Gday,
Was wondering what the best 2 or 3 guages are to get.
I am definitely getting a Boost guage, but I cant decide whether to get the 2 hole pod or 3 hole pod.
Choices would be...
Engine Oil Temp
Engine Oil Pressure
Water Temp
Voltage
Fuel Pressure

What do you guys have and recommend???
Thanks
AUS

 

In order yor most important TOP 3:

1) Boost
2) EGT
4) Oil pressure

Volt I think is kind of useless

 

order of importance

air/fuel
egt
boost

that's the order of things that will go wrong and make your engine blow up. but if you're stock... then the first thing you do is prolly turn up boost with a boost controler. so get boost... then worry about egt cuz you don't wanna lean out one cylinder too bad. then after you get piggyback or other fuel adjusting thing then get an a/f.

oil pressure you don't have to worry about too much in the evo... the stock oil system is very good, you should worrry about fuel tho... you lean out cuz of fuel starve in a long turn and you're paying dearly... so keep that in mind. temp sensors are just for monitoring.... like oil temp is nice to see when it's a cool to shut off yer car. water temp... well you already have one of those... but if you want a warning light to come on if you happen to be negligent of your water temp or if you wanna monitor it exactly for some reason.

pressures are more important. all in all you should not exceed 7 gauges.. cuz that would cover everything. if you don't wanna spend too much money tho... pick the most imporant ones detailed above.

 

OK so what im thinking is to get the 3 holer, with boost, EGT and A/F.
Now which should go in bottom, middle and top holes???

 

a oil temp gauge is neccessary so you can tell when your oil is at operating temp. If you boost with cold oil you won't get the circulation you need, so oil temp is important. EGT and A/F are only important if you plan on modding..If you are what mods then we can tell ya what is important...

 

Right now I have HKS catback exhaust and intake. Not planning on doing anything serious for a while and even then just simple boltons. Downpipe, Cams, Intercooler, etc. Dont think I will get into turbo upgrades etc. And im thinking probably a reflash or ECU over an EMS.
So yeah I see your point and would probably ditch the EGT. Besides...they are damn expensive for that guage.
BTW where are you in KY?

 

get all four gauges then......

 

Oil temp, EGT is only important if you are running your car so lean to the point were you can distry your motor, you will be needing to watch the EGT

 

I vote, Boost gauge, OIL Pressure and Water Temperature, not having the water temperature could fry your engine

 

i think most a/f gauges (that run off the stock 02 sensor) are useless since they are so inaccurate. without a wideband, it's just a light show as the thing reads from lean to rich.
also, make sure you are getting quality pieces such as defi. i ran an autometer cf ultralight in my rx-7 for a long time only to find out it was reading 1psi low on the boost side and 2-3 in/hg low on the vacuum side. a gauge isn't much good if it doesn't let you know what is actually going-on.

 

Everyone has a different opinion on this and it really depends on what you are trying to do.
I went with the following:

Boost
Oil Pressure
EGT

My logic is as follows:

Boost gauge -- Everyone recommends a boost gauge. It is just nice to see where you are boosting to, how much boost you are dropping through the rev range, how much boost your controller or tuning is adding, etc.

Oil Pressure -- No matter how good the oil system of a car is, you can still have problems. Oil is your life blood especially with a turbo car. I like to know I am getting reasonable pressure and I like to be warned when this drops. This gauge will also let you know if you are getting starvation issues due to loading on the track or if you have a leak or a low oil condition before it does damage.

EGT -- There are 2 camps on this. You can either go EGT or Air/Fuel. I went the EGT route as I wanted to see where my temps were. I know what temperatures can be dangerous and I like to be warned when I am approaching too high a level. I also find it interesting to see the variation of temperatures from short 1/4 mile runs to prolonged high levels of boost up mountain passes and on the track. I know that both can be used for tuning. I just find the EGT more interesting and a better warning system if something is not working correctly.

** If you are really planning to road race or are doing some extreme tuning a system that monitors EGTs for all 4 chambers is the best. Such as this . You can set it up to warn you of dangerous conditions or problems such as a clogged injector, and you can even connect it to an aftermarket ECU to protect your engine.