Stewart Warner Gauges/ALTA Pods installed

[MiniJayhawk]

I posted in the electronics section, but gauges are a topic here, too. Finally took pics of my setup. About as factory looking as you could possibly get, in my opinion.

[tdm156]

Very nice!

[spfdhed]

looks very good. How about night time pictures? Do you have red/orange back lighting?

[Robin Casady]

They look good. They blend in well. The temp should run around 222 to 225 F. So, overheating is going to be subtle. I'd like to put in oil temp and oil pressure gauges in those positions, but I haven't worked up the courage to start tapping into the engine.

[MiniJayhawk]

My temp readings are spot on, then. I was under the impression from ALTA's gauges and other info around here that temps would be around 190-200. The scangauge guys are all saying what you are saying --- 220-225 --- which is exactly what my gauge is reading.

Here are the nightime photos. The sylvania amber bulbs I put in were getting way too hot so I took an orange marker to the Stewart Warner white bulbs and got a perfect match. I may still look for a lower wattage amber, but these are great. Even better in person than the photos:

[Robin Casady]

[rippymcs]

That looks awesome.
Do they (SW gauges) come with chrome rings? I have the chrome option in my car so I like the gauges to match.

[MiniJayhawk]

I don't know if the competition series have a chrome option. You can look here: http://www.sw-performance.com/ Under "Products" you can look at all of their various gauge styles. Mine are the Competition gauges.

The gauges I purchased:

http://www.sw-performance.com/index....tails&p=114273

http://www.sw-performance.com/index....tails&p=114380

They have other styles for you to consider, but I am not seeing much in chrome that would work or that have the proper temperature range (for water). I bought mine much cheaper on Ebay from Summit Racing, but when I had any questions the Stewart Warner staff was quick to respond to e-mails. Summit's Ebay listings typically include everything you need except for the 18-gauge wire and wire tapping hardware. I tapped the coolant tank like they suggest on the ALTA gauges, so the trick is grounding the sensor near the threads. I wrapped the sensor in 18-gauge wire and tightly secured it with a wrap of electrical tape.

[russr]

Wow they look great, but don't look easy to install. I wish the MINI came with those gauges.

[errolandmel]

Those gauges look like a great match, thanks for sharing

[agranger]

Very clean work! Great job!

[MINIdriver85]

Look good, but aren't they hard to read at night?

[MiniJayhawk]

Not at all. You can see the needle much better at night than these photos show. No problem at all.

[MINIdriver85]

I think I've got a winner for my auxiliary gauges then

After all, SW makes the OEM auxiliary gauges so I guess you can't get a more OEM-looking gauge


Do you know any online shop selling them that ships to Italy, maybe?

[MiniJayhawk]

I got mine on Ebay from Summit Racing. I would think they can ship overseas.

[russr]

Who did the install for you?

[MINIdriver85]

I'll take a look there then

[MiniJayhawk]

Originally Posted by russr

Who did the install for you?

I did the install for me.

[MINIdriver85]

I was wondering, did you change the bulbs for the illumination fot he gauges with leds? If yes, did you use the SW amber leds or the orange ones? Because Summit Racing only has the orange ones in stock but I've read somewhere that the amber ones match the oem lighting better.

[russr]

How hard is the install?

[MiniJayhawk]

The bulbs that come with the gauges are white. I went with Sylvania amber bulbs but they ran far too hot. I couldn't find a lower wattage locally so I decided to color the white bulbs with orange permanent marker. Worked like a charm. So, I did not go with led's. I would go for amber if I were you because the stock lighting is more amber than orange.

The instll was about a 3 out of 5 for difficulty. 5 being the most difficult. Depends on your patience and basic wiring skills. The only trick was grounding the threads of the water temp sensor because I was tapping into a plastic tank instead of the engine block/manifold.

[MINIdriver85]

Thanks for the info

[Bahamabart]

very nice

[Bishamon]

Awesome!

[undertow]

MiniHJayhawk, I'm getting ready to purchase these guages and would like to know what mounting hardware, brackets, gauge pods, etc you used and from where? A direct link if possible would be awesome!

Also, what instructions did you follow when doing this installing and if you could provide the instructions it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.