I have room for two more gauges...

[biggreen96]

but cant decide what to get.
They will be autometer carbon fiber gauges... cause they are hard to damage.
What I have already is a watertemp gauge. Perhaps a egt and a oil pressure?

Don't need a boost, the apexi takes care of that.

[Yukonart]

Either one of those PLUS a boost gauge are typically the most useful.

[BAC5.2]

Hard to damage? What are you doing with the car that you are going to damage a gauge, and what basis do you have for saying they are hard to damage?

Anyway, I would get a mechanical boost gauge (for VAC readings and for a real boost signal rather than just a computers interception of boost), and EGT. If you have room for more, get Oil Pressure, then water temp if you really want it.

[azn2nr]

someone hangs out in the nabisco ot too much

just remember srt4isfastAr

[biggreen96]

I have the water temp gauge already, I got it when I thought the stock unit in my 96 GT was flaking out.
The Apexi unit reads vacuum too. So I don't really need a boost gauge.
I think with the mod path I want to eventualy follow (larger turbo, better fueling) its definatly EGT gauge, theres one on ebay right now too.
I will end up getting oil pressure I bet. Its too basic not to have.

[BAC5.2]

No tuner worth his weight would put all boost/vac faith in an electronic unit. I guess if you are keeping the car as stock as it is, you won't need to worry about it to much. If you turn up the boost, the Apexi unit (which Apexi unit, by the way?) is going to read what the ECU reads, and the ECU reads only what the fuel cut defender allows it to see.

If you want to put faith in electronics for boost monitoring, then Water Temp, Oil Pressure, EGT, Fuel Pressure are important.

If it were ME, I would nix the water temp gauge in favor of a mechanical boost gauge, get EGT and Oil Pressure, and find room for a Fuel Pressure.

Why are the Carbon Fiber gauges harder to damage though? I don't understand that.

[dscoobydoo]

I went:

oil pressure, oil temp, egt, boost and voltage.

Kind of a little of everything.

2 in the a pillar, 3 in the 1.5 din slot

[boostjunkie]

No tuner worth his weight would put all boost/vac faith in an electronic unit. I guess if you are keeping the car as stock as it is, you won't need to worry about it to much. If you turn up the boost, the Apexi unit (which Apexi unit, by the way?) is going to read what the ECU reads, and the ECU reads only what the fuel cut defender allows it to see.

I'm not really sure what you mean by this statement. I had a Blitz DTT DC in my car measuring boost. I originally used it to measure against my friend's Autometer mechanical boost gauge, that was PROVEN to be off by 2psi (that in itself should tell you something about autometer mechanical boost gauges). When vrg3 and I measured ecu boost readings vs. the Blitz boost readings, they both read pretty close to each other.

Mind you, the ecu was basing its readings from the MAP sensor and the Blitz unit was basing readings from its internal vaccum apparatus.

Also, if the Apex unit referred to is the AVCR, it utilizes its OWN MAP sensor for boost recognition, and not the ecu's MAP sensor, so any changes made via a FCD would not be seen by the AVCR's MAP sensor.

Oh yeah, as for the two remaining sensors, I would run oil pressure and EGT, followed very closely by the addition of fuel pressure and oil temp.

[legacy92ej22t]

I'd run an EGT and oil pressure gauges.

I'm really starting to think about multiple EGT's personally. One for #4 and one for #3. Better safe then sorry.

[BAC5.2]

I dunno Jason. I am going on the words of a good friend who has had every form of boosted vehicle (including a turbo Yamaha R1), and road racing friends. The only guy who used an electronic setup had the HKS CAMP system in his WRX, and he still had a boost, and egt gauge.

I want a Westach 4-channel EGT gauge and have a probe in each manifold. Vikash suggested it, and it sounds like a cool idea.

[biggreen96]

Also, if the Apex unit referred to is the AVCR, it utilizes its OWN MAP sensor for boost recognition, and not the ecu's MAP sensor, so any changes made via a FCD would not be seen by the AVCR's MAP sensor.

Oh yeah, as for the two remaining sensors, I would run oil pressure and EGT, followed very closely by the addition of fuel pressure and oil temp.

yeah its the avcr, i really like it too.

[BAC5.2]

I am STILL curious about why you think the Carbon Fiber gauges are harder to damage. What application are you using to damage a gauge?

[totech]

I am STILL curious about why you think the Carbon Fiber gauges are harder to damage. What application are you using to damage a gauge?

Phil, It is a NASIOC OT thing, they had a joke running that the new Mercedes McLaren, that was hard to damage, as quoted by a guy from Mercedes, who said in a press release that carbon fibre was hard to damage twice.

One of those "you had to be there" to get the joke thing.

And - Carbon Fibre is hard to damage, hard to damage...

[boostjunkie]

I am STILL curious about why you think the Carbon Fiber gauges are harder to damage. What application are you using to damage a gauge?

Phil, It is a NASIOC OT thing, they had a joke running that the new Mercedes McLaren, that was hard to damage, as quoted by a guy from Mercedes, who said in a press release that carbon fibre was hard to damage twice.

One of those "you had to be there" to get the joke thing.

And - Carbon Fibre is hard to damage, hard to damage...

Probably because it's hard on the wallet to damage a carbon fiber car! LOL!

Phil, I can't really see why an electronic boost gauge would be any less practical for a boost gauge. From my understanding, a mechanical boost gauge uses a vaccum pressure gauge, where the boost pressure is compared to atmospheric pressure. A unit such as the AVCR uses a MAP sensor, which is an independently pressurized source for comparison. As you probably know, a source pressure maintained by atmospheric pressure can be varied due to elevation (and possibly humidity, although I'm not sure about this one). Therefore, the readings attained by a vaccum pressure gauge won't be consistent.

Factor in slight pressure decreases due to the length of the hose (we all mount boost gauges in cabin) and there are even more possible discrepancies in boost readings. With an electronic, MAP-based sensor, you can locate the MAP sensor closer to the actual source of boost pressure, with the length of the wire being negligible.

I dunno. I'm not beating down on you for making that statement, but it does seem a little counterintuitive to wholly dismiss electrical boost monitoring, especially since alot of ecus (aftermarket and stock) use MAP-based systems for monitoring boost.

[scottzg]

Why are the Carbon Fiber gauges harder to damage though? I don't understand that.

Carbon fiber is hard to damage because its hard to damage.

[Brat4by4]

I don't think we are talking about the accuracy of the gauges here.

You are driving along and your car seems like it is acting up. You can glance down at your electronic device and watch the boost say 3.7*5.4*7.9*8.2, etc... or you can look at your boost GAUGE and watch how the needle sweeps across the face. You can see when the wastegate kicks in, you can see when you make the slightest change in throttle angle. You can also see if it is doing something wrong. A little display does NOT do that for you. That is why it is nice to have a boost gauge. Even if the gauge is off by 5psi you can still watch how the needle moves.

So with that being said. Definitely get a boost gauge and then EGT or Oil Pressure is a toss-up. If you plan on screwing with factory boost, I would go with EGT.

[DLC]

The AVC-R has an analogue gauge option that acts exactly like a mechanical gauge. It's pretty cool.

p.s. Chris, are you gonna send back those lugs?

[biggreen96]

hehe I knew the "hard to damage" comment would do this...