I go for looks when it comes to gauges..
What gauges besides boost move the most. haha
What is a vacuum gauge?
Does any one know of any boost gauge that would wind up pretty far?

 

A vacuum guage is used on a naturally aspirated engine and indicates manifold vacuum. A boost guage is the same thing but will also show manifold boost pressure on an engine with forced-induction.

If you have boost, you don't need (or want) a vacuum guage.

If you want guages, you should be looking to exhaust temperature, oil temperature, and A/F ratio guages :D

 

If you want motion, get an AFM (Air-Fuel Meter) usually lights vs a gauge, but those suckers dither like mad!
Important gauges to me:
Water Temp - earliest indicator of overheating
Oil Pressure - early warning of failing engine - no oil pressure, car go boom
Boost - interesting to see, indicator for sticking/non-sealing bypass valve
Oil Temp - true indicator of when the car is warmed up (i.e. ok to mash pedal)

 

thanks. I still am confused as to why some people put vac gauges in their cars and what it does. Like I thought it has to do with boost. So if I put a vac gauge in my car what would it do.?
ALSO
Do they make boost gauges that only go to 15 or 20 pounds?

 

A vacuum gauge is useful for letting you know when you have a vacuum leak, and for cars that don't have an instant readout of MPG, a vacuum gauge makes a pretty good fuel economy gauge. In fact, the analog MPG readouts on a lot of older cars (like BMWs) are just vacuum gauges that are marked in MPG rather than vacuum units.

There are plenty of boost gauges that only read to 20 pounds. You can go to www.summitracing.com or www.jegs.com to find some.

Also, if you want the maximum needle movement possible, keep in mind that mechanical gauges usually sweep over a 270-degree range, whereas most electrical gauges only sweep over 90 degrees or so. There are wide-sweep electrical gauges, but they tend to be a lot more expensive than the mechanical ones.

 

You do want a vacuum gauge on your boosted ride. That's how you can tell you have a boost leak. There are quite a few items in our cars that run off of vacuum. Here is an early gauge that I had in my 1.8T (until I started boosting around 28psi.). The first 1/2 is vacuum the other 1/2 boost.

 

check out autometer.com. They have just about any kind of gauage you could possibly want. Full Sweep Electrical, Digital, etc...
You may want to go digital, because the numbers changing are much more apparent than a needle moving a small amount.

 

I find the digital readout gauges to be to busy for me. The beauty of the pointers is that they will normalize to a certain point, a quick glance tells if things are not right if the needle is not in the normal position. Digital needs to be read and processed. When on track I have enough to think about.

Now for around town and for style I like digital, so I got the best of both worlds. Pointers combined with a small digital readout.

 

Hey you might check out our packages here. From what we currently offer and looking at the mods the oil/boost combo might be best. I now have either boost/oil temp and boost oil pres in stock even though both aren't shown online. I have these in my GP and I really like them. More info HERE! and HERE!

They REALLY match the OEM gauges in the R53 well! Work great and VERY easy installation.

Let me know if I can answer any questions

 

If I bought one of the pillar pods that goes on the piece to the left between driver's side window and windshield how would you wire everything? Where would your run the wires?
Has anyone every done one of these pillar pods and if so pictures and HOW TO'S are greatly appreciated!

 

I run analog gauges except for the AFR gauge from Innovate.

My setup includes Defi Boost, oil temp and oil pressure as well as the Innovate. Don't match the stock colors but very high quality and easy installs. The Innovate is a bit annoying at night with the digital readout bouncing all over, but you can turn it off and customize it.

 

This pillar pod is custom but is along the same lines, just a little bigger. Wiring is no different then any other electronic gauge set, only run to a different location.

When you pull the A Pillar start from the top, there is a strap connecting the pillar covering to the frame to limit movement in the event the side curtain air bags are needed. Take the side panel off the dash to fish the wires up to the pillar cover. Drill small holes in the cover to pass wires to the gauges.