IMHO:
> 1. My understanding is that electrical gauges are easier to install since
The big advantage to electric gauges is that you're not bringing the
measured medium into the cockpit, or exposing it to leakage under the hood:
hot oil, fuel, or manifold air. Take it from someone who had an oil line
fail ("fortunately" at the engine end, where it still could have done a lot
of damage if the car hadn't been in my driveway at the time). When
measuring fuel pressure, for example, electric is definitely the way to go
on a street car!!
> 2. I already have water temperature and oil pressure gauges. How useful
are
> oil temperature, transmission temperature, and voltmeter gauges? Which
ones
I'm adding the oil temp gauge shortly, if that's any indication. With
modern synthetic oils it's pretty hard to reach dangerous temps (oil
breakdown) in an autox; road racing maybe. To me a voltmeter is a street
gauge, and a useful one. Stay away from an ammeter -- if it fails, so does
your starting system. Trans temp I would expect w/b for an automatic trans,
but that's just MHO.
> 3. I have a 95 Integra B18B non-VTEC engine. Would the 0-100 psi or the
Oil pressures better be under 60 psi or so for an unmodified street car!!
High oil pressures make things go "bang", like the oil pump itself.
> water temp or the 120-240 F water temp gauge be more suitable? The
> thermostat in my car starts opening at 169F and is fully open at 194F.
I've seen 240 degrees on one of my street cars, after a hot day on a
high-speed track, without any evidence of boiling. Water boils at 212 F
(remember?); a 50/50 antifreeze/water mix in the radiator (standard) raises
it some; and the 13 to 16 psi radiator cap raises it some more. Street cars
will commonly exceed 212 F, so in any form of racing you'll definitely get
there, yes.
> 4. I plan on installing an adjustable FPR. Is it important to have a fuel
Dunno about Hondas, but very knowledgeably Fordnatics have warned me away
from adjustable FPRs 'cause the regulator can and does leak -- which can
cause an engine fire. Some will disagree, of course.
> 5. I noticed autometer has a vacuum gauge. Where in the car would this be
> useful? The only place I can think of is to measure intake manifold
vacuum.
A vacuum gauge is indeed used on intake vacuum, and is a very useful tuning
and condition measure. What a vacuum gauge is telling you is commonly
available information. I've a vacuum/boost gauge on mine -- at the very
least, the vacuum portion tells me that I'm approaching boost, before it
actually arrives! On an n/a car, a vacuum gauge is very much a
"throttle-position gauge" -- the more you press down on the loud pedal, the
less vacuum is indicated.
Hope that helps. On my turbocar (street and autox), in addition to the
factory gauges (boost, water temp, oil pressure) I run engine oil temp, the
vacuum/boost combo, inlet air temp, exhaust temp, and air/fuel ratio gauges
(VDO). To that I would only add a voltmeter.
Richard Nichols
CP Mustang SVO Turbo FI Intercooled
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