Gauge Suggestions

[V Shah]

I am currently debating what type of gauge cluster I should get. I have heard good things about the Eastern Motorwerks Set, so that's probably what I will do.

What I wanted to know is, how important is it to have an oil temperature <b>and</b> an oil pressure gauge? I currently have an infrared receiver for my TV tuner in the sunglass holder area (see picture below, it's partially blocked by the shifter) <br> http://members.home.net/vshah/m3_12.jpg <p> You see, I will be getting a boost gauge which leaves only one slot open since I want to get an a-pillar setup. However, if both oil gauges are needed, then I will have to move the IR unit.

What do you guys think? Thanks in advance.

[Robcast]

Dude was your car featured on EC?
Sweet ride man!!!!!

[V Shah]

Yes it was, December 2000. Thanks for the compliment.

[///MCubed]

I have been debating the same thing lately. I would definitely invest in the oil pressure gauge first and formost. The reason is that a loss in oil pressure (ie, no oil flowing) will register almost instantly on the gauge and give you a big warning that there is something very wrong in your system. Oil pressure will also warn you way before oil temp and water temp (stock gauge in car). Second on the list would be a oil temp for the obvious reason. Third would be a boost gauge that way you can tell if you have any type of leak in your intake system, specially when you floor the car and get a rush of boost, some of the tubes/hoses can become loose over time. As far as location, I would probably put oil pressure and boost on the a-pilar and the other where your IR receiver is (sunglass holder). My first rule is to be safe with your performance and let looks take a back seat to that. Hope this long opinion helps.

[V Shah]

If I was gonna put anything where the IR receiver is, then I would put all three there.

However, another thought is to put the boost on the a-pillar and put the two oil gauges in the sunglass holder along with the V1 concealed display. I believe UUC makes that faceplate. Aye, choices choices.

[mrhmmhmm]

An oil pressure guage is nearly uesless IMHO. Ok, so your oil pressure plummets. Guess what? ITS TOO LATE. Besides, I actually see the idiot light in the dash going on about the same time your pressure drops signifigantly. And are you going to be watching the OPG constantly?

Since you're blown, here are the 3 guages I recommend:

1. Boost guage. For obvious reasons.
2. Air/Fuel meter. Are we leaning out at WOT on the top end? We dont want that! Detonation central! The knock sensor can only pull back spark so much. I wont trust it. I would however trust the J&S :)
3. Fuel pressure. We want to make sure we are giving the motor enough fuel, but not more than necissary.

These will be the 3 I install if I seriously build up this motor, SC or NA.

[V Shah]

But isn't a oil temp gauge a good idea to know at what point it is safe to romp on the pedal? I have been told that to wait only for the coolant temp to rise isn't a good indicator of engine oil temp.

[C.Yang]

The water temp that is in the dash is almost good enough. Because water heats up faster than oil, it is true that your oil might not be up to temp yet. Solution, take it easy for about 5 minutes after your water is up to temp. Oil temperature is handy, but not necessary.

[V Shah]

In my M coupe and e34 M5 i noticed that it took a considerable amount of time for the oil temp to reach optimal conditions. Much longer than the water guage. For this reason, I think that it would be necessary.

[jww///95]

The air fuel gauges are a waste of money. Constantly bouncing everywhere while in open loop mode...they really get annoying and the data they provide really has no baseline. All it displays is how you rate on the ellusive stoichiometric range.

If you want to truely monitor the air/fuel in proportion to the blower's boost, go with an exhaust temp gauge. They are fairly pricey, but the autometer ones are pretty responsive and definitely worth the price.

You should however consider how much you will rely on this gauge. Are you going to be constantly adjusting boost and fuel with different blower pullies or and adj fuel pressure reg? If you have the original setup on the blower and plan to keep it there (you're not going to pulley it up) then the air/fuel is pretty irrelevant.

For a street setup with some track time i would go with the boost, oil press, and oil temp gauges.

[jww///95]

btw-


how'd you add the picture to the far left column under your member name??/

[V Shah]

Jww -

Yes, those are the three gauges I was going to get. I have heard the same about the A/F gauge being relatively worthless unless you are constantly changing your setup.

As for the pic under my name, that is called an Avatar and can be changed by going to Preferences, then Options, then Change Avatar. Make sure the pic is 50x50 pixels or smaller.

Also, you may want to find another place to host your pictures. NBCi doesn't allow external links to pics, hence the XOOM logo.

[jww///95]

V Shah----


Good luck with the gauges and thanks for the avatar info.

As for the signature pics....Do you know of a decent host for just a few files?? Geocities used to work fine for me, but they just recently kicked the external link idea. I then tried nbci just for the hell of it and now the damn x's are back, arrrrrrgh. Getting kinda ticked off now. I need to complain to msn that they need to offer some webspace since i'm paying 20bux a month for an isp.

[TD///M3]

Originally posted by C.Yang
The water temp that is in the dash is almost good enough. Because water heats up faster than oil, it is true that your oil might not be up to temp yet. Solution, take it easy for about 5 minutes after your water is up to temp. Oil temperature is handy, but not necessary.

IMHO, the oil temp gauge is very important. Even waiting 5 min after the water temp is up is no indication of the oil temp.

Just my $.02

[V Shah]

Ha ha, I was in the <b>exact</b> same situation you are in. I had all my pics on geocities, and then they screwed me. Switched to Angelfire, no external links. Switched to nbci, no external links. Finally put everything on the webspace provided by my ISP.

However, good news for you! The way you can get geocities to work for you again is the following:

Replace "www" in the geocities URL with "fp". So your URL will look like this:

http://fp.geocities.com/name_here/pic_here.jpg

This will allow you to post external pics with no problem.

[jww///95]

Sweet man, thanks..

In the meantime i hunted around msn and found they do offer some hosting, but i don't know about external links, so we'll see if the pictures last, haha.

thanks

[V Shah]

Uh oh, still not working...

[jww///95]

Well after msn kicked me i used your suggestion of the "fp" instead of the "www" for the geocities server...

It works for now, but so did the others. I don't get it, it would stay up for about 5 minutes or so worth of refreshing but then go away. I guess it takes them a couple minutes to figure out what i'm up to.