I want to get my hands on the new OEM boost and water temp gauge as soon as they arrive. Not sure if those two though are the most important gauges to get! Just to set things straight, those two would stand aside of the Engine RPM gauge that sits behind the steering wheel!

 

Personally, Oil Pressure will safeguard your engine, Boost is imho just a wow meter for people going for more and more power, it goes up and down so much AND so quickly during daily driving, it really is an indicator for judging power mod's.

Hope that helps you

 

If you are going to add much extra boost. I would suggest Alta's gauges Or another set of aftermarkets that match the interior well

 

Boost ? You dont own an Evo

Oil Pressure 100% agree with that.

 

THE GAS GUAGE

 

I would venture to say that a boost gauge is important, not so much to tell you how much power your running, but to tell you if you are experience boost spiking or have a boost leak. Both of these attributes I would argue can be important when it comes to diagnosing engine problems. The other important one is Oil Pressure over temperature. Just MHO

 

I would totally agree!
I used to have a VW Corrado G60 with no boost gauge. I could not figure out why I began to have a loss in power. I checked the plugs, wires, reset the ECU, tried a few tanks of good gas, cleaned my air filter etc. and nothing worked. Then, while detailing the engine I realised that one of the boost tubes was loose. I reconnected it and the car came back to life instantly! Moral of the story......a boost gauge would have told me to check the tubes.

 

For engine safety? Oil Pressure, Oil Temp, and Wideband Airfuel would be at the top of my list. In addition to those I also track Intake temperatures, coolant temperatures, Manifold Pressure and the 4th varies, but usually ignition timing. I use a ScangaugeII to track the above variables, and have independent gauges for oil and airfuel.

 

I am just getting a 2008 MCS, and definitely want to put in two gauges, the only question is which two - I'd love to hear more recommendations. The MINI really is under-gauged.

The range of info avaialble through the OBD II connection looks like a good payoff, with display through a PLX DM-200 or something. The connection couldn't be easier.

After that, I really don't know. I've never had a turbo before, so the benefits of a boost gauge are unclear to me. I've also never had an Oil Pressure gauge, is the connection difficult?

I really don't expect to be heavily modifying the engine, so I also wonder if some of these could be over-kill (like the wide-band)?

 

Will think that having a Oil Temp gauge is great. But what are the option of installing the sensor? I always think that installing it below the oil tank isn't the best.

 

IMO, the best thing would be to add gauges for oil pressure and oil temp. Then get a ScanGaugeII to plug into the OBDII for coolant temp, boost, two other readouts of your choice. Unfortunately, the ScanGaugeII doesn't show oil temp or pressure. I'd like to have the oil gauges, but not sure how/where to connect them. I'm not keen on drilling and tapping holes in the engine or its components. The oil temp will tell you when the car is fully warmed up and ready for hard running.

 

My oil temperature sensor screws into the drain plug, my oil pressure sensor screws into the oil cooler I believe. No tapping or drilling anything. Call Danny at MINICorsa if you want to install gauges, he can get you all the parts you need, no drilling required.

Scangauge II is great, unfortunately the system bus is fairly slow, so OBDII can only track and update a few things at once. For Coolant temperature, and to a certain extent intake temperature, it doesn't matter, but tracking boost and timing can be tricky when it's only updating once a second. Unless you hold the car at that boost, you can't really tell.

The Scangauge also doesn't measure positive boost, it only measures manifold pressure. I've learned to just take whatever figure is on the gauge and subtract 14.3 from it in my head, but at first it's a bit daunting while driving to try to do math as you're heading down the main straight at 120 MPH .

 

A tangent on Oil temperatures. I actually drive 10-12 miles on the highway before my oil is warm enough to drive hard (175+). It takes a good 15-20 minutes to warm the oil up to 195-200. Those of you that hammer the throttle as soon as coolant goes to the middle, a word from the wise, DON'T! My coolant temps hit 160ish ("The middle") in about 4 minutes after starting the car. My oil is usually at about 85-90 degrees at this point. Your car will take at least 15 minutes to come up to temp enough to drive hard.

 

You can set up an XGauge which does the math ...

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=128221

 

My vote on the R56 continues to be the Water Temp and Boost. I also like the Oil Temp as my third choice. All gauges the car doesn't have.

The PLX gauges are another option if you want to cycle through multiple sensors.

Let me know if I can help!

 

what do you mean oem? MINI is coming out with a Gauge set?

 

Boost and water temp are what I'm planning to (eventually) add as well.

 

That's on an R53, right? On the R56 the drain plug is on the bottom of the pan, so anything that sticks out from it would be subject to being sheared off by road debris.

I don't see any oil gauges on Alta's web site, just boost, coolant, & exhaust temp. Who is making an oil gauges for the R56?

 

My SA mentioned they may some day. Not very definite though. She said it took them a long time to get them on the 1st gen cars. I don't know if that is true or not, I never payed attention to Mini's before I bought mine.

 

Read with more care

 

Me the same!

 

Yes, it's for an R53. Give Danny a call, he may have some ideas .

 

I am not going to wait for the OEM and just do it myself. The first generation OEM gauges were made by Stewart Warner. I just bought a set of them from Summit Racing and they look exactly the same as the R53 gauges, except without the "Cooper S" logo. They look to be a perfect match. I will use the Alta R56 gauge pods. Water temp and boost/vac. Water temp is the quickest indicator of a problem on the track because the oil temp and pressure signals are too slow to give fair warning compared to a water temp spike, plus the oil measurements have idiot lights as a backup.

 

The Stewart Warner gauges arrived yesterday and they are almost an exact replica of the stock tach. I haven't hooked them up yet to see the color match of the lighting, but in the day they are going to look VERY stock.

 

Make sure you post a pic so we can see. Interested in the same setup myself