Well I'm trying to plot out what gauges I want in the car and I honestly don't want a christmas tree of gauges. The obvious ones since I will be tuning it are AFR and boost gauge. Other than that the next important ones would be oil pressure and fuel pressure, unsure which ones in my case would be more important over the next.

HOW important are they though? What situations would they avoid or help in?

 

Oil pressure will be more important to have visible from the driver's seat than fuel pressure. I would personally rather have an oil pressure gauge than a boost gauge, since you can read boost directly from the tuning software / MAP sensor. Most people with fuel pressure gauges leave them under the hood (this is how I have it), and it's most useful during diagnostics (am I getting fuel pressure?) and for setting an adjustable fuel pressure regulator up at the start of a tune. Catching an oil pressure drop may help save your motor if you let out / shut off quick enough. I have wideband, boost, and oil pressure gauges inside the car.

 

For any type of driving I would recommend a water temp gauge. The stock one is a dummy gauge that basically only tells you that you've already overheated.
For the rest, it depends what type of driving you do.

Oil Pressure: Only really necessary for track (circuit) use in my opinion. Long sweepers on sticky tires can cause some oil starvation if your baffling is not up to the challenge. You might be fine on some tracks and not good on others.
Fuel Pressure: Might just be my opinion, but I don't see this as necessary. If you have an adjustable FPR then one on the rail is fine for setting it. I run the stock FPR and rail for 300hp and don't need one.
Oil Temp: Again this is really only necessary for track (circuit) use. During track use water temp and oil temp don't always rise at the same rate since you're running more heat through the turbo.

Another option over multiple gauges would to be to run tunerview: Products ? TunerView Displays

 

‘I 2nd this, if it’s a performance engine making more power than stock, a oil gauge is vital. Having my oil gauge installed is what saved my *** from having more damage than I had last year when my oil pump went out. i run a Oil gauge .... a boost gauge and a wideband

 

I have an oil pressure, boost, and AF separate gauges. The only two I’m usually always peeking at is OP and AF.

but have you Considered to run a Tunerview or use the Tunerview app on your phone or have a dedicated tablet? If you do, you can buy some 100psi pressure transducers, and wire them in as (I think) analog inputs, and set them to what you want. I plan on adding a fuel pressure transducer right on the fuel rail and being able to read it via my tunerview. Along with all my other critical info.

just something to consider.

 

If I had to prioritize it would be:
1. Oil PSI
2. AFR
3. Boost
4. Water temp
Oil PSI being the "make or break" gauge. Thankfully you can also minimize those with combo gauges now. Boost/AFR can be had in a single gauge, Water temp/voltage....so either way you cut it, no more than 3 gauges are needed. You can also just do some sort of digital display to cover them all as well. Mechanical fuel gauges need to stay under the hood. An elec. fuel PSI guage w/ a sending unit could be an in cabin gauge, but as said earlier, no need really.

 

If you want to keep an eye on a bunch of different things without having a bunch of gauges all over I would recommend something like an AIM XML, you can also run an A/R sensor and wiring right to it.

The cool thing is that is basically replaces your cluster, it got MPH, RPM, every item you would want to keep an eye on and it also has built in shift lights you can set. By the time you buy a bunch of gauges a good setup like an AIM isn't that much more.

 

I have spun 2 sets of bearings. The idiot switch didn't even blink even thought bearings have been ground to nothing. Oil pressure is the most important gauge. Also water temperature gauge on oem cluster is pretty useless. But that reading is not so important since the ECU gets its readings from another sensor which is good enough.

 

Ok sounds good, thanks guys. Oil pressure, boost/vac, and AFR

 

You're talking about in-cabin accessories, so that narrows it down pretty decently.

Since you're tuning yourself, yes, the AFR gauge is important, but there are several companies that sell versions of the readout in a configuration that can be placed elsewhere in the car. I personally do not have one as my philosophy is a bit different than most here (just another gauge to read and can do nothing about other than shut the engine off, but I also have an amazing tuner/friend)

Boost pressure gauge (one that includes vacuum levels and not just positive boost pressure) is a must

Oil Pressure gauge is a must IMHO. And that's saved my turbocharger and my engine more than a few times.

Oil Temperature gauge is optional but I considering even more important than the air-fuel if you're running good boost pressure for longer periods of time, and if running any type of oil cooler. Again, IMHO
Water Temp Gauge - That's a bit more optional, but that's a good in-cabin gauge to have. Fuel pressure can be kept in the engine bay.
EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) gauge - Again, I'm the odd one out here, and rather old-school, but that gauge helps with tuning more than people think. It also helps against getting out and "checking plugs" all the time. That's why I found it so odd when others would ask why I would use that instead of pulling the plugs each time. My answer was.. "I was? I have an EGT gauge that tells me if I'm running a bit lean or rich on the leanest cylinder". I still have that gauge and use it to this day.

Again, I'm the odd duck, but there are systems that integrate multiple readouts into one gauge using a central brain to link the various sensors., but I find that many here are on the cheap when it comes to gauges.