Gauges
 

If in the wrong forum please relocate to correct one.

Looking at adding gauges to go with my single turbo set up. I did a quick search but really did not find threads other than the "top 3 gauges" I posted a few minutes ago stating that Boost, AFR, dual (or 2 EGT), and Fuel Pressure would be top 4.

With that in made I am looking to see what brand to get. I greddy over priced, not as good as others? Is autometer the safe reliable beat? what others are recommenced? during my internet search I came across revlimmeter.net for refacing the stock gauges. Looks interesting but I think I would rather pay to have this done as I am inpatient and don't have much time to spend figuring out the install. So is there someone in CA that can do this as well as fix my ODO as it is blank the last time I powered the car on.

Lastly the stock oil pressure and temp gauges, are they linear?

thank you your input and suggestions.

What kind of ECU are you running your engine with? Assuming it's a modern aftermarket ECU with CAN bus support, there are several CAN bus gauges on the market today that can monitor/display pretty much anything the ECU can broadcast on CAN bus. So one gauge can get you everything you might need to look at. I'm running a Link G4+ ECU on my FD, and I chose a single GaugeArt CAN bus gauge for mine - https://gaugeart.com/product/gaugeart-can-gauge/ This guy can display 1, 2 or 4 different parameters on a single screen, and IIRC, up to 12 different screens can be configured. You use a phone app to program it, pretty simple. Does the job for me.

The stock oil pressure gauge is linear/accurate enough as long as the sender unit & wiring is still good. The stock coolant temp gauge is notoriously non-linear by design, as once the car warms up the needle will just hang there about mid-scale and not move up to HOT unless you've literally boiled over & cooked your motor.

ideally you want as few gauges as possible, ive learned the hard way that if the car actually gets driven, the driver won't see the gauges
ive got boost, water temp and egt in mine, but i could get rid of them and not really notice, although it is cool to see the boost needle go to infinity

I will be going with HalTech for ECU.

Those gauges look pretty cool.

If Coolant gauge is non linear then I guess I will look at adding a temp gauge.

Thank for your input.

Was planning on boost on steering column, AFR, EGT on on a 3 pod over center dash and wasn't sure for the fuel pressure. and now if I get temp.

If your ECU is modern and comes with programmable safety parameters then you can realistically do away with virtually all aftermarket gauges. If you have enough inputs then I'd route everything throught the ECU and tell THAT to ease off when conditions get wonky.

I will be running a motec M150 with a fully customizable digital display. RPM, boost, coolant/oil temp and trans/diff temp is really all I'll display. The temp displays are just so I'll know when everything is warm enough to lean on. Set the ECU up right and let that protect the motor from damages.

If you're truly driving hard than the christmas display of gauges will only be a distraction.

Just get the Haltech IC7 dashand call it a day.

If it were my car, I would spend money buying a fuel pressure sensor, combination oil pressure /temp sensor, and individual O2 sensors before buying a single aftermarket gauge or fancy motorsports-style dash. Then configure the ECU to use those sensors, as already suggested above, and know that your ECU is watching and keeping things safe so the driver can focus on driving the car. And if your ECU can't be configured to keep the engine safe, consider buying an ECU that can.

ABSOLUTELY this!!!

I went from 5 gauges to one digital dash, and no additional sensors for each gauge.


Nah, DD car and always paid attention. What I did notice with multiple gauges is that there is no way to keep track of all of them when WOT. A digital display takes care of that, the gauge/data turns red when warnings has been set. Extremely easy to just look for RED when WOT, no red keep the fun pedal down.

After seeing what Pete has with the gauge art and messaging him I like his set up. I will bet the single center dash pod use the Haltech version gauge art gauge and run AFR, duel get and fuel pressure. I will run an analog boost gauge on steering column.

Thank for your input and thoughts.

Now just need someone that can fix my ODO and possible reface the stock gauges.

Nice, I just got my NSX running on an M150 and I currently have a C125 dash that I will swap out to something else I'm working on.

What dash are you going to use?

it might be worth pointing out that the newer Mazda's have basically 3 gauges now, speedo, RPM and fuel level.
they do coolant temp with an LED, when its blue, its too cold, when its RED its too hot, when its off, you're clear to go....

I'm running a C127, I also got display creator enabled on it. This is what I threw together, even this is looking a bit busy though.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...2d86cd7f14.jpg

I'd love to go with a 1212 eventually, but I dont think there is enough space, physically, for it to fit. The additional width would definitely cut into the stock lines..
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...ab76c65a7a.jpg

they should add an indicator line just right of center on the coolant gauge with this note …

“DONE BLOWN UP”

.

I would personally use numeric values for the temps in the lower corners. Temps don't fluctuate quickly and numbers will be easier or read.

Those are simply there as a guide for whether it's safe to romp on it or not. Using color coded numeric values (blue for too cold, white for fine, red for too hot) would also work for sure though!

I was trying to replicate the theme of old/simple analog gauges on that display though. I'll probably have a different display page that has a bunch of numeric values listed out.

in WW2 they did lots of testing on this kind of stuff. what lighting is best, what the eye reacts to etc. its worth a look. F1 probably also, although with F1 after the 80's there is someone in the pits looking at the gauge for the driver.

the gauge and needle work great because you can look at the position of the needle and if its moving or not, and numbers are bad because you need to read them, and think. even in a ridiculous Madtytey0! car with a row of gauges you could line em up so that when everything is good, all the needles are pointing the same way, so quick glance is all you need, no thought required

thinking is a huge problem, because the human brain is basically a 1hz device, so its too slow to read numbers and think about stuff

"thinking is a huge problem, because the human brain is basically a 1hz device"

:)

The resolution and the size of the analog gauge in his layout makes that very difficult to see the angle of the needle or how much it moved and whether or not the value is okay. If you have a larger analog gauge with a large enough sweep to be able to quickly differentiate 5, 10, 20* changes (and yes it helps if they're clocked so 12-o'clock is normal), then that would work. However, with a Motec display, you can program anything you want and using analog displays for this purpose of temperatures is a big waste of real estate, when you can just have pop-up warnings and don't need to have displayed values at all.

That's the best way to do it, and the way we did it in the LeMans cars.