Gauges

[white4d96]

My friend gifted me a volt meter, so we made a little 'pod' out of the cubbyhole in the center of the dash. It's the perfect spot for some gauges. I'm thinking about putting in an oil pressure and oil temp gauge. Thoughts?

[WhatTheFehl]

My friend gifted me a volt meter, so we made a little 'pod' out of the cubbyhole in the center of the dash. It's the perfect spot for some gauges. I'm thinking about putting in an oil pressure and oil temp gauge. Thoughts?

 

I've always thought that if I ever put some sort of boosted engine in a 94-96 Grand Prix, I would put three gauges there: boost pressure, oil pressure and trans temp.

[white4d96]

Same here, but I figure a trans temp gauge won't really be useful in a basically stock car. When I bought the car they attributed the first motor's demise to loss of oil pressure (I'm thinking snapped cam?) so I figured that would be useful, same with temp. I would love to get a water temp gauge that's more accurate than the stock one, but it doesnt really make sense to have two of them.

[skitchin]

I started doing this! I got a bit stuck on the design though. I had just sort of dived in trying to make it - picked up a cheap sheet of abs plastic and got a hole saw drill bit. TBH where I got stuck was how how to keep it all in place. Also, doesn't seem like you could get more than 2 gauges in there. Might play around with some stuff here in a few, got the day off

 

Edit: Btw, thought it were worth mentioning that I managed to add an oil pressure sensor + keep stock low pressure sensor to keep the dummy light working.

[intern8tion9l]

i'm a big fan of oil psi and coolant temp guages

[BXX]

You iz OBD2, what the hell you need add on gauges for?!?

 

You could get real cool with a cheap scantool interface for PC and datalog like a pimp.

 

Orrr, just get an Aeroforce gauge or whatever it is and your'll all set.

[white4d96]

Skitchin where did you tap into for oil? I was mulling a filter adapter but if you have a better setup...

[white4d96]

You iz OBD2, what the hell you need add on gauges for?!?

 

You could get real cool with a cheap scantool interface for PC and datalog like a pimp.

 

Orrr, just get an Aeroforce gauge or whatever it is and your'll all set.

 

Aeroforce doesn't support our cars just the 97+. andi like how traditional gauges look.I'm trying to make this look semi stock

[BXX]

Your interior is painted and the car says Angry Prix on the back, it's far from stock:lol:

 

 

Just bustin your balls:thumbsup:

[white4d96]

I so saw that coming like 2 seconds after I posted it

[skitchin]

Skitchin where did you tap into for oil? I was mulling a filter adapter but if you have a better setup...

 

The stock dummy sensor is on the front of the motor right next to the oil filter. I just used a 1/4" NPT tee adapter and sealed the shit out of the threads.

[skitchin]

Btw I was fooling around and it seems like you could really only get two gauges in that center cubby hole. Even then I think this gauge I have will be a squeeze. Only other gauges I can think to add would be transmission temp, voltage, and amps. I'd be happy just to get this damn thing in place >_<

 

[Venom]

I once toyed around with the idea of running gauges in that cubby hole too. You could get three gauges to fit in there but you would have to fiberglass the front of the cubby there so the gauges would be more forward and then cut out some of the plastic behind it. In the end I did a 3 gauge pillar but even that grew old and I got rid of it.

[skitchin]

Something like this? Would definitely go abs plastic vs transparent.

 

 

Also, while looking around for that I found this bad ass little switch panel

[white4d96]

That's kinda what I did with mine. It's a frosted plexi insert with a hole cut in it for the gauge. I'm mulling backlighting the plexi with LED's or just painting it.

[skitchin]

Pics? Curious how it's all held in there, if you used the stock back piece etc. Need to get mine mounted before it gets broken.

[white4d96]

I took the back piece out and epoxied the plexi in its place. I'll grab pics next chance I get.

 

As far as securing the gauge, mine came with this weird clamp-style mount that I stuck on it behind the plexi to secure it.

 

 

I took the clamp off that mounting bracket and stuck that to the gauge.

[Venom]

That Grand Am GT panel is bad ass! I wonder how they made it?

[white4d96]

So oil pressure is one gauge I want to put in, what about oil temp or trans temp? One person on another forum suggested oil temp was ricey, but I don't foresee trans temp being an issue on a stock motor, especially if/when I put this 282 in...

[Venom]

Volts? Its pretty much that or trans temp.

[jake91]

That Grand Am GT panel is bad ass! I wonder how they made it?

 

the guy got the cassette cubby out of a 99 ga, then had a peice of plexi cut out to size, painted it black, laser engraved it so light would shine through, and tapped into the cig lighter for the backlight

Edited November 16, 2011 by jake91

[white4d96]

Have a volt meter, although I'm considering replacing it. So just volts and oil pressure? No oil temp? I was considering getting the oil temp gauge to monitor for cold starts and if I ever get this car done and take it autocrossing.

[AL]

I would do trans temp before oil temp

[skitchin]

Could be wrong but I imagine the oil temp would be somewhat close to water temp. Most head-units have a built in display for voltage as well, making an extra gauge redundant - though a stand-alone gauge would probably be more accurate. Transmission temp would be a good one though - gotta take it easy on a transmission when it's cold too! Either way, I couldn't think of more than 3 gauges you'd need for a N/A motor.

[white4d96]

I'll probably just stick with volts and oil pressure for now then.