I can get dealer cost on gauges and I have heard different things from people but want to know what the masses have. I am getting the T25 bolt on kit. I am getting the water temp, and boost. What about the others?????

Fuel pressure,oil pressure,oil temp,EGT??????? Just want info. THX

EGT for sure, if you really wanna go all out the get oil pressure and temp as well. oh and if you are gonna be doing some tuning a fuel pressure gauge as well (but it doesnt have to be an interior mount fuel pressure gauge

i agree with sirnixalot,, egt is a must.

Brian

Opinions are like assholes......and I want yours tonight...

Dude that's wrong in so many ways.

I have a Boost gauge and A/F.

Did you recieve your DET yet? If so have you put it in?

I have a boost, oil pressure, and a A/F until I save up for my EGT....
A/F is a O2 sensor checker, lets you know if its working:D

Make sure you get a five O sensor to.

Well, I'm running two gauges: boost and oil pressure. Boost so I'm know what I'm boosting (duh), and oil pressure to make sure I have pressure. When does the oil pressure gauge come in handy? When the pressure drops to zero because you sprung an oil leak in your turbo oil line. Keeps you from blowing up the motor if you catch it in time.

I'd say you only need the EGT gauge if you're boosting higher than stock. Even then, I don't think you really need it if you're running JWT. Another source of info to check if you're running lean is checking the MAF voltage and fuel pressure. well, uh, i'm tired now....

Khiem

So, If I am running boost stock with a BB ECU you would suggest a EGT. I just ordered the Boost,oil pressure, and the water temp. I want to get the EGT but that MOFO was like $160 and I am broke due to this turbo project.....:(

EGT is good for airplanes, which run a constant RPM and constant load. IMHO EGT on a street car is a waste of money.
I run Boost, Oil pressure, and A/F. Yep, I like the light show. Chicks dig it, too. Sometime's it bounces with the music. Sometimes it doesn't do anything at all :D If you're afraid that they'll laugh and giggle at your A/F gauge, put a nice clock in the pod ;) What's wrong with the temp gauge in the dash? Save your money for tires. You're going to need tires :D

Cheers,
Charlie :)

The temp gauge can't be that accurate because I blew a head gasket and warped my head and I never even overheated.....WTF??? I resurfaced my head and am installing a new water pump, thermostat, and a 300ZX rad cap. I want to be sure that this doesn't happen again. So the A/F is for looks huh??

Obveously CharlieH98 doesn't seem to no the importance of an EGT guage and thinks its only good on airplanes........whatever bro its just as important to 98whp vehicle as it is to a 400whp it will let you no when you have a problem weather you have JWT, Stock or SAFC computer.

This is my opinion all of the above mentioned guages are indispencible but you are leaving out the fuel pressure guage which happens to be very important if not one of the most important guages on a turbo vehicle.

And to who ever said you only need a EGT guage if you boosting hire than stock...............O so what you can't melt an engine a stock boost psi? So then I guess it would be impossible to melt a NA engine (not trying to start anything but maybe its the way you worded it). And how the hell can you tell if your running lean from the MAF sensor? (You can't) and checking the fuel pressure is not a good way to check if you are running lean..........it's a good way to know you have a leak somewere in you fuel line and in return its only obviously (no brainer) if you have low fuel pressure you your not going to have adequit (sp) fuel thus running lean.

SR20RACER get all the above and if you can't afford a EGT guage just get a A'pexi Turbo Timer which has a better A/F ratio/O2 senor voltage than the stupid Autometer A/F light show. PLUS you get a battery voltage indictor w/warning and of course the turo timer itself and you can set warnings for the A/F or O2 sensor voltage. Kill 3 birds with $90-100.

Order of presedents

1) Boost guage w/vacuum = better than with out vacuum
1) Fuel pressure guage

2) Apexi turbo timer
a) A/F ratio
b) O2 sensor voltage (better)
c) Battery voltage
or
2) EGT guage
3) Oil temp guage
4) Water temp guage

Really it sounds stupid to put them in order like that because they are all equally important all though you could do without the water temp guage since we all ready have the dummy one in the car even though they sometimes do not tell you when you are over heating, just replace the sensor with a new one when ever you do a swap if you don't plan on using an after market one.

Just my 2 cents.

One good reason why you shouldn't use the Autometer A/F guage that read closed loop operation because it is fucking annoying and if your using it for tunning purposes you CANNOT tune closed loop operation anyways so why have it bounce back in forth like that?

