Boost gauge recommendations?

[ahaidet]

I have a 91 TSI AWD.. I have never driven the car as i bought it in pieces and have been putting it back together. I am rebuilding the 6bolt motor and had shepherd racing rebuild my 5 speed tranny.. FINALLY I am gettting within a week or two of firing it up!!!! Basically searching down the last bits and pieces from mitsu dealers and what not.. One thing I am looking for is an aftermarket boost gauge. I am going to mount it above the radio as I am going with a single DIN radio so there will be room there. I will be running a 14B with a 2.5" exhaust when it first fires up, not turning the boost up for a month or two until I get her broken in, and even then I will be running a manual boost controller, next fall when I replenish my savings after this rebuild, I am planning on a 16G. But I would like to get a boost gauge now so I can keep an eye on the boost b/c I am not 100% sure that my wastegate will be functioning 100% (somebody tried a home port job, opened the wastegate hole up too much, I installed a 34mm flapper door which seems to have fixed that, also I bought a used WG actuator off ebay as mine looked like it took a nose dive seems to work alright when pressure is applied with a pressure tester but just want to be extra careful).. ... I have done a lil shopping for different gauges/ brands.. wanted to know what different gauges ppl have and if they reccommend them or not?? There seems to be a a huge difference in prices here and I am sure as with other things you get what you pay for.. just trying to not to spend too much on something that just needs to read accurately and reliably..

 

[daren_p]

There are a tonn of guys out there running the autometer mechanical boost gauges, including myself & they work great. Like you said there are more expensive choices out there such as greddy, hks & defi, but for the price I would go with an autometer.

 

[NitrousBob]

I personally use the autometer 5777.. It has a peak button to see what the highest boost was and a warning to go off at a given boost level. Its a little pricey but it gets the job done real well. It might save your engine too.

 

[ahaidet]

thanks for the responses so far guys...

Another quick question on the topic of gauges.. I have a 85 Mr2 as well as my DSM it blew a head gasket about 1.5 years ago.. i then realized that the stock temp gauge is basically a switch.. the gauge didnt read a damn thing till it was overheating.. I put a summit racing temp gauge in as well as oil pressure when i was rebuilding the head and headgasket so i can keep a better eye on that now in the MR2. Are the basic gauges in DSMs the same? basically a fancy looking idiot light? Or if the car is heating up do they give you a little warning? And what do you guys reccommend standard stuff like Oil pressure, coolant temp? Im not playing with fuel injection yet so i see no reason for AFR or EGT...

 

[daren_p]

Air/Fuel gauge is basically useless as far as tuning goes. Basically only good to tell you if your O2 sensor is dying and if something is really wrong & makes a nice light show . Fuel pressure gauge most people mount one on the fpr. I would say most important would be boost & oil pressure. Other gauges that are nice to have would be egt (not that good to tune with either but can be a good warning), oil temp, cool. temp & volts.

As far as I know the gauges actually give you a "proper" reading, well sort of. Im not sure if the 1g's are the same as the 2g's, but the gauge will give you a reading the problem is that the gauges don't have any numbers associated with them. So you can look at your temp gauge for example and say well I guess its ok because its sitting in the middle like it always does, but you have know idea what temp it really is.

 

[Jason84]

i always ran autometer.. but the quality of them is really low. I just got in my defi EGT gauge this weekend.. i must say much nicer then the autometer.. the whole probe line is all braided SS up to the gauge... and just the quality of it is much higher.

also autometer boost gauges are always off and never accurate... so im gonna try the defi one and see how that works..


one nite bored at a friends shop everybody had autometer boost gauges besides one had the greddy... ALL Autometers were off +/- 1-3 lbs. greddy was dead nuts on.

 

[ahaidet]

When you say you checked your autometers and Greddy what did you use as standard to compare it to?

 

[GstRacer]

go with greddy warning peak and hold, i love mine and it lights up factory color
check my profile for pics if you want

 

[spades_gsx]

my APEXI ELII is great, very accurate. and when ever i glance at it all I can say is "what a really nice gauge!". no , seriously this is a great gauge. the stewart warner gauges are nice also. similar to the autometer, but unlike the autometer where just the ring around the gauge glows, the stewart warner's numbers light up. looks a hell of a lot better than the autometers.

 

[ISUJakey]

Stewart Warner Performance -30 - 40 PSI

 

[daren_p]

When you say you checked your autometers and Greddy what did you use as standard to compare it to?

Ya I was wondering the same thing. We deal with pressure at work and there are alot of test gauges out there that aren't within their stated spec, so what you tested them against makes a big difference. I was gonna pull my autometer boost gauge this year & test it at work just to see the accuracy of it. It will be done on a $20K deadweight tester so I think that should be accurate enough

 

[rob_rousseau]

I bought an autometer boost gauge a while back and it was WAY out of calibration right out of the box... The needle wasn't even sitting at 0. Not too huge of a deal, they replaced it of course. More of a pain in the ass than anything. But this experience would probably steer me away from autometer in the future.

