I am getting ready to buy some guages and was wondering what you guys are using or recomend. I've heard that the aem wide band a/f guage is a good purchase (but a little expensive), and that defi guages are awsome. So thats what I was planning on buying, but don't know what I should get. I want an a/f guage, a boost guage, and an oil temp. guage, anyone got any othere recomendations? Also how is everyone mounting them (what kind of pods are you using), pillar pods streering column pods, what works the best? O by the way I drive a 2005 wrx wagon, so anything that would fit or look good in that would be exactly what I am looking for. thanks.

 

the defi gauges look almost spot on with the OEM gauges. i think defi even produces the stock gauge cluster for the STi. iirc, the defi link series requires you to guy a gauge controller (~$200) before you can use any of the gauges. (do some research, dont take my word for it.)

as far as gauge selection.... wideband O2 is useful if youre tuning (but very expensive). same goes for egt/pyrometer. a boost gauge is almost a necessity if you dont already have one. oil pressure would be a good buy, too. maybe a voltmeter if youre going to run a lot of stereo/lights/mics electronics.

 

guages its all what your doing. water temp, oil pressure, are great to have for a stock car that will remain that way. If your playing with a boost controler definetly go with the boost guage. Unless your tuning all the air/fule, and exhaust temp's will do is look purdy, cost money, make you look like a rookie and make you paranoied.
as far as pods, make your own!

http://web.njit.edu/~cas1383/proj/main/

 

AEM wideband is the best gauge to buy next to the boost. i cant tell people how many times ive seen noobs blow up a car without knowing what their afrs were (and those craptastic autometer fancy light ones dont count)

i can prolly get you one for 385 shipped if your interested, from a friend and one of my old sponsors from my last car.

 

So here is what I have heard. The AEM wideband is based off of your egt's. It is not a true AF ratio as I don't think it is connected to your engine management computer (I could be wrong on this as I don't have one). If you really want solid AF ratios, get the U-Tek piggy back unit. You can plug in your laptop and see exactly whats going on and correct it. As far as gauge's go, I have a Blitz SBC which gives me real time boost levels with playback and creep alarm. This has been placed in the center of and below my spedometer. I use the Perrin two pod gauge cluster which fits onto the steering column and holds and EGT and Oil Pressure gauge. I do all my tunning with PDX Tuning using a Ecu-Tek reflash.

If would like to hear how the AEM works - the above is just hearsay and I have heard their not worth the $$$.

 

well youre going to need an EMS regardless, the AEM is just there for you to monitor your AFRs.

the AEM comes with its own o2 sensor, which means your car will have to add another spot for an additional o2 sensor. the way the AEM works is, the same way as your stock o2 sensors.

the difference is, the AEM has a much broader range of voltage to read unlike your stock o2 sensors, which is why if you plug in a regular autometer AF gauge, it just bounces around all over the place.

picture the AEM as a much beefer stock system with better and more accurate measuring ability. EGT is EGT, the AEM is for AFR.

the AEM is not connected to your EMS in anyway, again, its just a tool to tell you how rich or lean you are running. However, if you have the AEM EMS as well, the AEM wideband gauge can connect to the EMS to provide data logging of your AFRs.

However, the AEM EMS is normally over 2k dollars. that is the EMS i w ill be using because when i go to Iraq my buddy who was a sponsor for my old car, is going to be doing a million things to the car, and he helped design some of the AEM EMSs, so he always uses that EMS if cost isnt an issue.

Most people i see with WRXs dont have the AEM EMS so in that case y ou wont be able to hook up the gauge to the EMS for logging.

To summarize, however, you need BOTH EMS and wideband. you dont have to have the AEM wideband but personally i like it the best of the ones ive seen. you need the wideband to tell your AFRs and you need the EMS to adjust them.

frankly you should have a crapload of gauges IMO when you start tunning and modding. i dont care if your tune is done by someone else, you should be knowledgable and have the monitoring capabilities in case something goes wrong. for example, you have your car tuned and you dont hav eany of your own gauges. one day your fuel pump dies, and your AFRs skyrocket, and your motor blows, all the while you have no idea except your car didnt seem like it was running that fast.

here is what i recommend (and it will run you some serious loot, maybe with gauge pods and evedything, even an inexpensive brand like autometer will run close to 1k dollars):

wideband gauge: for AFRS
elec fuel press gauge: for monitoring the FP in case of injector, fuel pump, or EMS screw ups
oil press gauge: oil leaks are common, youll want to know if your F/I car is leaking bad before your motor freezes
boost gauge: you need to make sure youre running the proper boost and you dont have a leak, etc
EGT gauge: if you have ALL of the other gauges, you could probably get away without this gauge, because readings on this gauge are more than likely going to be from other similar results, but if you have the space and the money its worth it.

i hope this helped you out...

 

I'm partial to the Omori gauges. They are almost a direct match to the stock gauges (lighting, needle color, labeling, etc) so they look great in the car. Depending on your install, they look factory. They're also very high quality meters and are known for being very accurate.

I got mine from www.j-spectuning.com

 

The AEM EMS won't work on our STI's because the STI's have an electronic throttle vs a cable type throttle. I have heard that its outstanding for the WRX though. A good friend from college is one of the race engineers for AEM drag and drift team. He can't say enough about it - IMO the best on the market.

 

never heard that, good info.