OK... so what's the point of a boost gauge?
 

Bear with me here. I plan to add the Craven R56 2 guage pod (one on each side of the tach) and was thinking of adding Oil Pressure and Water Temperature. Those two guages seem much more important than monitoring boost (after all, if I am losing boost, I would feel it in the seat of the pants, and not as likely to cause damage like loss of oil pressure or overheating would). It seems like it would be a fun guage to watch as it would be active, but doesn't seem to be critical...why does everyone seem to add as one?

Thoughts?

They're cool to show off with!

I wish I had one! Yes, I'm serious.

They are sweet!!!

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x.../peakboost.jpg

a) it's cool
b) it'll let you know when you have a boost leak (not always noticeable from "seat of the pants", esp if its a small leak over time
c) if you do upgrades to your software or turbo (increase boost), you're going to want to know that your investment(s) are going towards something you can quanitfy!:)

At least that is my understanding. This is my first turbo car and I don't have a boost gauge (yet).

Will the dealership give you grief about aftermarket gauges?

Water temperature seems almost pointless unless you need to know the exact temp at any given moment. Your car already has a high-low temp indicator. I would go with boost and oil pressure or oil temp. Water temp could be relegated to a digital multi-display. You don't need it in your line of sight while driving.

I only got compliments from my dealer.

sadly that always happens until something goes wrong.... :sad:

I plan on getting a boost gauge as soon as they come out with an idiot proof guide on how to install. I've never messed with wiring or anything before and it's a bit intimidating to me.

Um...
 

Water temp, oil pressure and oil temp are the three most important things to know when it comes to the operational health of you engine.

Boost is just a fun thing to see how high you can get it to go when you floor it. If you're really needing to do diagnostics, then an OBD based data tool can let you know what you're getting for peak values, or whatever.

Matt

ps, there's a reason that the high low or red-light things are called "idiot lights". They basically tell you when it's all over. :sad:

Thanks Matt. A response coming from the Tech Editor of MC2 Mag (and the rest of the responses too) pretty much confirmed my thoughts...I'll go with Oil pressure and Water Temp. :nod:

ps living in AZ...Water Temp is pretty important...lol. Blown head gaskets/cracked heads and blocks aren't cheap to fix if you overheat...

Water temp is good to know because you shouldn't be hard on your motor when it's cold. I think the Alta ECU won't give you full boost until it's warmed up to 160.

As I stated, the MINI already has a water temp indicator. Although it does not give the temperature in numeric values, it is a meter rather than an idiot light and will tell you if the temp is getting high.

You should not be hard on your engine when the oil is cold. Since the oil warms up more slowly than the water, knowing when the oil is at the proper temp is a better indicator of when you are ready to drive rather than roll.

It's close to a fake. It has a "dead band" in it where it shows a bunch of temps as the same, only deflecting when the excursions are larger than what Mini deems is enough to notify you about. This isn't a very good guage. It's rumored that the dead band is present so they don't get pestered by people asking why one car runs at this temp, and another car at another temp. It's just a bad way to run diagnostics. But I'll grant it's better than just an idiot light. Don't be fooled into thinking it's a real temp gauge where the needle points different places for every different temp.

Matt

Sorry...but in my opinion, this is no more than a glorified idiot light. There is a thread somewhere about blowing a headgasket at 5K miles. If that poster had a real (numeric) gauge, he would have caught that something was amiss by seeing the actual temps. The light was intermittent, and he was thinking it was a bad sensor, as it would come on (yellow-drive moderately) then go away. By the time the red light came on, his motor was toast (blown head gasket).

you don't have a R56 do you?

Interesting information and that explains why on my MINI that once the temp gauge reads up to temp it rarely moves off halfway. In my truck, and in my TR6 the gauge responds much more to driving conditions. Heck, in my truck you can see when the thermostat opens up as the temp needle climbs then suddenly takes a nose dive.

Boost is less important if the car is mostly stock, but its a great way to troubleshoot a variety of power related issues. Much more fun than staring at an oil pressure gauge that always says 40psi, in my humble opinion. :)

Point is
 

that good guages are to see when trouble starts to happen. You like a boost gauge, that's fine. But if your going to diagnose problems, then there are much better tools than just a boost gauge. If you want to see when your car is starting to be at risk, oil pressure, temp and water temp are where it's at.

It all depends on what you want from your gauges....

Matt

Ok since the boost gauge thread migrated into a guage thread.
Which tells you more oil pressure or oil temperature?

See that's the thing with oil pressure. It'll show oil pump pressure even while being a quart low. Except at idle where it'll show less pressure then normal..

I'd vote for oil temp, boost, and a dummy light for low oil pressure.

I'd like a temp and boost guage myself. With the ALTA ECU you dont achieve full boost until about 160 degrees or so. I 'd like to be able to see exactly where that is so I know I have full boost available.

I would vote for oil pressure. As the oil temp increases the oil pressure will decrease. So in a roundabout way you can tell if your oil temps are climbing. Your oil temp could be just fine but if you have no oil pressure, you wont be driving for very long.