 

[ahaidet]

Ya I was wondering the same thing. We deal with pressure at work and there are alot of test gauges out there that aren't within their stated spec, so what you tested them against makes a big difference. I was gonna pull my autometer boost gauge this year & test it at work just to see the accuracy of it. It will be done on a $20K deadweight tester so I think that should be accurate enough

haha I was gonna say the same thing, I have an internship at Hankook Tire's Akron Technical Center. One of my many tasks involved calibrating are handheld gauges. We have several Ashcroft digital pressure gauges that cost $700 and they are only accurate to .5% And the standard tire gauge you buy at Autozone, etc. is terribly innacurate. When I buy my gauge I will put it on our Ashcroft Deadweight tester as well be interesting to compare results. Just didn't want to jump out their talking about Deadweight testers if no one else out their knew what I was talking about.

 

[doug]

Stewart Warner Performance -30 - 40 PSI

Yeah, that thing looks sweet. I like my Isspro gauges, but if I had it to do over again, I'd get the Stewart Warner.

 

[Jason84]

we used a snap-on or mac tools gauge (forgot which one it was).

and yes.. my autometer gauge sits at like almost 1 psi when the car is off. ALOT of them are like that

here is a picture of the defi EGT gauge. compared to autometer... they use a fully braided SS covered wire for the probe.. also they have nice connectors that go into the back of the gauge instead of just a wire hanging out of the gauge..

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[JiveMasterT]

currently i have an autometer temperature and 30-0-30 boost gauge in my car. both work well, i think. my boost gauge seems a little inconsistant, but i think that might just be because my car runs like crap sometimes and other times it works great. i think autometer has a good warranty in terms of callibration to, but i dont have a box in front of me.

 

[Gee-Es-Tee]

Here Ye! Here Ye! I have come to tell you all about the Defi D series Boost gauge!

*toots horn*

When I was shopping around for a boost gauge, i wanted something that looked almost factory (which includes black face and amber illumination). I was on DSMTuners and see an advertisement for Defi... and I gazed upon the advertised D-Gauge with awe! I looked at this gauge for hours! I couldnt help how beautiful it looked... I HAD TO HAVE IT!

I called a few places to see if they were in stock or not and I couldn't come across a place that wasn't on an international backorder! (you know why they were on a backorder??? KUZ THESE GAUGES KICK ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!) Anyways, I finally found a place who had the gauges in stock and I ordered it. Gauge got here quick and I installed it right away! IT LOOKS FRIGGIN' AWESOME! I LOVE IT! I dont care what anybody says, its the best gauge in the world, and now i'm in the market for the EGT gauge. Sure... these gauges are a little pricey, but you get what you pay for. Good quality with factory DSM looks!

Here.... This is a shot of my interior with my Defi Boost gauge mounted in a Bezel pod. Enjoy!

 

[daren_p]

we used a snap-on or mac tools gauge (forgot which one it was).

and yes.. my autometer gauge sits at like almost 1 psi when the car is off. ALOT of them are like that

here is a picture of the defi EGT gauge. compared to autometer... they use a fully braided SS covered wire for the probe.. also they have nice connectors that go into the back of the gauge instead of just a wire hanging out of the gauge..

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

OK since were talking about accuracy here...

Alot of the Snap-on or Mac test tools aren't all that great, lower quality and higher price (they just brand name cheeper products & yes I'm in the industry & know where they get their test tools from). I can't be 100% sure without seeing the gauge but just because its snap on or mac doesn't means is right on (we have tested these at work before & they were out of spec), most of the time mechanics gauges don't have to be all that accurate & the accuracy depends on what the range of the snap-on "test" gauge you used was.

Now just because the gauges are off zero doesn't mean they are out, sometimes the pointer rests off zero because they do this to get a better calibration over the rest of the scale. (My autometer does sit at the top end of the zero, but you must remember they have a "flotating" zero. & I will test it to very it)

As far as egt's go yes your right, I don't think autometers are that great as far a probe/lead wire durability & quality goes (I got a greddy egt)


Now I also recently bought a greddy oil pressure gauge. I tested this against our test standard (0.1% of reading accuracy) and it was slightly out. I can't remember exactly how much but I think it was like 1 psi or something.

