Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

I searched and can't find much. Link me if it's been done before please.

I have decided to up the boost in the near future, but on a budget, so I was going to get a boost gauge, and I just bought a boost controller for $35 in this thread http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/sh...155#post1427155

I want a boost gauge so I can watch it doesnt spike. I was going to go electronic but I thought I'd get a gauge for $150 so this puts this all under $200. Much better than $600 for a EBC.

However it seems I may have been mislead. There is much debate about the different gauges.

What is your opinion and why (provide links if you have read reviews) on the following gauges.

Autometer (Was under impression they had a good rep, but seems I was wrong)

Splitfire (Hear they are crap)

Sepco (A few have said they are good, most said crap)

Greddy/Trust (As expected, all good reports)

HKS (havn't found anything)

VDO (found 1 post saying they are good)

Apexi (some say they are good, some say not.

Any others?

I am trying to work out what to buy, but if I am paying $300 for a gauge, I'll pay $600 for an EBC with the gauge and bonus features.

Cheers

Chris

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/78160-what-gauge-to-buy/
Share on other sites

Seriously, i think boost gauges going for $300 are the biggest waste of money and wank possible, unless you have a race car.. and probably then you're at the level where somebody else is monitoring the engine status using proper equipment, rather than a simple incabin gauge.

If you are getting your car tuned by an expert, they're going to be monitoring all of your knock, boost and the rest to ensure that is not dangerous using their tools. Its nice to see where your boost is at whilst driving, and what is happening re: spiking and dips, and of course the "open boost" situation is vital to keep an eye on. But a boost gauge afterall is a monitoring tool, rather than a vital engine function.

But I am a tightass, so take this with a grain of salt..

I've had $40 specco boost gauges in my last two cars, and have not had any problems over the years. They may not be the most accurate thing, but who knows whether they are not. A 1-2psi variance between actual and displayed should not a make a difference between engine failure and not (esp. with the stock turbo). They're definitely better than the stock gauge, and even many are happy enough just sticking with that as long as the car is tuned by an expert.

What Predator said.

If your car is running perfectly, then you've got no need for boost, EGT, etc gauges. You only need to watch them if you're having issues with the car, or you're a ricer.

You might get an inlet temp gauge since that's variable and outside a tuner's control, so you could manually set boost depending on the temperature. You'd have to be pretty hardcore to do so, though. Everything else should be a non-issue.

But if you're serious about driving and monitoring your car's readings, get something like the Defi gauges. You shouldn't be watching gauges when you drive, and with Defi you can set a "warning" level to let you know when something exceeds your limits, and use the "replay" function to see what everything was doing at the time of the alarm.

Well the reason I need a boost gauge are;

1) I am going to put in a mechanical boost controller. Without a guage, I might be running 30 psi (ok so slight exageration, but point is I wont know without one since the stock isnt overly accurate)

2) Once it is installed, and I have it set to the right level, it wont matter if it reads wrong as such, so long as i can see a spike. So I guess I can get a cheapy, get it set on a dyno, then just know when it spikes.

you can get the trust/gready quite cheap $118.63 at nengun and they dont need controllers or little digital boxs to run either and come in white ,black and silver and at the end of the day you know you can rely on it being accurate. :thumbsup:

this is the white one:nengun-product-288.jpg

agreed, couldn't have said it better preadator. if you must have a guage get like a $30 one, theres a trader in the for sale section doing swoosh guages for $40 ish each, oil, water, boost, fuel etc in colours that u can choose. serioulsy the best guage or "measure device" is the powefc hand controller, it shows all the values, holds max values and does graphs. handy as. if only there's a cheap easy way to get the powerfc to read boost without controlling it :)

io bought a drift one from auto barn for 50 bucks as i installed the same boost controller in my car. i ended up takin the controller out because the nut kept coming loose i dont know if its because i wasnt tightening it enough or what but i was gettin the shits with the boost changin all the time and i like my exhaust wheel right where it supposed to be not wedged in the cat or somthing

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

    • The rain is the best time to push to the edge of the grip limit. Water lubrication reduces the consumption of rubber without reducing the fun. I take pleasure in driving around the outside of numpties in Audis, WRXs, BRZs, etc, because they get all worried in the wet. They warm up faster than the engine oil does.
    • When they're dead cold, and in the wet, they're not very fun. RE003 are alright, they do harden very quickly and turn into literally $50 Pace tyres.
    • Yeah, I thought that Reedy's video was quite good because he compared old and new (as in, well used and quite new) AD09s, with what is generally considered to be the fast Yokohama in this category (ie, sporty road/track tyres) and a tyre that people might be able to use to extend the comparo out into the space of more expensive European tyres, being the Cup 2. No-one would ever agree that the Cup 2 is a poor tyre - many would suggest that it is close to the very top of the category. And, for them all to come out so close to each other, and for the cheaper tyre in the test to do so well against the others, in some cases being even faster, shows that (good, non-linglong) tyres are reaching a plateau in terms of how good they can get, and they're all sitting on that same plateau. Anyway, on the AD08R, AD09, RS4 that I've had on the car in recent years, I've never had a problem in the cold and wet. SA gets down to 0-10°C in winter. Not so often, but it was only 4°C when I got in the car this morning. Once the tyres are warm (ie, after about 2km), you can start to lay into them. I've never aquaplaned or suffered serious off-corner understeer or anything like that in the wet, that I would not have expected to happen with a more normal tyre. I had some RE003s, and they were shit in the dry, shit in the wet, shit everywhere. I would rate the RS4 and AD0x as being more trustworthy in the wet, once the rubber is warm. Bridgestone should be ashamed of the RE003.
    • This is why I gave the disclaimer about how I drive in the wet which I feel is pretty important. I have heard people think RS4's are horrible in the rain, but I have this feeling they must be driving (or attempting to drive) anywhere close to the grip limit. I legitimately drive at the speed limit/below speed the limit 100% of the time in the rain. More than happy to just commute along at 50kmh behind a train of cars in 5th gear etc. I do agree with you with regards to the temp and the 'quality' of the tyre Dose. Most UHP tyres aren't even up to temperature on the road anyway, even when going mad initial D canyon carving. It would be interesting to see a not-up-to-temp UHP tyre compared against a mere... normal...HP tyre at these temperatures. I don't think you're (or me in this case) is actually picking up grip with an RS4/AD09 on the road relative to something like a RE003 because the RS4/AD09 is not up to temp and the RE003 is closer to it's optimal operating window.
    • Either the bearing has been installed backwards OR the gearbox input shaft bearing is loosey goosey.   When in doubt, just put in a Samsonas in.
×
×
  • Create New...