more useful... exhaust or oil temp gauge?

[HYBRIDxS13]

i was told by someone else on this forum to get rid of my air/fuel gauge and get something more useful like an exhaust or oil temp gauge.

i only have a dual gauge pod and a boost gauge already occupies 1 hole. so what gauge would be useful fot the other hole.

also, if u recommend 1 can u tell me why and what to look for when reading it? thanks alot in advance.

[Checkered-Member]

Neither

Get a fuel pressure gauge

[Nathan]

Fuel Pressure??? kinda important...but I don't even consider it a gauge, it's just something that IS on the fpr, if you dont have an aftermarket fpr then there's no reason to have fuel pressure. I think the most important gauges are: oil pressure, water temperature, exhaust gas temperature and ideally, a wide band 02.

[trpower7]

Fuel Pressure is very important; if you lose fuel pressure you will go catastrophically lean and detonate. However, this hardly ever happens. I would say an EGT gauge would be more practical for you at this point; it will give you a fairly good idea on the state of your engine. Fuel Pressure gauges are used when you start really getting into building up your engine and really need to keep a close eye on it.

That said, after boost the next thing you should have is Oil Pressure. Loss of oil pressure will destroy your engine in a heartbeat. Next I would buy EGT, then fuel pressure, THEN oil temperature. In simpler terms, order of practical importance is...

1) Boost2) Oil Pressure3) Water Temperature (your stock gauge has three settings, off, normal, new head gasket)4) EGT5) Fuel Pressure6) Oil Temperature

[fiznat]

thats a lot of guages to have in the car...

[trpower7]

For those of us who are obsessive about monitoring vitals, it's bare minimum. I've seen fuel temperature, N20 Pressure, etc.

[scotty-2-forty]

Nicely stated Trpower 7. I tried to post almost exactly that last night, but my browser setting wasn't allowing cookies and I went to bed

Anyway, here's a pic of my obsessiveness ... .It shows my Boost, A/F, EGR, Oil Temp, Oil Press, AVC-R, T-Timer and my on board fire extinguishing system ... Fiznat, when you invest big money in your power plant why wouldn't you want to be obssesive in the monitoring department?? I want to know everthing that's going on at any given second.

I have never had a problem with OEM water temp gauges and found them to be very reliable though. Now, on my race car obviously I used an aftermarket one.

Fuel pressure gauges are usually found on the FPR ... I don't know many who have them inside the cab, but it's not a bad idea (note to self).

The A/F ratio gauge is notibly important in tuning and/or swapping performance parts, but it's good to keep if you can. I wouldn't get rid of it, just find another place ... get one of those Mustang 3-gauge pods and mount it on the dash, or do as I did in the picture above.

But I am concurring with the Oil Pressure gauge ... VERY IMPORTANT FOR TURBO CARS. If you have a sudden loss of oil pressure due to the return line blowing off or pump going bad, etc., it's a tool that can and will ultimately save your investment and let you know to shut down!

[canadians14]

nice dash scotty i like it ... i am ordering a turbo kit soon and i was thinking about guages also .... was that three gauge cluster custom or can you buy it off the shelf somewhere ?