renesisdrms

time and money goes into ur car and its turbo kit. and for those who care to protect their investment buys gauges, right?

-first question: what deems as most important first gauges to get and why? ex. fuel pressure/ h2o temp/ oil press/ boost/ egt.

-second: how many would get all five or if more are needed...separately?

-third: or go with a compact digital console type that maybe only reads about 4 parameters.

and last: what would be a basic in ur opinions in what u need? what out of the five, or perhaps more if i left a few out that u can do without? ex. i'd get oil, fuel, boost pressures, and h20 in all.


i'd like to make a poll on this thread. can someone help on that?
make all parameters as oil pressure, fuel pressure, h20 temp, boost pressure, EG temp, air temp, able to check off. and just have pollers fill in compact console type gauges and what gauge they can do without... thx in advance.

pls feel free to reply to thread even if no-one is able to help set up poll for this thread.

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Braineack

1. Boost/Vac & Air/Fuel. $5 Fuel pressure gauge for tuning the FMU only.

2. EGT is pointless if you have an a/f gauge. 89-94 oil pressure gauge is good enough. H20 temp gauge would be nice.

If I could I would do: A/F, Boost, H20 Temp, I/C in & out temp, oil temp

3. Put the money into something more worthwhile

4. EGT is what the old timers used for A/F back in the day:

If the timing was too retarded or fuel too lean the EGTs skyrocket

If the timing is too advanced listen for ping

I run Boost and A/F, I wouldn't mind a true h2o gauge as I track it. But a typical street car doesn't need much more.

renesisdrms

nice input brain. i thought the same for a/f-egt gauge. and i think that as well for another gauge tho. there's not a vital need to have oil temp,oil pressure and h20 temp. imo, having h20 temp and oil pressure would do. my reasoning behind that is water temp should rise faster than oil temp... so having just oil pressure in conjunction with h20 would be ok.

egt does have its plus'. but i think if u're not in f1, where u need critical power to win... my opt of gauges will still be h20 temp, oil press,adj. fuel pressure, and a/f + boost controller.

seen turbo chargers with as many gauges as possibly available. but, i know sometimes one defeats the others purpose. just wanna find the logic reasoning behind why the ppl buy the gauges in the first place.

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renesisdrms

seems like an h20 gauge would be the last that u need. since miata's already have an oil pressure gauge...just thought of that now.

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boostinsteve

Boost and wideband, definately are the most important of the gages. I would say that oil temp becomes pretty important also, especially if track time is in the mix.

renesisdrms

ok...new ones i haven't thought of. nice.

personally, i just haven't seen many oil temp gauges in turbo cars...just h20 temp. maybe i'm lookin in the wrongg cars or...? what would u deem as more important in a temp gauge? h20 or oil?

my reason in this question is due to that every single modern car has only just a single h20 temp gauge to go with just an oil pressure gauge... and why is the reason they stopped having live oil pressure gauge readings? i dunno why. is there any reason why they don't just make cars with oil temp gauges...something to do with the already existing h20 temp gauge?

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Pcola'sNB

I don't know if it's the same for the NA, but on the NB, the gauge reads a little pasthalf. It doesn't increase if oil pressure increases, and on drops if pressure drops below 7.

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Braineack

they are both important, but the OEM oil pressure gauge is a real gauge. 89-94. the 95-97 isn't a true gauge like the water temp...ideally it would be nice to swap both with full range ones....something like this stage-1 kit: http://www.miatagauges.com/

on the track the water gauge sucks...if you start to overheat your guage skyrockets.....you have no clue what you're running.

renesisdrms

am i just stuck in the fast n furious stage? i think i'll put a huge rpm gauge over my stock one =)

c'mon... i created this thread to see what the forced crowd has to say. any of the aforementioned gauge must have some important service in ur car if ur turbocharging!

is there just a lack of effort in opinions or inputs? or are simply these vital instruments just of miniscule importance?

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renesisdrms

ok brain. thanks! just saw new threads now.

i can get the idea why u opt for an oil temp gauge over water temp gauge for track use...(to see any sign of temp increase, even if miniscule.

and would having an live oil press a la 94 miata serve just as equal importance due to dangers of running low pressure and not even knowing it...like the stationary type gauges?

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boostinsteve

You need to decide what the sytem is going to be used for. Are you going to take it to the track all the time. If so, it is a lot harder on the fluids and the mechanicals, so more heat and stress are going to be added. Also, are you going to tune it yourself, or are you going to take it to your local tuner. These things will help us tell you what you would want. As of right now, I am running a wideband and a boost gage. I also have temporary gages for fuel pressure and WI pressure. These are really the only gages that I will need unless I decide to get more serious and start bring the boost up.

renesisdrms

ok. i guess i can give a scenerio.
the turbo charged example car will be a...97 miata. stock gauges. fixed oil press, oem h2o gauge. lets say if said daily driver turbocharges with a 30% in horsepower increase...ex. 6-8psi.
and interested in tracking streets of willow or any full race course in so-cal where it'll be driven hard and stay on its upper end for hours.

not exactly a le-mans, but reality enough to apply to a probable majority of turocharged crowd.

well, other than its track use, daily driving and reliability will be factored in.

so steve, given the occasion, what gauges now deem valuable enough to invest in and live with on a daily basis?

(pump gas...if that makes a difference.)

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Braineack

I track and autox the crap out of it....I'm not worried about running more gauges. It would be nice to know exactly the water temp, but since I tackled some overheating issues my gauge never moves, so i fugre it's good enough....even at a substained 135mph.

renesisdrms

cool. its nice to know u don't necessarily need an array of gauges for even a hard running car.
maybe just a few essential ones for ur suitability. and what i do noticed is everyone seem to favor true read gauges over the idio iconic whatever of gauges dummied down on the more modern cars.

any owners of nb's or newer have their non-true oil press gauge bother them enough to actually change them out for a true one?

i'm not a gauge freak...just wonderin what meaningful gauge ppl do actually get when they do need to keep watch of engine vitals.

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renesisdrms

but i have to admit, i do enjoy the moving needles on my 94 miata, as someone complimented on my good find in the year of my miata.
aftermarket gauges are also just lotta fun to look at. anyone have a few favorites they wanna post?

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SC Pat

Well, I have an NB (00) and I'll jump on the Boost/AFR bandwagon. I bought a 3-gauge panel from Trackdog so to fill it in I went with a dual sweep oil/water temp gauge from Westach. I feel pretty confident and informed as to what my car is doing now.

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FastForward SC @ 15psi. non-intercooled on a '00 How do they do that? Now with E-85

turbored

well a miata isn't hard to break into, so less gauges ftw! boost and wideband is all you need!