best guage type

[Killa From Manila]

i got a dual pillar mount 4 my civic cxi, 1 to hold my 60mm tacho and i got 1 hole spare to mount another guage. just wondering which guage would be the most helpful, im not worried about it looking fancy and moving up n down all the time.

if it helps, im planning to do a d16 vtec head swap in the future n just mild mods.


thanks

[Kiz_EG6]

Dude... seriously... unless ur gunna throw the thing round a track at redline all the time, i think a clock would be about the most helpful thing you could jam in there!!

[kikkoman]

This clock you speak of,

Would this increase performance?

Do you think I should install a digital or analogue

[Q_ball]

Come on ppl, keep things on topic!!
If i was to get another guage, id get an air/fuel meter.

[Killa From Manila]

Dude... seriously... unless ur gunna throw the thing round a track at redline all the time, i think a clock would be about the most helpful thing you could jam in there!!

k buddy since u can read my mind and know that im not gonna put it on the track ever. maybe some helpful advice instead ........or does the question require abit too much brain power for u

[string]

Don't get an "AirFuel Meter", since it will no doubt be narrow-band, therefore, a flashing lights display. Since you are only doing mild mods, you won't need a wide-band.

Get a vacuum gauge or something. They are always fun to look at when driving around.

Something more useful maybe oil pressure and temperature.

But on a stock motor, they are pretty useless and ricey. But if that's your bag, then go nuts.

[Vinnie]

boost gauge :P nah seriously, oil temp/pressure or possibly water temp (these are not the same as the standard one) wood prob be ur best bet for monitoring ur engine...

[mugeneration]

Yeah get the above if you thrash your car or anything. If your car's anything like mine and you have a sound system which eats your battery, get a voltmeter.

[Slow96GSR]

The stock dash has a water temp so you don't need that, clock on the radio so you don’t need that either, and unless you have a big system on a stock electrical system you don’t need a volt meter (It’s not bad but other gauges are more useful.). The most helpful will be the oil pressure and a vacuum gauge. Most problems while driving can be checked with the water temp, oil pressure and vacuum gauges. That's just my $.02USD!!

[Surrufus]

volt meter is wat you should get if you going to have a cranking audio setup
i ran my battery flat listening to music with mates in a carpark late one nite
thank god there were jumper leads in another car :p

[Slow96GSR]

An amp meter will show you the draw, the radio will just start to skip, get quieter, etc. as the voltage drops and the volt meter won't help if you are standing outside the car. Also if you drain the battery it may still show 12+ volts but not have the amps to do anything when called upon. Plus a lot of cars have a built in voltage guage in the guage cluster.

[SINISTR]

this is a serious question:

does your stock Dash have a tacho built in??

if it does: don't spend your money on 'ANOTHER' rice tacho because you don't need two. Install some sensible oil pressure and oil temperature gauges for track work or a water temp. If you don't have a tacho, install a small one somewhere visible and still install an oil temp/pressure water temp on your pillar. Try and listen to your motor as well, learn when its about to hit redline! I drove my gfs B18C EG and never hit redline as I listened and knew probably down to 500 rpm before redline when to change. don't rely on gauges... listen to the car!

Slow96GSR: i'll agree that a stock water temp does the job, but so does the oil light in 'street' conditions. I installed a water temp as one of my gauges on the pillar, and had a little leak on the radiator top tank. One day, my gauge reading shot past 100 degrees while my stock dash one didn't even move... save me an expensive engine rebuild.

[NeRV]

nah he has a CXi which doesnt have a tacho on it... it just has the speedo and the other little things.

[string]

this is a serious question:

does your stock Dash have a tacho built in??

if it does: don't spend your money on 'ANOTHER' rice tacho because you don't need two. Install some sensible oil pressure and oil temperature gauges for track work or a water temp. If you don't have a tacho, install a small one somewhere visible and still install an oil temp/pressure water temp on your pillar. Try and listen to your motor as well, learn when its about to hit redline! I drove my gfs B18C EG and never hit redline as I listened and knew probably down to 500 rpm before redline when to change. don't rely on gauges... listen to the car!

