Importance of Gauges

[GreekStang85]

hey guys i will be buying autometer gauges soon and i am going to purchase an a/f gauge and i also want to know what other gauge is good to have i was leaning towards a pyrometer gauge or a transmission temp. gauge.

 

[Firemanz]

A/F ratio is useless. I know because I have one that I got for very cheap, lol. Get an oil pressure and water temp gauge. Gotta know what's going on with the engine.

I have boost and fuel pressure gauges on the a-pillar....

 

[GreekStang85]

we already have a water temp gauge in the dash dont we, i guess i could use an oil pressure gauge. would a pyrometer gauge be of any importance?

 

[GreekStang85]

bump

 

[mrpositraction]

I don't see why you would need a pyrometer gauge, a "real" oil pressure gauge would be nice, ours is more of a dummy gauge, as is our water temperature guage. I had thought about a a/f gauge, why do you say it is useless. I would think it would be a direct indicator if something is going wrong with the air of fuel mixture (fuel pump, throttle body).

 

[jbrown]

yeah why is the a/f useless? I want to get a a/f gauge and nitrous pressure gauge in the a pod after I get nitrous.

 

[GinoGT]

Air fuel ratio gauges are useless with the regular o2 sensors on the car. You need a wideband o2 sensor to get a real reading.

 

[Firemanz]

Air fuel ratio gauges are useless with the regular o2 sensors on the car. You need a wideband o2 sensor to get a real reading.

Exactly, and those = $$$$$. Anyone want mine? I'll sell it cheap, lol....

 

[GinoGT]

Exactly, and those = $$$$$. Anyone want mine? I'll sell it cheap, lol....

Actually, modulardepot has an LM-1 a/f kit (sensor and a computer) for $350.

 

[GreekStang85]

would a transmission temp gauge be useful, i have a 5 speed if it matters.

 

[Mustang98GTMI]

I'm wanting to install a A/F gauge and a oil pressure gauge...How hard are they to install?

 

[GreekStang85]

iv helped my friend with his a/f gauge but it was simple , the oil pressure gauge is probably ia little harder to install.

 

[Carl]

iv helped my friend with his a/f gauge but it was simple , the oil pressure gauge is probably ia little harder to install.

The oil pressure guage is easy. You just unscrew the stock oil pressure sender and buy a t-fitting. then you screw it in the hole and put both senders in the fitting. the only problem is, if you're like me and have a centrifical supercharger that requires a oil feed, like a vortech, then you already have a t-fitting there for your oil feed. If you unhook your stock sending unit to put in an aftermarket one and don't hook it back up, I'm sure you'll get all kinds of check engine lights and so on, since the computer thinks the engine has lost all oil pressure. Unless you could possibly find a fitting that has three inputs instead of the 2 that a normal t-fitting does.

 

[COBRA90GT]

...Get an oil pressure and water temp gauge...

What he said!

 

[Jay99]

no a trans temp gauge will not be as usefull as using the money to put full synthetic in your trans
only people with auto transmissions like to watch the temp in their trannies to make sure everything is working ok.

 

[showstopper2]

if you need gauges so badly invest in oil, temp, fuel pressure. those 3 are the most important. the factory gauges are useless. it's much better to be able to see actual values than reading whether the needle is half way or not and if thats "normal". I currently have Cobalt boost and FP on the A pillar and will be adding oil and temp right after XMas to the autometer cluster bezel I have already painted and ready to install.

 

[00s281sc368]

Air fuel ratio gauges are useless with the regular o2 sensors on the car. You need a wideband o2 sensor to get a real reading.

You can make you reading "wideband" like by low-pass filtering the signal from the o2 sensor to the gauge. It's as simple as adding a resistor and a cap for R-C filter on the signal ($0.50 at radio shack). That's what I did and the gauge doesn't jump up and down anymore, it stabilises to average reading

 

[GreekStang85]

would you still be able to get a good read with out the wideband mod?

 

[00s281sc368]

I don't see how people can use a/f gauge without filtering the signal.
It just goes from min to max all the time every second and totally useless unless you like disco lights!
The filter gives stable average reading!

 

[rjs281]

so this gauge won't even give you an idea how it is running?what about at full throttle.why sell somrthing that does not work?this thing from radio shack,can antbody or any shop put it on?