Which gauge would be more beneficial for a turbo setup, and what exactly does each tell you differently about the engine?

 

Oil temp of course.

Water temp isnt neccessary, compared to Oil..... rather know your oil temps, knowing what temperature the HOT oil is, the fluid which is running all OVER your motor and turbo.

 

You realize there's a water temp gauge on your dash... right???

 

Wellz, hmm realizing he got a teg...

Oil pressure you might be wanting to look into?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by MadCow &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You realize there's a water temp gauge on your dash... right???</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, but I messed with my cluster before and messed up the Fuel Gauge and am not sure whether I messed up the Water Temp Gauge also. I mean, the needle moves to the center of the gauge when the car warms up, but I havent overheated yet, so Im not certain that it still works. So in my case, which would you get?

 

both are vital.

I dont think one is more important than the other. Both can give a lot of information on the state of the motor.

If I had to choose, Id say water temp is more important to be able to view. If youre oil is running hot, then you can simply slow down and stop beating on the car. You cannot do that if your car is overheating, you need to stop driving it completely.

 

If I had to pick one for tuning purposes, I'd take the water temp. Providing that I didn't have any other way to measure and read coolant temps.

If I had to pick one for my daily driving and road racing purposes, I'd take the oil temp, but I'd like to have both for extended periods of track racing.

 

If the gauge moves to the middle of the temp. range, then chances are that it is working. Go with the oil temp gauge!!

 

Actually from a tuning standpoint water temp is more detrimental than oil temp. Both are good to have though.

 

Yeah, but what does each one tell you about the engine? Water temp = overheating and Oil = ???

 

Oil get to hot then the motor running to hot in extreme cases the oil will stop lubricating the engine causing mechanical failure.

Wondering mechanical or electric gauges reccomeneded got my eye on some autometer electrical gauges..

 

oil temp.. if your stock water temp gauge is working. but before oil temp, you want to have oil pressure.. oil temp will give an idea if your oil is right for temps.. oil pressure you can monitor for correct oil pressure.. , if you happend to have overall lower oil pressure, its better to see it on gauge before oil light.

 

Yeah Ive already got a boost gauge, definately gonna get oil pressure, and am gonna get one more. (EGT is too expensive for me right now) So its either oil or water temp.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by turbozxi &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Oil get to hot then the motor running to hot in extreme cases the oil will stop lubricating the engine causing mechanical failure.

Wondering mechanical or electric gauges reccomeneded got my eye on some autometer electrical gauges.. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I think electrical is better, cuz you dont have to worry about having fluids running and potentially leaking on the inside of your car. Also you dont have to deal with the line getting kinked. Its only about $12 more anyways.

 

For oil temp definetly go with the mechanical. No oil goes to the gauge, but it is a pretty thick element that needs to pass through the firewall to the sensor that gets placed in the pan. I hate the standard autometer electronic gauges cause they arent full sweep......blows. Each tick is like 25 degrees of variation, not very accurate if you ask me. All the mechanical are full sweep. You need to pay an extra 100 bucks for the electronic full sweep and at that point you might as well buy an Apex or greddy gauge.
I decided on an oil temp just because I spun a rod bearing before from starting the engine cold when using a 20w50 oil and then continuing on to do a second gear burnout. Thats my only reason.