Slow96GSR: i'll agree that a stock water temp does the job, but so does the oil light in 'street' conditions. I installed a water temp as one of my gauges on the pillar, and had a little leak on the radiator top tank. One day, my gauge reading shot past 100 degrees while my stock dash one didn't even move... save me an expensive engine rebuild.
The stock oil light certainly doesn't do the job.It comes on when you have near zero oil pressure. Goodbye bearings.

Agree'd on the tacho though, don't need two.

[chunky]

i lyk defi

[SINISTR]

The stock oil light certainly doesn't do the job.It comes on when you have near zero oil pressure. Goodbye bearings.

Agree'd on the tacho though, don't need two.

yeah - thats exactly what I meant. The stock oil pressure won't show you anything till its too late. Similar as the water temp... in my case it didn't even move while the aftermarket gauge clearly shower a massive increase in temperature.

Surely there is a 'buffer' area with both. the moment the oil light goes on, if you switch the engine off you'll save it. If you see the temp creep up to red and switch it off you'll save the motor as well - but best to know exactly what your engine is doing before the stock gauges realise what is going on.

[Killa From Manila]

yeah cxi has no tacho so i got myself a 60mm tacho, hate those monster tachos ><. i would hav just gotten a single pillar mount but autobarn could only order in a dual. couldnt be bothered looking elsewhere 4 a mount.

so neways now i have this extra hole to mount somthing. leaning towards oil pressure/temp or water temp

thanks all

[urbanracer.com]

if your not taking ur car on track and you just want something to fill the hole.. go for the vacuum gauge. you dont really need anything else. your just wasting your money if ur getting oil pressure/oil temp, etc..

[Killa From Manila]

if your not taking ur car on track and you just want something to fill the hole.. go for the vacuum gauge. you dont really need anything else. your just wasting your money if ur getting oil pressure/oil temp, etc..

arent vacuum gauges useless?

[Slow96GSR]

Stock oil light will come on at 5 psi idle and like 15psi at 3k rpm. I should know, had a pump fail on me! The vacuum gauge will let you know a few things. Like do you have proper vacuum.

Quick reference: http://www.theautoist.com/vacuum_guage.htm Made for in the shop testing but you can also use a in-dash/pillar unit to do the same thing.

Stick with the oil psi gauge and vacuum. If you have had a problem with water temp gauge then get that instead of the vacuum. If you have some money to spend, someone has multi input gauge that does more than 1 thing in 1 unit. I think it's Autometer but I can't remember off the top of my head.

[Killa From Manila]

thanks mate il hav a look around

[string]

Stock water temp will show you just as much as an aftermarket one. The only difference is you get to choose where you put your probe.

When I had overheating problems (caused by the ever-failing coolant temp switch) the stock gauge was fine; Luckily I always have it in my sights out of the corner of my eye. If it moves up to normal operating temperature normally, I can't see why any over-heating of the coolant wouldn't cause the gauge to continue functioning normally.

Vacuum gauges are great. You get a feel for what vacuum levels you are at under normal driving, enging braking and idle; You can use these numbers for personal comparasin over time, or checking with other people's numbers on the net. For example, when i'm going down a really steep hill off throttle, it's good to see (at reasonable rpm) near 0psi absolute.

If I was you i'd go vacuum. There's a better chance it will give you more helpful information than an oil-pressure or water-gauge for your stock/mild mods engine. It's a honda, they are pretty damn buff in stock form :D

[simbadda54]

for the amount of money ur spending on the dual gauges and the mount, u could have easily got a gli/vti/vtir cluster.

[urbanracer.com]

arent vacuum gauges useless?

just as useless as getting oil pressure and oil temp gauge for a car thats never goign to see the track. so u mite as well get something that gives u alot of bling/wank factor in the cockpit.