Ok, I'm thinking about adding some gauges to my N/A Cooper as I'm planning to do some serious mods in the future, and my choice would go to oil temp and oil pressure for start. anything else I might need? I've seen some fitting a water temp gauge, but isn't there one already in the MINI? Maybe not perfectly precise, but still, it does its job, no?

What about a vacuum gauge, might need it? Or is it better to fit an exhaust gas temp?

What about voltmeter and fuel pressure, are they that useful?

What gauges have the most OEM look, so that they don't clash with the interior of the car? And which are the best quality ones?

Finally, how to fit these gauges in the MINI. I have a ScanGauge II already, and I fit it under the central dash, so I'd like to fit the gauges near the rev indicator, in front of the steering wheel. Two of them can go there for sure. The other two, I might use the OEM bracket and fit them where now is my SCangauge, but then where could I place it? Suggestions, anyone?

 

All of the gauges you listed are useful if you watch them and record or remember patterns.. all of them are useful for diagnoses when something goes wrong.

Battery dies... did you know that there are several ways your alternator can die that will not turn on your alt red light? A voltmeter will tell you instantly that your alt has died while you still may have enough power in your bat to get home or somewhere else.

Car won't start. Is the fuel pump running? The fuel pressure gauge will tell you.

Just a couple of examples of when a gauge can save you a lot of time and trouble.

YD

 

Yeah, I know that all of them are useful, but since I won't fit all of them at the same time, I was wondering what the best order would be... After all, some should be MORE useful than others...

 

I've mounted the Scangauge in the roof.
It's too slow for close monitoring anyway but good for water and inlet air temp. The 1st generation Mini does not give fuel pressure to the Scangauge, at least I don't see it.

From Innovate I've got the exhaust gas temperature and boost. I may add a lambda in the near future.

I also have got the OEM oil temp and voltage.

Oil temp is essential to see when you can put the pedal to the metal, the rest is nice and to diagnose faults and improvements with.

I'm having the M7 Aerogel heatshield for my watercooled intercooler soon. The scangauge will tel me if the temperature of the intake air will be lower after parking a warm engine for 10 minutes. Not essential but nice to know.

 

Sorry to go off topic, but 2BeeMini2 where did you get that tach face?

 

Interesting place to put the ScanGauge How did you do the wiring from there? Not that there is much wiring to do, but still...

As for the other gauges you have, I like how they look! Well, those near the rev indicator, anyway.

 

I think it's the GP one

 

That's what i thought, but he does not have a GP. I thought GP parts where hard to get without a vin. Just curious.

edit: Never mind. I guess it pays to read,

 

I was wondering is it better an electrical gauge or a mechanical one? Which kind is more rpecise, fast responding, and such?

 

basically imho, if you want mechanical gauges w/ oem look, you can have a maximum of 4; 2 by the tach and 2 at the bottom of the center console. having too many gauges that're not really necessary makes your car look like an airplane cockpit. for me (mcs), the desirable gauges are boost, oil pressure, oil temperature, and water temperature. i'm not sure how accurate our oem water temp gauges is; in some cars it's basically cold, good, and overheat. if so, a real water temp gauge would be useful. but really the only one i want is the boost gauge, and mostly for fun

 

+1 I've been wondering about the exact same question.

 

I was thinking along the lines of 4 by the tach to leave space at the bottom of the center console for the Scangauge, otherwise I dunno where to place it. After all, the Scangauge gives me already water temp and voltage, so those are two gauges I don't need,

The Craven pod should allow me that, I've seen it has modules to fit two gauges on either side of the tach...

I was thinking about fitting oil temp and pressure for now and later on, once I've done some other modifications to the engine, EGT and vacuum to check how the intake system works. (and also because it's the nearest to a boost gauge I can get keeping the engine N/A )

 

There's no inherent benefit to either electrical or mechanical gauges as far as accuracy, precision or response time goes. Obviously, things like voltmeters, ammeters, air/fuel meters and temperature gauges will always be electrical. The choice between electrical and mechanical is generally just for boost/pressure gauges.

The big advantage to an electrical gauge is that you're only running wiring between the engine compartment and the gauge rather than capillary tubing, which can kink (leading to inaccurate readings) or leak fluids into the interior of your car (for this reason, you should ALWAYS use an electrical gauge for fuel pressure if the gauge is going to be inside your car). The size of the sender for an electrical gauge can sometimes make the installation a little harder, though.

The big disadvantage to electrical gauges is that the needle usually doesn't have as wide of a swing. As an example, here's a mechanical pressure gauge:



and here's an electrical pressure gauge:




You can see that for the electrical gauge, there's only about a 90° swing, while the mechanical gauge has about a 270° swing. The electrical gauge also costs a little more (about $65 versus $45).

There *are* "full-sweep" electrical gauges, but they tend to be a LOT more expensive:



That full-sweep electrical gauge is about $200.

 

Interesting response, ScottRiqui! Thanks!

 

Ok, I think I've figured out what gauges I'll want to fit. for now I've ordered SW oil temp and oil pressure, later I think I'm going to fit EGT and vacuum (not so useful but it's the nearest I can get to a boost gauge on a N/A Cooper ). Now my "problem" is about the AFR. I'm getting a custom header from Juston, I'm sure many of you know about those, and he suggested to fit a wideband port. Now, this piqued my interest and I've done some research on the available widebands AFR on the market. My choice is restricted to the Innovate LC-1 and the Zeitronix Zt-2 wideband controllers.

My doubt lay in what these two setups will allow me to monitor. In fact, the LC-1 can be connected to an OBD scanner like the DashDyno, allowing it to show wideband AFR along with the other features already in it (http://www.dashdyno.net/ if you don't know about it). With this solution, I'll have to purchase EGT and vacuum gauges, and fit them near the steering wheel with the craven speed Quadpod, the effect would be something like this:



plus a digital display under the central dash, positioned like this (the ScanGauge I have now):



The Zeitronix instead can be purchased with its own display, an EGT probe, and a boost sensor, which would allow me to mount the display under the central dash, monitor those three important values in one single display, and have only two gauges near the steering wheel. However, this would require removal of the ScanGauge/DashDyno, and I'd prefer to keep it because it can show voltage, water temp, IAT and many other things. If I keep it, though, I'd have a second display to fit, and the only place I can think for it on the dash, near the speedometer, and that would make it look a bit messy...

What would be your advice?