Looking for recommendations of which to use.

For those who have had them, what did you find most useful?

I've got no turbo, so no need for a Boost Gauge.

 

I woudlnt bother unless I really wanted some specific gauges.

A wideband O2 gauge is awesome for tuning. If it were me I'd do a mechanical oil pressure gauge (if you can run the piping through there without any trouble.) and a vacuum gauge because they're both valuable diagnostic tools. The WB02 is a valuable tuning tool.

 

i put tranny and oil temps on mine

 

i have volt and water on mine

 

I had such a difficult time deciding this stephen. Took me about 6 months to make up my mind.

First off, seeing as how you have a trans am, you already have all the gauges you could possibly need. Total of 6.

1) Speedo
2) Tach
3) Volts
4) Water temp
5) Oil press.
6) Fuel.

In my car, the water temp, and oil press. do not work, so i added 2 additional gauges in mine, below the dash pad.

Then instead of buying the triple gauge pod, i bought three individual pods. However before i did this, i had already purchased a vacuum gauge. Rather large, and i love it.

7) Vacuum Gauge

Now as for the other three, my car is a driver in the summer, and i usually go on long trips with it. As such, i thought it would be necessary to know the

8) Oil temp
9) Tranny fluid temp

As for the third, it took me forever to decide, between a second water temp for an auxiliary point on the head, a minature clock, and a tach that went up to 8K RPM. But the radio displays the time, i swapped out the old dash for a trans am 140 mph dash, and so i had to settle for;

10) Auxiliary water temp.

HOWEVER, i now kick myself, because of a recent problem i developped in the car. I SHOULD have gone with an;

11) ELECTRIC Fuel press.

Now the important part.

Out of all of these, obviously the tach and speedo get used the most.

After that the one i love most BY FAR, is the vacuum gauge. Its incredibly helpful!!!!! Your ear can note changes to engine sound, and you can judge certain things by that, but the vacuum gauge takes it to a whole new level. When the weather changes a couple degrees, you see changes. When the car is lean, or rich you see a change, etc etc etc... Its also a great tool for tuning and diagnosing probs.

Next up, i havent installed these yet, but i bet on long trips, my tranny temp and oil temp are gonna be fairly useful. If you dont like either of these, id recommend you go with a fuel press. gauge.

But a vacuum gauge should DEFINATELY be on the list.

 

I currently have fuel pressure, tach, and narrowband 02. I highly recommend a fuel pressure gauge. Tranny temp would be good too.... read over the list in Summit and see what appeal to you...

 

Thanks for the inputs guys!

I'm leaning towards 2 gauges...O2 (can the stock sensor feed a gauge & the ECM?) & vacuum. Maybe a 3rd gauge, dunno.

But here's the fiberglass plan. to get a buddy to do my A-pillar....

 

my O2 gauge uses the factory oxygen sensor. I just tapped into the line...

 

Stephen, make sure the O2 sensor is a wideband.

If you want these for tuning purposes, i would also get a vacuum gauge for under the hood. To save money (cuz they arent cheap), i bought my underhood one from a hardware store. Its actually one for a compressor, and cost $4, as opposed to $40 for the in car one. They are both within 1-2 in-Hg of eachother.

I would put the O2 one under hood, and pick a different one to put on the interior.

 

A cheap AFR gauge that uses the stock Oxygen sensor is mostly useless when it comes to tuning. I mean it's a little useful, but a wideband is AMAZINGLY useful.

The narrowband is more for looks and simply having cool lights in the car, IMO. It does show you what the ecm is seeing and what it's doing, though.

Here is what mine does just cruising around in closed loop

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...t=100_6033.flv


So you know waht you're looking at.

 

I went with:

1) Trans Temp, I do alot of Auto-X & Road Race, so it's a good thing to keep an eye on.

2) Air/Fuel Ratio - Gives me an idea of how the motor is running at any given time, also useful for tuning issues.

3) Vacuum Gauge - Again for seeing how the motor is running around the track.

 

good choices.... InfernalVortex is right, thats pretty much how mine looks like too...