Just don't want everyone hateing on the Autometer Gauges

 

[ahaidet]

Daren, do you know if autometer or any other brand allows you to recalibrate? When I calibrated our high end tire gauges at work, I was able to remove the glass cover and pull the needle off the gauge and adjust to make the gauge read more accurately across the range, some had adjustment screws as well. Much the way you mention that many guages don't read zero perfectly it is because at the factory they calibrate it to be accurate at the middle part of the range. Ashcroft a big name in test equipment reccomends that you try to size the gauge so that you are working in the middle 60% of the gauges full scale reading. (i.e. if you are planning on running 15PSI your gauge would ideally read to 30PSI) Similar to torque wrenches. If this adjustment possible then all that really matters is that the gauge is consistent, even if the gauge is not adjustable consitency is all that matters, as long as you know the gauge reads 2 PSI high or 1 PSI low or whatever maybe the case. Let me know when you get your autometer on a dead weight tester... I will be making a purchase within the next week(still am not sure of the brand or specific gauge yet) and when I do I plan on taking it to work with me to run a quick calibration to verify its accuracy I will post results.

 

[rob_rousseau]

i know that the autometer is a sealed unit... don't know about the others

 

[daren_p]

Basically you can recalibrate most gauges, if you have the proper tools, a pointer puller etc. The ones you can't recalibrate are the ones with the crimped on bezels (you can remove a crimped on bezel but you will damage it doing so, so unless you have a new bezel & machine to put it on your sol) I believe most automotive gauges are crimped on bezels. I will be getting my car out of storage in about 2 weeks so I'll test my gauge then & let you know. Your right as far as accuracy goes, if you divide the scale into thirds you are usually most accurate in the 2nd ie around 50% (well atleast you are supposed to be).

Most of the time if the gauge is off its usually only a zero error, that is the gauge is off the same amout (distance) the whole scale, so if you can check the calibration then you just add the error.

 

[NitrousBob]

I had similar questions about my ignition, should I go msd or not. Right after personal preference, experience, there is what do the pro's use. Almost every car in the race had msd ignition. This is where this applies to the topic, I think autometer is great in the fact that every picture of a nascar cockpit i have seen and every top fuel, funny car etc. all had autometer guages. These are competitions where the engine costs upwards of 50k. They don't mess around with crap. I noticed the e-boost on a bunch of turbocharged cars. And in europe they like vdo which has been around for a while.

 

[daren_p]

I had similar questions about my ignition, should I go msd or not. Right after personal preference, experience, there is what do the pro's use. Almost every car in the race had msd ignition. This is where this applies to the topic, I think autometer is great in the fact that every picture of a nascar cockpit i have seen and every top fuel, funny car etc. all had autometer guages. These are competitions where the engine costs upwards of 50k. They don't mess around with crap. I noticed the e-boost on a bunch of turbocharged cars. And in europe they like vdo which has been around for a while.

Exactly, I doubt Autometer would be so popular and in most major racing cars if their gauges were out of calibration. I guess you don't really know until you test and verify it, so I'll test mine to find out either way, and it will be tested against a standard that I know (is documented) to be well within the 0.1% of reading spec it is required to be within.

I would say most automotive gauges might be 1% of full scale, maybe if your luckey. More then likely they are 3/2/3 gauges. Which means the accuracy is 3% of f.s. (full scale) in the first 3rd, 2 % f.s. in the second 3rd & 3% f.s. in the third 3rd.

Example if you have a 100 psi 3/2/3 gauge @ 20 psi the gauge can read 17 to 23 psi & still be considered acceptable & in spec., most people are confused & think when you talk about accuracy the % they state is of the reading which is wrong its of the full scale (unless you are talking more expensive test gauges $500+ which you don't usually see in the automotive world)

Well I think I've probably confused everybody enough

 

[boostedinaz]

I would go with Autometer. For some reason almost anyone I know with a sport compact car automatically hates Autometer and wont buy a gauge unless it is at leats 200.00.

Autometer makes a ton of gauges and some are made out of spec. This is just the reality of making a HUGE number of gauges in a day. They also have the best return or service warranty I have ever used. No questions, no forms, just send it back and you get a BRAND NEW replacment. No fixing of you old gauge just a nice new one. If you really have the need to spend a ton of money on gagues then chekc out Autometer's Nexus line. They have a ton of features and are very nice looking.

I have had 4 Autometer boost gauge and none have had a problem at all, even after 4 years of service. They all still sit on the same "0" point and read accurate. The only problem I had I got a replacemnt gauge the next day and it has worked for me ever since. This also goes for all of my DSM friends that run Autometer. My EGT I bought as just a gauge and got wire from TRE along with there probe. I find it funny that someone didnt buy an Autometer gauge becasue it came without braided wire, but they used the stock Defi probe. I bet that my TRE probe reacts a ton faster than his bling bling Defi one.

So basically pick what YOU want. Dont listen to horror stories and take them to heart. I know for a fact that every failed gauge is backed by at least ten or more good working ones. Its your car and your wallet.

 

[doug]

Once when I was trying to diagnose what was wrong with my EGT gauge, Isspro sent me a new gauge BEFORE I even sent the old one back. Turned out it wasn't even the gauge, but I didn't have any down time at all because of their fast response.