Hello I'm a little new to the honda thing but not about cars. I have a question an was hoping I could get some peoples oppinion. I have a 2000 civic si. Its got a couple nice mods to it. I like to drive it fast an hit the vtec every now an then. Not like I beat it but you know like to get on her a little. Lol but my buddy gave me a instrument bezzel with the 2 gauge pods. I need help figuuring out what gauges to get. Now my car I guess is burning oil. It doedsnt leak or smoke but I checked my oil 2000 miles after oil change and it was bone dry. So should I get a oil pressure gauge and what eles? Please help me thanks

 

Oil pressure gauge and a wideband but I doubt your going to want to get a wideband

 

if he dont get a wide band as many other domestic gauges have is a volt meter to tell when ur alternator or batterys dead. a widebands no use unless u have F/I

 

Volts and Oil pressure.

 

O really?

So me having a wideband and AEM gauge on my built H22 swap is pointless since I am N/A? Widebands are used for tuning. Not just for F/I.

OP, Oil pressure, oil temp, volt, would all be fine.

 

get a plx dm6 and you can have em all in one gauge. its pretty sweet.

but i will say finding a place for the modules can be a pain.

widebands are super useful N/A or F/I.

 

X2

 

get a vtec gauge

 

Oil pressure is always a good idea, I would reccomend choosing that as your first gauge.

For the second, I usually choose vacuum (or vac/boost if you plan to go FI), voltage or wideband AFR. It all depends on what your future plans are for the car, if any.

I have oil pressure, vac/boost and voltage at the moment. I find the vacuum gauge very useful for monitoring the health of the motor without busting out the compression tester. Although the gauge is no replacement for a compression test, it's still a useful thing to monitor.

On the other hand, the voltage meter has saved me from being stranded on the side of the road when my alternator died. It went from 14v to 12v on my way to work, which allowed me to turn around and park the car before the battery died, preventing a jump, tow, or both.

On a stock vehicle, the wideband will not be of much use to you on a daily basis unless you plan to do your own tuning.

 

Would likely be pointless here, but they are useful N/A or F/I

Volts, oil pressure.

 

useful on something Highly built N/A but most honda motors are weak N/A without about 5k put into it and most people dont go this route. Widebands are mainly for tuning ... you can monitor with one but those sensors are not cheap to replace and run all the time. i have an old Innovative LC1 that i use time to time i dont run it constantly. as you should also know just because ur AFR's are good dont mean the tunes good.

 

Thank you guys for all of your responds an imputs. Couple questions on this. What is a wideband? And no use without a f/I? Sorry like I said I'm kind of new to the honda thing. Is their such thing as a vtec gauge lol? What does a vacum gauge actully tell you about? And as for being stock, my car has a aem fuel rail, aem v2 intake, high performance fuel pump, full greddy exhaust. Idk is that has to do with anything. Thank you guys for all your help!

 

What about a fuel to air gauge

 

A fuel to air ratio gauge is also known as a wideband.

 

No there's not really a vtec gauge lol. A vacuum/boost gauge will only tell you engine vacuum since your NA. A wideband tells you your A/F ratio and is used for tuning,as said for your set up you don't really need it. F/I=forced induction

No not if your not talking about a wideband

I'm pretty sure he's talking about one that's not a wideband, in that case they don't tell you anything accurate

 

As everyones saying, just get oil pressure and volts

 

I agree and feel that these two gauges would be the most beneficial under your current circumstances.

 

If you're talkin about those BS narrowband lightshow gauges then save your money. They tell you NOTHING.

 

APC indiglo boost gauge and Autometer 10" tach

 

Make your car like this. Notice the tach goes up to 10k RPM...which is AWESOME!!!



OR this....

 

A wideband is a Air/Fuel ratio monitoring device. They generally come as a gauge/sensor combo. It's another oxygen sensor that you install in your exhaust. The stock sensor reads rich or lean, and switches between them quickly while cruising to try to maintain good gas mileage (generally 14.7-1 AFR). A wideband reads between 10:0-1 and 20:0-1 (depending on the brand), it provides more detailed information about the air/fuel ratio for tuning.

No. VTEC is either on or off, so if anything it would basically just be a light that turned on. But there would be no point since you can usually clearly hear when VTEC kicks in.

It tells you how hard the engine is sucking, literally. When my car warms up, without the brake pressed, it pulls around 22 in/hg of vacuum at idle. If this ever drops below 19, I know to check for problems.

Not really. Bolt-ons don't make a huge difference other than noise, so you probably won't need to tune it if that's what you're asking.

 

I kind of feel sorry that you've spent $1000s on your car and didn't get any real performance gain. Fuel rail and the fuel pump did 0 for your car.

The intake and exhaust are debatable. On a 1.6L you might have picked up 4-5whp on the top end, while losing some in the middle.

Is that worth $1000? (Time, parts, install)

The $200+ you'll spend on gauges is wholly unnecessary as well, but it's your money.

If it were me, I would be concerned with oil pressure and oil temperatures. But I'm not.

 

You forgot the VTEC stickers on the side of the car....which adds 4-6HP, unproven of course. LOL

 

 

I apologize for any confusion I might have caused. I was referring to this.