which gauges?

[street_rulerr]

age old question.



I want to install either 2 or 3 extra gauges probably 2...but cant decide whats most valuable in a MT 4cyl truck.



i used to run a narrowband A/FR gauge in a nitrous car but that was more to know if the o2 sensor was warmed up yet.



water temp seems like it might be useful?

oil temp might be useful too? but i dont tow really

also planning on one of them being a tach since mine is all f'd up.



thoughts?

[alabama_lowlife]

I like the voltage gauge in my 370z let’s me know I’ve got some power out there.

[SBJ]

Just my two cents...I actually think the coolant temp gauge in these is fairly accurate. With the thermostat in proper working order I used to be able to see when it would creep up to a little before the halfway point then open and start cooling down. Assuming that the thermostat is working correctly the high point before it cools down would be probably a little above 170 degrees.

I'd probably go with oil pressure and battery voltage.

[Deerhurst]

I run water temp, oil pressure and manifold boost/vac. You can tell an astronomical amount who t how a vehicle is running by watching vacuum.

[91nissan94]

I've got afr, voltage and oil pressure. The temp gauge has always been reliable, so I figured it was pointless.

[XoXSciFiGuy]

I go along with some of the other folks. Oil pressure and voltage gauge. Oil pressure can warn you of a leak before engine damage occurs. Otherwise, you just have the warning light, and sometimes you already HAVE damage by the time it comes on. I agree that the water temp gauge in these Nissans works just fine. No need to switch it over to an outside gauge.

One cute gauge to have is an intake manifold vacuum indicator gauge. Back in dinosaur days, I had a 66 Impala SS with a factory vacuum gauge almost the size of the speedometer. It was way cool. Found a picture of one. Brings back memories. I think the purpose is to show you how you can increase your gas mileage by keeping it in a certain range or something. Pfft. I paid no attention to that. Gas was like 45 cents a gallon back then. You handed the guy a ten dollar bill and you got back change. One time though...I forgot I had studded snow tires still going and my brother told me to dump the clutch and do a big burnoff. So I revved it to about 4000 and dumped the clutch. The studs caught the pavement, and one of the motor mounts broke. Engine banged into the hood. Only damage was slight dent to the air cleaner, but I sure felt foolish.

[cadillacdude1975]

Get the vacuum gauge. Once you learn how to read it, your fuel economy will become better.

[Deerhurst]

Not only can you help economy with a vacuum gauge but you can diagnose a whole lot of things with one. Your engine depends on vacuum. Rough running at idle, vacuum gauge has lower than normal vacuum? Check for vacuum leaks. Blip the throttle and it should go down and then when it comes back pass the normal idle point then return to normal. If it doesn't this can signify a different issue. If the needle wiggles around at idle you have either a huge cam or bad valve sealing. It's also fun to watch. My truck pulls about 22inhg and idle with a slight, barely visible, fluctuation due to my mild cam.

[XoXSciFiGuy]

Intake vacuum gauges aren't as common as they used to be. But you can still get them. Problem is trying to find one as a set of OTHER gauges. I couldn't really find something like that. But it's easy to get the oil pressure and voltmeter gauges, even in a dual set.

I did find THIS ONE at Amazon, which is mechanical (no juice required) and is of fairly high quality and comes with everything for the install. Also costs about 75 bucks. Just saying. There is a cheaper version for about fifty bucks but I don't trust it.

The one I linked takes an incandescent bulb, so it isn't TOTALLY electric-free as they say. I would suggest switching out whatever bulb they include with the gauge to an LED equivelent. If you want to get really crazy, you could go with a color LED.

[Foul_Mouth]

I have vac and volts and oil psi. VDO gauges. Vac as a diag.tool on the road priceless.