Group,
Lots more discussion on gauges pro & con than I expected. Do you need
them? Yes! Can you read them going down the course? It depends on many
factors, your attention needs to be where it is needed most at the time.
I have been on runs where I got bored because of nothing important to
do, on others where I don't remember what I did because I was so
preoccupied with getting to the end of the run safely.
My suggestions come from experience in my car so they may not apply to
all.
1-Install what ever gauges you need to monitor the engines performance,
Oil press, Water temp, RPM, Oil temp, a good idea, (if you lose the
water suddenly the water temp may not be a good indicator) and as many
others as makes you confident that you know what is happening under the
hood.
2-Be sure the gauges are large enough for you to read.
3-Background color of the gauges can be a problem, I found out after I
made the purchase that a white background would have been a better
choice for my car. Its dark in a three window chopped coupe and awfully
bright on the outside of the windshield.
4-Make as many things automatic as possible. For instance, I have found
that an addition of a water temp switch to turn on the water pump has
been useful to me. If I'm are too busy to watch the temp, forgetting to
turn on the pump is not a problem. An ignition shutoff for low oil
pressure is also a great idea.
5-Of course warning lights are a great idea also.
6-The decision on installing gauges should not rest on whether or not
you think you can read them on the course. They tell you what you need
to know during warm-up in the pits, on the starting line, and who knows,
you may catch a glance of them while underway. Naturally, there is no
substitute for a recording device
if you can afford the luxury. As Keith has said, gauges are there to
"inform and warn" if you don't see it it doesn't help.
Tom, Redding CA
>
> Well we all seem to have different opinions as to whats nessesary so I
> might as well jump into the fray.
>
> Gages serve two purposes.... to inform and to warn
>
> example... Oil Pressure tells me when the motor is warmed up as well as when
> it's two quarts low.... also if I could get a motor to last long enough it
> could tell me a bit about Bearing wear over time.... ( use your imagination
> and find what RPM the Max oil pressure occurs and wear will make it occur
> later in some cars)
>
> So a warning Light displaces the need for a gage in some instances... like
> on the course ... I use a warning light to tell me to stop.... but in the
> pits I use the gage.
> it is hooked to both my Oil Pressure and my Water Temp.... I picked a real
> high Oil Pressure switch...( 50 PSI ) cause at RPM all the motors I have run
> are over that.
>
> As for the other Junk.... I like a Shift light to tell me when to shift and
> a tach when I am scooting down the track....
>
> I can't afford a Fancy computer set up so I went with the Best Tach I could
> find and it has Complete down load ability to a Printer which allows me to
> graph my runs.... Very interesting information is avalible from Time of the
> run to wheel slippage....
>
> Also since I don't have a Race Pac on board I installed a dual EGT gage
> which allows us to tell about how Lean or rich we are on the big end.... and
> stores Max temps of two cylinders. Great tuning device.... Personally I
> would rather have the race pac computer that is avalible with the EFI... and
> a couple of idiot lights... on course not much of this matters...
>
> All of the gages and lights are wired through a central console 6 pack of
> circuit breakers I bought at AutoZone
>
> Keith ( why I think we have electricity State )
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