this is a quick how-to thread for installing mechanical gauges for water temp and oil pressure. i am using a replica of the JCW gauge pod to mount under the radio.

to start, i painted it black and then put a satin clear coat to protect it.



and these are the adapters used. autometer makes one for the water temp.



and here it is with the small (unused) hose connectors cut off and filed down.




the oil pressure adapter came from cravenspeed. however, if you look on ebay, you might be able to find a 1/8" x 3/8" (?) adapter. i don't know for sure those are the sizes. but, cravenspeed fit great with no problem.




since the installation had to go from inside to the engine, i am going to show going from inside the cabin to under the hood.




if you're going to do this, you'll need to peel back some layers of the dash to access everything. i'm not going to go over how to do all that. that info is readily available.
test fitting...




by the time i got to this part, i realized i hadn't wired the lights. i didn't have time to think about how i could tap into a light source that is tied to the dimmer. i just connected to the cigarette lighter since it's switched. and the gauge bulbs just get full juice when the ignition is on. no biggie.

i didn't get pics here b/c i was elbows deep in the installation, but the oil pressure tubing (protected by lawn irrigation tubing) and the water temp probe go here, then up behind the radio. then out of the electrical grommet.





here you can kinda see the black handled screwdriver that i've ground down into a bit of a shiv for punching holes.







and here it is poking through under the dash. then i just proceeded to poke larger things through to make the hole big enough for the temp probe.



i took some of the spare irrigation tubing and ran it through the firewall from in the engine compartment to inside the cabin. then i wrapped it with wire loom wrap to protect it and to get it through the hole.




here, if you know what you're looking for, you can see the tubing for both gauges come through here going behind the firewall liner to the passenger side.


here i have the oil and water lines zip tied together for strength and stabilization. also, i bought a water temp gauge with a 12' probe b/c of how far i'm running it. and then i took the excess line and loosely looped it to take up the slack out of sight.




here you can see the water and oil lines coming out together and are zip tied together. water goes to the front of the engine. oil goes down and is zip tied to the lines already there.




looking up from the bottom, you can see the tubing coming down.



and then it goes into the sender. you can see the oil pressure line tubing slightly exposed at the very end.




back to the firewall following the water temp probe wrapped in wire loom, it goes down the side of the engine zip tied to the existing tubing.



and then it comes around to the front of the engine where it goes into the gauge adapter. i replaced the plastic vent piece with the adapter, so no cutting required. i even reused the factory hose clamps.



and then here it is all lit up. the red caps (included with the gauges) compliment the factory gauges.

 

I have the same Autometer gauges except a boost pressure gauge instead of the oil pressure gauge. I was so focused on the engine compartment end of the gauges, I too forgot about the gauge lighting, so I ran without lighting over the summer. When fall came and I started driving home in the dark, it motivated me to get my new gauges lit.

I tapped into the left rear park light circuit to control a relay to energize a power bar from which to power the lights on my gauges. Like you, I again forgot about the dimmer function on the factory gauges. Used a power distribution bar in anticipation of more gauges (like an oil pressure gauge), so I can simply connect to the power distribution bar when I need a power supply.

I never would have guessed how much work it would be to just add some extra gauges.

 

haha...yea it can add up. i had planned to do this, but kinda did it on a whim because i was doing a lot of other work, too.

i'm curious, how does your water temp behave? in my bronco, my mechanical temp will stay cold then you can see the thermostat open and the temp shoots up.

in the mini, it takes a while to get up to temp. but, once it gets up there it's pretty quick to respond to changes in water temp. i am wondering if i had possibly damaged the probe installing it.

 

Yeah, it's weird. It seemed in the summer, the gauge would do like in your Bronco and not move until the thermostat opens when it shoots right up to 180 after a few minutes driving. Over the past several months that it has been cooler, it behaves like your Mini in that it comes up slowly. I find the inconsistency strange but once it's at operating temperature, like you said, it is quick to respond to the coolant temperature changes. BTW, my probe is mounted near where you mounted your probe except, I cut my upper radiator hose to fit the probe adapter before the bleeder section. I was not happy about adding 2 more potential failure points in those joints but I had not thought about doing like what you did. I think I like your probe installation better for that reason.

I really like having this water temperature gauge as it shows how "dumb" the stock gauge is. The stock gauge reads in the normal (middle) range from about 140 degrees to 220 degrees when the low speed fan comes on. I like watching my coolant temperature climb (especially in the summer) while sitting at a stop light and once I get moving and air goes through the radiator, the coolant temperature will come down 10 degrees after just a mile driving at about 45 mph. I never realized how much the coolant temperature fluctuates in normal driving.

 

Interesting...I appreciate the affirmation, though.
I'm curious to see how it responds in the summer, now haha

I'm also looking for a location to mount a 3rd gauge for boost, but I have the chronos pack and it seems my options are non-existent