1. Which of the two is needed more?
2. What is each useful for?

 

Don't know you can say one is "needed" more than the other, they're both pretty darn important. Put a gun to my head and I guess I'd say pressure is more important, because if it ain't circulating, it has no chance to do it's job...hot or cold.

Oil pressure is making sure that the oil is circulating all through the engine to lubricate all the vital parts that need it.

Oil temp is just that...how hot the oil is. If it gets too hot, it'll start to cook and lose it's effectiveness. But in normal driving, that shouldn't be an issue.

 

Yes.. Pressure #1 and temp #2.

 

for what it is worth the two most common gauges added/available are water temp and oil pressure (assuming a tach is already there). Water temp tells you if the cooling system is working and oil pres' tells you the 'blood' is pumping. Next after these two is an amp or volt gau' to tell you the chargeing system is working.

Look at the dash of a classic Cooper (which my classic is not) and that's what you'll usually find in the three dial pod

 

what about water temp? might that be as important?

 

Yes

 

regarding the boost gauge, i wonder is it really needed? i mean we all know when the R56 gives its max power... usually when overboost works at around 4000rpm am i right? (of course another reason to have a boost gauge is to be able to see if there is any loss of power/something going wrong with the turbo)

 

Oil pressure is like blood pressure.

Oil temp is like hematocrit. (look it up)...lol

Don't you just love another learning opportunity?

 

Although I am not that hip to Hippocrates, the hematocrit hies of hypocrisy. How can the PCV presume to present any theme of thermodynamics?
Would an abundance of vascular sludge be an analog for aged oil?
Or is this a red herring arising from linguistic sophistry aimed only to provoke our idle curiosity?

The world wonders...

Cheers,

Charlie