My setup is going to be a basic built longblock with greddy tt kit. will be pushing around 475 on low boost to 550 on high boost. My car will be used for drift events, road course, and cruising on the weekends. I am looking into getting the defi bf gauges, but want advice on which ones would be neccessary on monitoring vital engine stats while at events. I want to be able to know whats going on so I will be able to back off or shut it down if neccessary.
I also have a innovative wideband that will be used as well.
boost gauge is obvious.
egt - have been told that it can help, but also told that its more for the tuning process.
fuel pressure - is this necessary with the a/f gauge?
oil pressure - the stock gauge not good enough?
oil temp - has anyone had any prob with oil temp exceeding at thes hp levels...i might just invest in an oil cooler instead.
water temp - how is the stock gauge...ive heard once it hit too hot its too late by then...
any advice and suggestion would be appreciated.

 

Sounds like you are on the right track. There is no set rule of which gauges you must have, but the more key gauges the easier to watch and easier it is to diagnose if you have any issues. The reality of it is, you can't be staring at all the gauges while you are on it, but they are nice to have to glance at and especially nice on the dyno etc when you can have multiple people watching variables.

Wideband would be my primary concern, because that can fluctuate and has a huge impact on the engine. You are correct about fuel pressure - so long as the AF is dead on, then you don't need it - though again it is nice to have for diagnostic purposes.

Boost gauge: I would get one with a peak memory. Again, you aren't always able to watch your gauges while you are full throttle - your eyes should be on the road You can glance at them, but it is nice to be able to make a pull and click recall to see what peak boost was.

Oil pressure: I personally prefer a pressure switch hooked to a warning light. I have mine setup that anytime I'm above a certain rpm (or else the light would come on at idle), if the oil pressure drops below a set amount then it triggers a bright light. This way, I know immediately there has been an oil pressure drop and can promptly shut it down. By the time you notice on a gauge, it would probably be too late unless you are just focused on that oil pres gauge all the time.

 

where do you find equipment that does what you describe?

I'd personally prefer not to have gauges visible at all, but I'd love to have warning lights for low oil pressure, low fuel pressure, over boost, etc...

i've been looking at the innovate stuff for this, but I really don't want to rely on my carPC to interpret serial data and provide warnings

 

I went with wideband A/F, Boost, and Oil Pressure for pretty much the reasons above. Also, on the G, we don't have a stock oil pressure gauge.

 

You just need an oil pressure switch (preferably one that is adjustable if you want to dial in a certain PSI for it to trigger at) and use it as the trigger for a relay. You can find this from summit or jegs. Then get a warning light that you like. You can use an LED or whatever - I went with a mini shiftlight and flush mounted it so it would get my attention.

 

i still dont see why you would buy a oil psi gauges if we have them stock.


is it not adequate for tuning use?

 

IMO the main ones you want to be easily in line of sight for the track (i'm assuming road course) are oil and coolant temp.

Oil pressure is another major one to check every so often on the track - obviously the Z comes with one, and it's fine. an aftermarket one might possibly be slightly more accurate, but I wouldn't bother changing it.

The stock coolant gauge though is a POS - it doesn't tell you any info at all unless the coolant is almost 300 degrees and starting to boil, only then will the needle actually start to rise. Otherwise the needle sitting there in the middle and not moving can mean anything from 140-240 degrees which is unacceptable. An aftermarket one is a must, the stock one is crap as you'll find out when you get an aftermarket one to compare to the stock gauge - it's actually kinda hysterical how much of a toy the stock one is

boost, fuel pressure, EGT, and A/F are more for tuning the car. If the tune is off, you obviously shouldn't be tracking it.

Of course anything is possible and maybe you suddenly start running lean or whatever. I absolutly think a boost and A/F gauge are critical to have, but I still think the coolant and oil temp guages are the ones you want to be the easiest to see on the track IMO

 

When looking for gauges for track use, your main goal is information that is useful and fast to read. I only do road coarses so I don't know about drifting, but you don't get a lot of time to pay attention to a bunch of information. Location and alarm lights are key in this situation. If I could offer my 2 cents - look for gauges that also feature alarm lights that you can program. For placement, my recommendation is put it in a heads up location that doesn't block your view of the track. I don't like A-Pilar mounts since it takes up some of your view. I installed mine in the stock location and bought the SPA dual guages so that I could have more information in the 3 stock locations. They also blink a led light when the temperature or whatever is out of range.
You can check them out:
http://www.hrpworld.com/index.cfm?fo...action=product

BTW - SPA offers more dual gauges options than hrpworld offers. The only reason I put HRPWorld on there is because they offer only quality race products and have great customer support!

 

This is a terrific point. If the plan is to track the car, a warning of some kind is manditory in my book. On the street, you have plenty of leisure time to study gauges, and most "high speed" street passes last less than 10 seconds. On most circuit courses, you are going to be extremely busy in the cockpit, and you will have little chance to glance at your gauges. A bright warning light, when a preset temp is exceeded, is your BEST chance of catching a problem before it becomes a major issue.

 

Yea, I agree. I was planning to get the Defi BF gauges which come with a warning light and beep. I plan to put them in the stock location and a pillar. Im mainly looking for adivce as which one(as far as water temp, oil temp, oil pressure, fuel pressure, EGT) will be vital to have at the track. I already have boost and A/f. which ones would be the fastest reacting and would be worth having as a warning to when I could possible back off and save my motor from failure. Also, could I offset the need for a gauge like water temp if I had an aftermarket radiator? Are there many people with overheating issues at the track with koyo radiator? I was thinking maybe oil and fuel pressure would be a good additive. I dunno, I guess theres a reason to have any of the gauges, but is there any reason to have one more than the other.