Mikeaagesen

I am about to start modding my 951. This spring i plan on some sort of package, haven't decided yet. I am also doing HG and probably rod bearings as well. Is it that important that i get a boost gauge and.or a/f ratio gauge? How accurate is the stock one? I've been thinking about gauges and that I might need them to start modding the car. Any advice?

Eyal 951

though I am not exactly in the best position to give advice, I think you should get the gauges before you start modding. Its cheap insurance, if nothing else. But i'm sure people will give you better advice, thats just my .02
~Eyal

Mikeaagesen

Not to mention, I love the looks of the autometer cobalt ones. Some may call them ricey I guess, but I just love blue. Also, since there electrical, would installation be a bit easier?

Sami951

I've got autometer carbon fiber series boost and a/f gauge on my car. Look decent, can't figure out how I managed to do without them in the first place

adrial

Rule #1: Don't do anything to the factory boost control without an aftermarket boost gauge.

That is by far the most important gauge to have. The standard A/F gauges that use the factory O2 sensor are toys IMO, nothing more than blinky blink lights. It will tell you the difference between 14:1 and 10:1...not much more than that. What you need is a wideband O2, check the archives for more info. An EGT gauge is nice to have as well, keep you from toasting exhaust valves...though boost and wideband O2 are definetely the most important.

Unless your car will see track time, you dont really need more than that. If it will, then an oil temp gauge first then oil pressure gauge. Personally I wouldn't bother with the oil pressure gauge unless you were really going all out.

HG, rod bearings, belts, rollers, waterpump, head rebuild are all good things to do prior to serious mods. All of this also depends on the mileage of your car...

turbo944

I can't speak as to ease of installation as mine was already hooked up, but yes, definitely get you some good gauges first.

There is a good thread right now on widebands and I plan on adding one to mine at some point before I get too wild with any mods. Basically installing the gauges now would show you want you have running under the hood. If you can datalog and you get a kit with the laptop needed for tuning, you could be record your data into the laptop and see how you're doing with your A/F ratio.

Some people say their stock boost gauge is way off, mine seems very accurate compared to my aftermarket boost gauge, but the stock gauge has no numbers on it and also stops at 2 bar pressure (1 bar boost), so if your car suddenly gets a boost spike, you may not see it at all there on the stock gauge.

You'll need the gauges to help you dial in any kit that you get, and in fact if you do datalogging you can even pretty much avoid going to a dyno to tune if you have the wideband hooked up as well.

My $9.51 opinion: Best to know the health of the engine/systems at all times, even stock. Could save you some headaches down the road and makes life easier to tune.

rhesus

Seconded

oi-punx

Installing an aftermarket boost gauge isn't too difficult. It will take you about an hour and that includes wiring it to the ashtray light. Check out my page HERE to see my installation procedure.

I installed mine without splicing into the KLR line and mounted it in Lindsey's panel below the radio.



Happy Boosting!

Mikeaagesen

Oi-punkx, whould it be any harder for an a-pillar? I am thinking about those.

Perry 951

Yes, boost gauge first. I'll spare you the story....

Adrial... wanna know something funny? I have run the ARM-1 for a while, and installed the Tech-edge yesterday. The ARM-1 is pretty damn close, unless you are really lean, or really rich.

adrial

Perry,

It may be that the gauge I'm using is crap (Cyberdyne), so that has skewed my opinion. I'm glad that you find the narrowband output to be usefull. However, the ARM 1 has only a few LED's...how can that be accurate? What a/f range does the ARM 1 cover?

Perry 951

Well.. I did take a time based sample from a dyno run and compared it to the video of my ARM-1 a while back..... it was close to perfect from 12.5-16.5

With the Tech Edge side by side... they work somewhat the same. The ARM-1 reads anywhere from 12.3 to 16.5 in comparison to the Tech Edge. The Tech Edge gets to 18.1 and 10.2 A/F.

From my notes (this is not bible talk here... and make sure you compare with a wide band before something bad happens... each car is different)

ARM-1 VS Tech Edge
1st Red - >16.5
1st Red and 2nd Red - 16.3 - 15.5
2nd Red - 15.5 - 15.0
1st Yellow - 15.0 - 15.3
1st and 2nd Yellow - 14.3 - 14.7
1st Orange - 14-7 - 14.3
1st Orange and 2nd Orange - 14.5-14.0
2nd Yellow - 14.3 - 13.9
1st Green - 13.5 - 13.9
1st and 2nd Green - 13.0-13.5
1st Blue - 12.7 - 13.0
1st and 2nd Blue - 12.3 - 12.7
2nd Blue - >12.3

I did this comparison a few times, and it seems that the color groups on the ARM-1 are linked (so you can get intermediate readings, ie the orange LED's). I was pretty impressed with the readings off Stoich, but the WBO-2 is much more accurate, especialy at idle and mid throttle tuning. The advantahge to the Narrowband LED Gauges, you can quickly see the A/F status by color, where as the Tech Edge is by number... making you take your eyes off the track to read it.

porshhhh951

it's been said. Getting gauges before mod's is a wonderful idea. The stock boost gauge is normally way off (as was the case with mine) the air/fuel ratio gauge's are nice if you like blinking light's that's about all they are good for. If you want a real reading of you s/r then you need a wideband o2. You can also have a digital display as well. Not that hard of a install from what I head and the benefits are vast and helpful. My car was tuned with a wideband o2 even though I don't currently have one on my car I plan on getting on soon before I swap out my turbocharger for a larger one. You will be plesently surprised what kind of wakeup you will get from your car with only a few well placed mods. Welcome to the community ( I see you only have 50 posts)
and welcome to the boost addiction

Perry 951

I made a grumpy response and deleted it.

Stuttgartuner

my stock guage was showing bar (21 psi) I was hoping that wasn't right considering I only had chips add by the po. I go an a-pillar with an autometer cobalt series boost guage and a/f ratio meter. Now I am showing a perfect 15 psi at boos plus it shows drop off at rpms and is truthful as far as I can tell. Much better than stock.