little things that were bothering me yesterday aren't as apparent.

360 to 410 rwhp would make ANY FD OWNER very, very happy. Good Luck. Keep us posted.

damn thats freaking hot

yeeeeeeehaww!

very impressed with the gauge install that could have turned out nasty. As far as the engine no comment or read the first word again

Different strokes...

looks good. if defi made a gas guage it would look even better.

No kidding.

If Defi made a gas gauge, 5" tach without a shift light, and a 3 3/8" speedometer I'd have replaced all of the gauges.

wingsfan if the backlighting bothers you it can easily be fixed. Tie the lights to the two Defi gauges together and put a rheostat between them and the power source, then you can dial them down to the same brightness as the rest. Once settled on that you could easily remove the rheostat and substitute with a resistor(s) to the Defi gauge lights if you wanted.

Looks nice.

That's a good idea Damon. Thanks. Definately something to consider next time I have things apart.

Looks good, I was considering something like that for my FD (since I would have to some how get those stock Mazda senders into the chevy block also, and track down the wires) How much larger in diameter are the defi than the stock gauges? Is there any chance they could fit behind the bevel if the cover of the gauge is removed?

Diameter isn't the issue. The gauges are too deep to fit behind that bevel. Otherwise you could take the bezel off and they would fit pretty well (with a little massaging from the dremel). You'd have to remove all of the plastic backing and cut through the trace, which I wasn't willing to do at this point

I did my Autometer gauges so they fit behind the hood - but that means cutting the rear (white) gauge cluster housing and reworking the way the flexi circuit mounts to the back of the gauges

https://www.rx7club.com/photo/data/3...ningLights.JPG

https://www.rx7club.com/photo/data/3..._Reinstall.JPG

https://www.rx7club.com/photo/data/3...tPnl-InCar.JPG


More pics in the Gallery also :cool:

PS wingsfan, good Job looks good :bigthumb:

Thanks Max. Your setup is one of the one's I had in mind when I started, but I couldn't remember your username. I guess I could have used the search function. :doh: