What gauges are recommended if your car has a nicely built NA engine?

Please recommend up to 3 gauges. I'm not looking for brands; I'm looking for types of gauges like EGT, Water temp, etc.....

Thanks,
Victor

 

Same here.

 

I'd get water temp, oil pressure, and fuel pressure. Unless the Z already has those guages and are accurate. I don't have a Z, just cruising the boards and dreaming about graduation.

 

Well, the Z already has oil pressure, so maybe an Oil Temp Gauge instead?

-D'oh!

 

Sure, why not. I can't think of any other guages that would be useful on an NA. Well, maybe an Amp meter if it doesn't already have one, but I'm assuming it does. Maybe a more accurate tach? But then, I'm guessing you mean smaller guages and not huge tach type gauges.

 

Air fuel ratio is a big one. Other than that you wont need much in an na car.

 

The A/F ratio gauges are so inaccurate your better off with exhaust temp. That shows if you are running lean or rich depending on the temp... Unless your running a wideband, A/F is no good more for looks IMO. It works ok though...

 

true, wideband is the way to go, but expensive

i would choose for n/a:

water temp
oil temp
wideband if you can afford one, or
fuel pressure

i dont know if a fuel pressure gauge is THAT necessary, since n/a motors usually dont see high fp's like FI applications. but fuel IS a vital component obviously, so its good to know whats going on with it.

 

Here is what you want for an NA car with a fair level of mods (head, cams, etc.):

1. EGT - always a good general tuning tool to have. Not a definitive gauge on its own, but when coupled to an OBD2 datalogger, it can reveal interesting things about areas of rich/lean in the rpm range.

2. Oil Temperature - a good general gauge to have if you plan on many track days - otherwise, not a very useful gauge to have IMHO as its overkill

3. Fuel Pressure - if you have fuel mods done (larger pump, bigger injectors, etc.), its useful - without those mods, I see no need other than "more info" - basially you want to make sure fuel pressure does not trail off as rpm's increases - it should hit a peak poin and stay there till redline.

A setup that permits actual recording and playback is best, though more expensive, so all depends on your budget - Defi, GReddy, Blitz offer gauges like these, where they connect to a central control unit, and you can set your own peak points, as well as watch a given time frame in real-time.

Overall though, I think a far more useful tunig tool is an OBDII datalogger, of which there are several. This will provide far more useful info directly from the ecu such as 02 voltage, timing, fuel trims, etc. hile it will not moniter knock sensor activity like old gen cars, it does allow you to view actual ignition timing, which when pliotted onto a graph, as all dataloggers will do, allows you to see dips in the curve - those dips, especially on an NA car, would be signs of the ecu pulling timing back, aka knock.

A wideband 02 is great, but if you ahve no means to adjust the fuel tables, I hardly see the point. Not to mention that wideband sensors really don't have a very long lifespan, so they are most useful for track use, or for a car that really is not driven all that often. I'd stay away from the Autometer blinkey blinkey light A/F gauge - GReddy's A/F analog gauge is useful for what it is, and at least comes with its own narrow band 02 sensor, but honestly, it gets quite annoying to look at. Its relatively accurate (we have had it hooked up simultaneously with our Horiba and FJO widebands), and while not spot on, its got a fairly small margin of error - mainly does not react quite as fast as the wideband, and tends to read a bit leaner than the wideband does.

I think water temp is great for a track car - very useful.

The standard oil pressure gauge should also be just fine for all but the most extreme setups - I own a 600 hp 280 ZX Turbo, and still rely on the standard oil pressure gauge, as its quite accurate.
Hope that helps!

 

Z1,

Any recommendations on data loggers?

Preferably on the not expensive side and downloadable with various parameters read and usefull readings per second.

Any comments on http://www.autotap.com/products.html

 

I came up with a cool idea on a stealthy way to hide a shift light. Take out one of the 3 gauges on the dash and hide it behind a piece of tinted glass. You can relocate whatever guage you take out to the A-pillar either using the stock guage or an aftermarket. Anyway, just thought that was a cool idea.

 

I'm adding a water temp and an oil temp to a custom panel that will mount inside the NAV housing. I'll still be able to close the NAV door, so that I can conceal the gauges. I'm really only concerned about these two items when I'm at the track, whici is why I want to retain the NAV door usage.

Beau.... why install a shift light? The Z already has one in the tach.... and you can set it to any RPM you like. Also, you can't remove just one of the gauges in the gauge pod... behind all that plastic they are one big mother board with all sorts of circuits on them. I suppose you could eliminate all three gauges and replace them with aftermarket... but then you lose the trip computer.

 

Oh, I was completely unaware of everything you just posted. Thanks for the info! And now I just want a Z even worse, thanks a lot! Just kidding around, hopefully I'll land a good job shortly after graduation this December and then I can upgrade to a Z.

 

I actually wanted to replace the OEM voltmeter with an oil temp gauge.... until I saw what the gauges in that pod looked like! That is what has led to me fabricate a panel to fit in the NAV opening.

Good luck with the job hunt!

PeteH

 

Thanks! Finding a job looks like it might be quite a task. I'm just going to start networking now and hope for the best.

 

We use the OBDII Pocketlogger

www.pocketlogger.com, tell him I sent you (Adam from Z-1).

Mike (owner/developer) is an old freind of ours!

 

Thanks, I'll look into it.

 

strongly suggest against an ammeter- this takes the entire battery current through it - there is a significant problem with this if you have a short or other extended high current draw- fire hazard if it heats too much (agreed, not many fires, but the volt meter is already checking the alternator, so no value.
water temp might be useful, the dummy gauge as supplied is really only "i am OK, or dang, too hot" type of indicator.
oil temp- interesting, but you can only tell that the oil is hot, and the water temperature gives you a much earlier indicator than oil temp-
there are lots of guages, but given the space in the cockpit, they all kind of intrude
good luck