Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

hey im about to buy some aftermarket gauges for my r34gtt 4 gauges in total now which gauges are the most important/necessary ones for a good setup with up 290rwkw aftermarket turbo and computer efcourse!

this far ive got in mind oil temp, water temp, exhaust temp, boost.

dont hesitate to tell me what you think and why.

thanks..

Edited by allthewaytotheskyline

What you need depends on your set up, me personally i'm looking at oil press, oil temp, water temp and air/fuel, all with warning lights, i don't need a boost gauge as i have a electronic boost controller (PRofec B-spec 2) which has a reading which i never look at anyway (if I'm on boost I'm just holding on and watching where I'm going), I'm just looking for gauges that when i have a quick glance at them if the red light comes on i know to back off because there's something wrong.

none of these are important for a mild street car

the std gauges are fine

whats more important is

how its tuned

watching when it knocks

how your boost controller is setup

these by far outweighs the cost and purpose of having guages everywhere

your boost controller should have a safety cut, ie it should back off if boost flies past the target pressure, ie something fails, it shouldnt run unlimited boost

when the engine is knocking you should have a warning or alarm or some form of protection

it should be tuned so that you get good economy, it has aggressive timing (within knock limits) and is setup for average conditions

Oil temp, last Saturday driving in 46'C day [day of bushfires] my oil went to 108"C, I hated it, but slowed down and it settled on 97'C, so very necessary.

Oil pressure normally is 3.5 at 3000rpm, on this day it was more like 3.0, but I was semi reassured that at least I had useable pressure.

Exhaust temp, cos you can see how hard your turbo side is working and also know when you can turn your ignition off [so you don't always need to use your turbo timer or wait around unlit 2 minutes are up etc]

Water temp, I've never really needed an accurate figure, as long as its not increasing or overheating, then its OK, so you only need an indicator, not a real time measure.

You will drive to suit the conditions and the readings of the above three, the others are handy, but not necessarily condition dependant, more tune dependant. And if you using a PFC [and some other ECU's] then you will get a reading from them during or at the end of the trip anyway.

But I don't do any track days, mainly highway/main road only, so your use could change this.

oil/boost press

water/oil temp

I wouldnt do without my wideband afr but as above - an engine can knock even when running rich so its not foolproof.

Edited by DCIEVE
even 108 is probably fine for oil temp

yeah, could be, but who wants to get stuck on the Hume highway on a 46'C day.......lol

On a normal 30'C or less day, it sits on around 85'C, so a 20'C increase is time for some caution in my books, to be sure to be sure!

On another note, it must have frustrated the hell out of the highway patrol car that snuck out and followed me for approx. 20km into Holbrook and I wasn't speeding or hooning at all - too hot.

ok im beggining to sway to these gauges oil pressure, oil temp, water temp, exhaust temp as my electronic boost controller reads/displays boost and has a auto over boost cut limiter.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Did you pay with a credit card? I'd be putting a charge back through then finding a new sparky to sort it out. 
    • If you mean the alarm immobiliser; theyre internal to the alarm itself which makes that difficult; I couldnt even see where he put it; its not in the same place as last time; but with all black wiring it might be very challenging to trace  I had someone turn the key for me as I know it only primes for a couple of seconds As my post above; I am getting no voltage to the pump at all; but I am testing continuity of the power line (SB) from the pump plug to the relay fine. As well as the negative from the pump plug to a 12V constant.    Yeah; he blammed the no start on a bad battery; said I needed to get a new battery and it'll start. Turns out the battery drained because the tail lights had been on for half the day during the install (the rubber cushion on the brake switch gave out while he was testing it as I have a picture of the car from that morning with the tail lights off..i've replaced that). The battery was turning over the engine just fine for a long time; but got low since lights were draining it so it was too low to test a start after he finished. I bought a new one on his advice...$250 wasted. My original battery charged up just fine and is healthy.    It was running perfectly fine when I messed up the old alarm (programmed out the remotes). He couldnt start it after removing the old alarm; my assumption is that when he unhooked it; he didnt bridge the circuit back when trying to start it. Its always been perfectly fine. The ECU swap and pump were 2 years ago. It's never missed a beat in that time. 
    • This is a big issue for me without the diff. I just have zero drive from the passenger side when drivers side has no traction. Bec's parents place has a crazy steep driveway with odd camber and I have never been able to get up. My bro-in-law's 130i with an (unknown brand) LSD gets up fine as does their dad's Hiace. My car stays at the bottom. We have other odd camber roads around here as we're elevated a bit and if it's raining I can get totally stuck around some hairpins. 
    • Yeah, I am super excited for this.
    • Was the car running before he touched the car?
×
×
  • Create New...