I'm having my new head installed at the end of this month so I figured it's time to add some gauges.
Besides the boost gauge what are the most important gauges to have in order of importance. Also I have the DFIC, so what side of the intercooler do I hook the boost gauge to if I'm looking at it from in front of the car? I hope MSFITOY will chim in because he has the DFIC also.

 

He also has the same head

 

Water temp.

 

For me, it'd be between oil temp and oil pressure. An oil temp gauge lets you know when your oil is up to temp and it's alright to have some fun. It's a gauge that can be used every day. Oil pressure, on the other hand, is one that you won't necesarily use every day but if something happens to cause a drop in oil pressure (and you happen to look at the gauge), it may save your engine. Apparently, the stock dummy light is set to a very low oil pressure.

I made this choice while selecting my gauges and went with boost and oil temp. The next round of gauges will have oil pressure.

The boost gauge is tee'd into the factory vacuum line. The factory uses 5/32 OD hard line. Do a search in interior/exterior for "vacuum line fitting" as PARTSMAN helped me find the correct stuff at NAPA for the install. You basically remove the intercooler and the factory hard line. Then cut the hard line, slide some 5/32 ID soft line over it to act as a coupler and put the tee in. My boost gauge came with 1/8 OD hard line and I found a rubber adapter to convert this to 5/32.

 

Take off the IC and you should see the skinny line running between the two middle intake ports from the fuel pressure regulator. If you buy the Autometer light series it looks just like it was stock on the mini and the fittings and stuff it came with is all you will really need. Mine has an extra T fitting so that I can hook vacum up to the dyno without disconecting it from the gauge. I do recomend zip ties just to ensure stuff stays put but i doubt it would be an issue. If you use the 3rd T for the dyno but not needed be sure to plug it good so theres no leak. 10ft of hard nylon comes with the Autometer and it cost me 60-70$ at autozone but got instant gratification. Oh and its ghetto zip tied to my tach right now. need to buy the pod lol.

 

oil pressure / temp .

 

how important is air/fuel gauge?

 

It's nice to have but pretty much useless unless you need to dyno tune. Then, a good wideband is a great tool. Innovative Motorsports seems to make the top units. We use the LM-1 to tune our Formula SAE car. They make the XD-1 that has a gauge as well as a port to plug into a computer.

 

I have a host of gauges:

Defi: Boost, EGT, Fuel Pressure, Water Temp, Oil Temp, Oil Pressure, with additional heads-up display for tach and speedo

Autometer: Dual channel IAT, Voltmeter

Innovate: Wide-band A/F

G-Tech Pro

IMO, the most critical gauges are Oil Pressure, Oil Temperature, and Water Temperature. Others have given abundant reasons for this selection. The factory gauges are primarily "either-or". I have also found the EGT and Boost gauges to be helpful...

Good luck,

 

thanks for the reply so far. I would have to have pressure and oil temp gauges installed by shop as I don't have the tools or knowledge to pull those off myself. How many hrs. would a shop charge to do these installs?

 

What about engine temp? I heard that the factory gauge is about as useful as a plastic ax. Is getting a new engine temp gauge worth it?