What Gauge Brand?

[Squigs]

Ok, tomorrow I want to go shopping for gauges. I dont wanna spend more than $70 each gauge. I want gauges that are accurate, but also very good looking in apperance at night( being I have a convertible and live by the beach ). Im having a tough time deciding.

I have been reading threads about all these gauges, from this site

Autometer- Most expensive, seems most accurate,doesnt look at good at night
Prosport- Been hearing good reviews, pretty cheap, look good at night, accurate
Glowshift-Same as Prosports.. about same price, same looks

Vote on what you guys think, and post any suggestions, or show pics of what you have.

 

[turbosax2]

The Autometer Cobalt's look good at night They get my vote, but you're not going to get an electric one for under $70.

Have you decided which gauges you want to get yet (boost, water temp etc.)? That's the most important decision.

 

[Squigs]

I think im going with Boost,Oil temp,Egt maybe.

Not sure yet, but that part will be easier, than picking what brand to go with.

 

[turbosax2]

The reason I asked the question is because the price of each gauge will be dependant on what type of gauge it is. A mechanical boost gauge will be much cheaper than an electric oil temp gauge.

 

[Squigs]

Yeah I understand, well from what I hear, you should only get a mechanical oil gauge I THINK?

 

[turbosax2]

I would get a mechanical boost gauge and electric gauges for anything else.

 

[talonalex92]

Autometer cobalts are what I rock. They look amazing at night, and yes mech. boost guage, and electric everything else. You dont want to pump hot oil into your pretty lil' convertible do you?

 

[Squigs]

Cobalts are out of my price range. Help me decide on 1 of the three up there, that r under 70 each

 

[snowborder714]

I also vote for Autometer

But, since you're on a budget, I honestly think either of the brands will do you fine. The ProSport gauges seem to be a bit cheaper (either from Prosport Gauges or Prosport Gauges). than the GlowShift (Tinted-7 Color Gauges).

I seem to like the ProSport ones a bit better by the looks of both of them. Also, it seems that the ProSport gauges will match the stock amber color since they have an amber/white choice, whereas the GlowShift gauges don't match. If you were to go with the GlowShift though, get either the black or white face gauges and not the tinted as they can be hard to read during the day.

Here are two good threads on both brands:
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/appearance-interior-exterior/242496-prosport-gauges.html
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/art...owshift-tinted-7-color-gauges-pillar-pod.html

 

[Squigs]

thanks snow for your input

I would go with autometer but the only ones in my price range is the ones they sell at autozone , pepboys etc, and IMO their ugly at night.
Prosport and glowshift seem to be my choices, tough deciding on what.

I like autometers a/f gauge because of the disco light show is a cool effect for a gauge filler .

What do you think about these glowshift gauges? They look pretty cool at night
Tinted Gauges

 

[snowborder714]

thanks snow for your input

I would go with autometer but the only ones in my price range is the ones they sell at autozone , pepboys etc, and IMO their ugly at night.
Prosport and glowshift seem to be my choices, tough deciding on what.

I like autometers a/f gauge because of the disco light show is a cool effect for a gauge filler .

What do you think about these glowshift gauges? They look pretty cool at night
Tinted Gauges

I think they look nice. But as I said earlier, I have read a lot of people having some problems reading the tinted gauges during the day. My friend also had 2 tinted gauges and they were very tricky to read accurately during the day unless you were at the right angle. Just keep this in mind.

Also, a lot of those gauges are short sweep (for ex. oil pressure, oil temp. and water temp.). I would try and get a full sweep gauge for more accurate readings. As you can see, there are only 5 numbers on some of those gauges with a very large span between them. How are you going to get a good reading with that? Any of their other gauge lines (white, black, and black/tinted) offer more accurate gauges with more lines and numbers. Just another thing to keep in mind. If you're getting these more for show than for function, then it's up to you and what you'd like looking at. I personally buy my gauges for function and the more accurate a reading I can get, the better.

I also noticed that you said you were probably going to get boost, oil temp., and EGT. I would recommend changing that oil temp. to an oil pressure gauge as that's a bit more important and vital.

 

[Squigs]

Honeslty right now their mostly for show. Im 17, its my first car. Im only going to have it for another year, until i finish highschool. Thats why im looking for something cheap as its not my real car that im going to mod yet. Of course when i finish school and get my real job, ill have some nice stuff haha.

I might just get them glowshift gauges. I can always do what he did with that switch, to have them on during the day to see them. Was shown in the thread you sent me.

I might throw a a/f gauge in there, for a disco show at night . Boost, a/f, and maybe egt?

 

[snowborder714]

Honeslty right now their mostly for show. Im 17, its my first car. Im only going to have it for another year, until i finish highschool. Thats why im looking for something cheap as its not my real car that im going to mod yet. Of course when i finish school and get my real job, ill have some nice stuff haha.

I might just get them glowshift gauges. I can always do what he did with that switch, to have them on during the day to see them. Was shown in the thread you sent me.

I might throw a a/f gauge in there, for a disco show at night . Boost, a/f, and maybe egt?

Ok. Well, then if they're just for show, I'd say they look very nice.

I would agree with you and have them lit up all the time to make them easier to see (just like what was posted in the other thread).

I'd say to get the LED air/fuel, boost/vacuum, and oil pressure or fuel pressure. Air/fuel is a good visual one and the boost/vacuum one is a good one to have no matter what. The EGT one really isn't extremely useful to you, plus it's a lot more expensive. The oil pressure gauge would be a good one because the one in the cluster is no good. Fuel pressure is also another good one to have. Plus, both of them are a lot cheaper. Also, the EGT gauge requires a bit more work to install because you have install the threaded part that the sensor screws into. This will go either on your exhaust manifold or downpipe (I'm not sure of the optimal spot to mount this as I don't have mine yet).

 

[Avionixx]

I use Prosport premium electric gauges (boost and oil pressure) and I'm very impressed by them. The peak reading recall feature and the adjustable visual/audible alerts are plain awesome. All of the wiring was sturdy and well insulated and the gauges are accurate per my Mityvac.

I'm not sure if other gauges have this feature, but these particular gauges have daisy-chain wiring which really saved me time and space.

 

[Squigs]

$110.70 for Boost/ LED air/fuel and Oil pressure

not bad is it?

 

[NightRider97]

No thats not a bad price at all! I dont know much about the particular brand you are buying, but like most everyone else, I run Autometer's in basically all my vehicles. Here's a pic of a gauge cluster I made for my 79 Z28.

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

Just to give you an idea of how much autometers cost, there's over $700 in gauges alone there.
And I just had to buy a type K thermocouple (EGT) gauge, and a Z series autometer one cost me $179!

But they are quality stuff and read accurately, which is what I want out of my gauges.

For what you're wanting out of your's I think what you've picked is going to be just fine.

 

[Squigs]

well im not going to go all out, on my first car

 

[winterftbl]

I say glowshift gauges, I have them and they look great at night. I got the tinted ones so when your car is off, you cant see anything. Thats my choice.

 

[Squigs]

Tinted Gauges

im going with them
what u think?

 

[NightRider97]

Those look good to me, I havent personally used them. But I've seen them used. Only thing I didnt like was that you cant hardly see the gauge during the day.

 

[Squigs]

Im going to install a seperate switch to have them lite during the day

 

[BigSorn]

I just got autometer NV havn't got them in yet, but for now they look good.

-Adam.