Heres the better alternative Autometer A/F guage that reads voltages only from .76v - .96v..... open loop the range that we need to be concerned with, because this is the area in which you can do damage. And all open loop A/F reading will be pretty much constant at WOT making this guuage ideal for tunning purposes but I still believe the Apexi turbo timer is still a better buy.

http://store.yahoo.com/machv/cybairgaug.html

http://www.alltrac.net/tuning/afgauge.html

Like I said earlier, The gauge in our cars must not be that accurate because I warped my head without the needle even going to full "H" If the needle is 3/4 towards hot, what temp is that? I don't know???? I just want to be safe with a new head gasket and resurfaced head. I know it isn't vital but If you blow a head gasket like I did you would probably want one also. What model of turbo timer are you talking about? Got a part #?

http://www.turbotrix.com/images/apexi_ttimer3.jpg


http://www.apexi-usa.com/electronics_timer.asp

When I was a newbie to the turbo thing I was asking the same questions. Mike Kojima and Rob Cadle both told me the same thing...Boost and Oil pressure. Those are you're most important. Especially with the DE/DET's spun bearing problem, plus the turbo relies on oil. After you have those two, I would get water temp, oil temp, and then after you have those and have something more than a T25, get the EGT. Any (most) A/F meter(s) that you get is not going to be accurate so don't waste the money.

Originally posted by charlie2020

And to who ever said you only need a EGT guage if you boosting hire than stock...............O so what you can't melt an engine a stock boost psi? So then I guess it would be impossible to melt a NA engine (not trying to start anything but maybe its the way you worded it). And how the hell can you tell if your running lean from the MAF sensor? (You can't) and checking the fuel pressure is not a good way to check if you are running lean..........it's a good way to know you have a leak somewere in you fuel line and in return its only obviously (no brainer) if you have low fuel pressure you your not going to have adequit (sp) fuel thus running lean.


Okay... assuming you leave EVERYTHING stock, including the base timing and running good gas, I haven't heard of any of our cars detonating. Most of the time when guys get knock, it's from either having the timing advanced too far or running too much boost. That's on our cars since we're running a MAF system.

The Hondas on the other hand with the MAPs, i've heard of those guys melting motors with just bolt-ons. But that's because their computers base the amount of fuel to inject on the MAP sensor and an assumed volumetric efficiency of the motor. Of course, all those bolt-ons just changed the VE of the motor(which the computer doesn't take into account) which is causing them to run lean and blow up.

As for the MAF, you can't tell that you're running lean, but if you top out the MAF and keep on going, you WILL run lean and blow stuff up. And as you said for the fuel pressure; not enough pressure, you're going to run lean.

IF I were running a stand alone or playing with some black boxes, then I'd get an EGT gauge to HELP with the tuning (not a good idea to tune just on the EGT, IMO). Since I'm running JWT and the tuning is all done, there are only a few things that could cause me to run lean. Running too much boost which would top out the MAF, run out of injector (not likely with the t25 and 370s assuming you're not boosting like 15+ psi), run out of fuel pressure, advanced timing.

So.... considering my setup, I don't think an EGT gauge is necessary. All depends on your setup, IMHO.

Khiem

Only use an EGT for tuning purposely. I've heard of horror stories where people have tap the mani to run the EGT and the probe breaks off due to the contastant heat of driving around daily. When your tuning, hook it up, see how much power you can get without the temps soaring. Tune to keep the temps down. Don't drive with a probe screwed into your tapped mani.

Chris

Originally posted by blackb13
Any (most) A/F meter(s) that you get is not going to be accurate so don't waste the money.

I don't agree totally with you on this. This is why first let me say yeah it is a waste of money if you don't have a way of tuning A/F ratio because you only have a stock ECU, JWT ECU or BB ECU with no SAFC or stand alone to alter the fuel mixture. Second when you put you car on the dyno it is being tuned by the wide band O2 sensor, right? (How about when they disconect that wide band O2 sensor and send you home now your car is rilient on the stock O2 sensor whata you do?) Now let just say at WOT on the dyno your registering .90v @ WOT w/the wide band O2 sensor and with the stock O2 sensor your registering .88v @ WOT there, now you know the difference tune accordingly. But in all honesty why not tune the A/F ratio according to what your computer really sees......and thats the stock O2 sensor not the wide band O2 sensor.

Let me say this in reply to the above.

I think the light bar A/F ratio guages are gay and useless, you'll get in to an accident trying to count wether it is 3 lights away from the end or 4 lights away just plan stupid.

It should be mandatory to tune with a O2 sensor voltage and not a A/F ratio because they don't make any light bar A/F gauges than can display parts i.e. 14.7:1 etc. Learn your voltages.