Top three gauges to have in a boosted car?

1slow370

low voltage causes misfire not detonation from weak ignition, but more importantly it reduces fuel pump output and increases injector latency and reduces pulse width which could lean your motor and cause a boom, and for this reason fuel pressure and AFR are more important than voltage (which came about from the carb era racing with no battery, or crappy batteries and crummy generators yes it is more important then).

Oil temperature tells you if your oil is still thick enough, oil pressure tells you how well you are actually oiling your motor, since the oil light on the Z doesn't come on until after you've looked in your mirror to notice a streak of oil being shot out of your oil cooler behind you i would venture to say the pressure gauge is more important (not to mention the ecu will limp if your temps get to high but it wont if it suffers oil pressure loss).

Fuel pressure will tell you when you run out of pump, but afr will too (and soooo much more), so i would take the afr over the fuel pressure.

If you have an afr gauge you don't need the egt on anything other than a turbo car and even then it is more about placing it near the turbine inlet, so you can monitor the turbo to prevent cooking it while running, or coking it after shutting it off. AFR trumps EGT while driving, EGT is mainly used while tuning a car and after that it is mostly ignored.

Coolant temp is important and it sucks that the factory gauge sucks so bad, i swear the middle dot has got to have a 50 degree range to the next dot.

If you think you need fuel temperature, make sure to get it in a combo gauge with an altimeter and a barometer so you can monitor how light-headed and high you are. Boost is good to check your boost maker and cuz biches.

A knock light is a GREAT thing to have and you can just poke a hole somewhere for it, but the ecu will try to save you when the ish goes down.

IMO the list would go AFR, boost, oil pressure, coolant temp, fuel pressure, oil temp, voltage, EGT(unless it's turbo then slip this in between coolant temp and fuel). I use that list for buying gauges and order how to place them based on best visibility to least, then clock them all so that while running at the track all the needles point in one direction so i don't actually have to read them cuz it's a waste of focus, just have to notice one isn't pointed in the right direction.

Sub-note: Most people should just buy some gauges that look pretty and do a number on the biches, as you won't be reading most of the time(i don't) or understanding them anyway past coming on here and starting threads like "is 211degrees too hot for coolant temps?" There are gauges a tuner needs and then there are gauges YOU need.

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