Auxillary gauge choices...

Folks,
I recently installed an A-pillar gauge pod and tranny temp gauge along with external filter and tranny cooler. The question is, what other gauge to put in my gauge pod. From my search of the archives I'm leaning towards engine oil temp, but I just want to see if anyone has something else they're monitoring that they feel is important. Of course I'll eventually want a spot for a boost gauge but that is a long long way off :speepin: :repair:
My ride is a '99 4.0 w/AW-4 and NP231.
Thanks!
Jeremy

where did you get the gauge pod from

I used a gauge pod for a mid 80s F-150 truck and it fits my ’91 perfectly. I took one of every gauge pod they had in stock out to the parking lot and test fitted them on my Jeep. The lady at Shuck’s thought I was nuts, but it works. I have a fuel/air gauge in the top one and a tranny temp gauge in the bottom one. The tranny temp is an Auto Meter analog (has a needle) and the fuel/air is a Summit digital. DON’T get a DIGITAL fuel/air gauge. Mine reads like it is supposed to, but it’s nearly impossible to see during daylight. At night it becomes a glowing ball right at eyeball height and annoys the hell out of me :gag: I’m going to swap it out with an Auto Meter analog gauge as soon as I can get my POS to run right. Separate issue, not related to the gauges :rattle:

heres mine prob not the gauge choices you'd pic but they look cool!
Autometer cobalt series with digital voltage and amplifier temperature

Ville, here is the gauge pod in question. Not a perfect fit on my '99 but very close and I think it looks good. Let me know if you'd like to see a pic of it installed. http://store.summitracing.com/defau...sp&N=100&Ntk=PartSearch&Ntt=ATM-15210&x=0&y=0

Wiley, I like the idea of the air/fuel gauge. Do you use it in conjunction with a map input voltage adjustor for tuning purposes? (this worked great on my old renix stroker but I question whether it could be this simple on an OBD II setup..)

Dew, the cobalt style gauges look extremely sweet. If only I had the patience you put into smoothing those panels I would be running this army by now..

Jeremy
:us:

yeah some pictures would be great.

yeah thats the autometer I have- fit snug

Went with a trans. temp and a volt gauge.

I have pics, but don’t have a way of posting them here. I’m using the fuel/air gauge with an adjustable MAP. It works fine on my ’91, but its 4.0L HO OBD I system. I don’t think that you can use them on OBD II systems with out tripping the emissions safeguards.

a few years ago, befoe i installed a gauge pod, i asked the same question-

i knew i wanted a tranny temp gauge, but what other one to install also?

well, one guy reccommend i install a vacuum gauge

at first i thought it was a little odd--why vacuum?

well, im REALLY glad i did!!

vacuum pressure (off the intake manifold) will tell you a bunch of different things....

1. it gives you a real time look at what your throttle position is (how heavy your foot is on the gas)= a good look at what your MPG might be

2. your HVAC system runs off of vacuum, and you can tell if u ever develop any sort of vacum leak in the system

3. a healthy running engine will have a certain (~15 in my case) inches of vac. at idle


i highly reccommend going with the vac gauge


also--

i have an oil temp gauge installed on another gauge pod, down by the 4x4 shifter---i dont feel its very important, after all--it doesnt show you much really.....i guess it might though, if u had a major mechanical problem/failure


hope this helps


CaptTrev

Second that on the vac gauge, tells alot and is as usseful, maybe a shade more so than a tach. Driving by the vac gauge can decrease the amount you spend on gas if you use it and drive by it...

How do you guys deal wih these gauges in your face ruining your night vision at night?

r@m

Root Moose said:

How do you guys deal wih these gauges in your face ruining your night vision at night?

Click to expand...

Dim the dash lights?

Root Moose said:

How do you guys deal wih these gauges in your face ruining your night vision at night?

r@m

Click to expand...

Sun Glasses:sunshine:

It's still up in your line of sight though, no?

Kinda like trying to look across a darkened room with a candle in the middle - hard to see what is on the other side.

I dunno, just seems like it could be an issue to me - especially some of the images posted above.

r@m

mandatory ones in my mind are volts, water temp, and oil pres. I will be running those three along w/ tranny temp, oil temp, tachometer, vacuum, fuel pressure, fuel level, and speedo. im redoing all guages(i hate idiot lights) and i want to keep track of all vitals. yea i know that may seem like something a drag racer would do but I like to know what is going on w/ my rig.

Root Moose said:

It's still up in your line of sight though, no?

Kinda like trying to look across a darkened room with a candle in the middle - hard to see what is on the other side.

I dunno, just seems like it could be an issue to me - especially some of the images posted above.

r@m

Click to expand...

Put red bulbs in all my guages and tied them into the dash lights, so they can be dimmed down.

I still want to know were people are putting there sending units for trans temp.

XJJack said:

I still want to know were people are putting there sending units for trans temp.

Click to expand...

Read here.
http://hp.autometer.com/instructions/002286_instruction.pdf

Trev and Rich, I'm sold on the vacuum gauge. I think I'll go with that on my A-pillar and try to mount an oil temp gauge down at an angle on the plastic behind the wiper control lever. It would be slightly obstructed with wipers on but visible enough to check once in a while.
Ville, took a pic but realized I have no way to store it on the web and post it. Shoot me an email if you'd like me to send it your way or if you have a way to post it for me.
Jack, my trans temp sender is mounted in the output line coming straight from the tranny, before the line feeds into an external filter, in-radiator tank, external cooler, then goes back to the transmission. It generally reads just above 110* on short trips which has me looking for a thermostatic valve to throw on there before the external cooler so it'll run at a higher operating temp.
As for the night vision issue, it's not a problem at all with just one gauge in the bottom half of the pod but I could see how it could be an issue if mounted higher up. Even then, at least the B&M gauge I have isn't terribly bright and I'm sure you could experiment with different bulbs. Plus it is wired into the dash lights so will dim along with them.
Jeremy