Hi All

I'm hoping to begin the build of my R1 trackday toy in the not too distant future.

In the mean time, I'm planning and budgeting and my attention has turned to the dash. I already have a Veypor VR2 which will take care of Speed, RPM, gear etc. What I am now looking at is monitoring water temp and oil pressure.

The choice is: do I go for an SPA dual guage at circa 140quid or two warning lamps at 40 quid. I obviously don't want the engine to go bang, but at the same, time, the car will be all about keeping weight, cost and complexity down to a minimum.

Your thoughts please....

I'd prefer gugages - they tel you much more rather than too got or not type of info. - maybe a 6-10 of LEDS?

I don't have a bec (yet!) but on my present car I have an SPA dual Water Temp, Oil Pressure Gauge that uses capillary rather than electrics.
This means a more accurate reading and in the case of water temp, will give you a live reading with the ignition off.

TimC

I have just fitted SPA dual oil temp/ pressure and capillary water gauge. But, as the car is a hillclimb car, I won't have time to look at these! So, what I've done is wired in two LED warning lamps -
oil temp / pressure - triggered by the SPA gauge and programmable - the SPA gauge would allow me to check max and min pressure and temperatures at the end of a run.

And, water temp - triggered by the ECU and also programmable.

What that means is that I have only four lights to worry about - two greens (shift and neutral) and two reds (oil and water).

Regards

Wyn

For any serious track car I'd say it's essential to have a waring light , preferably a dirty great big & very bright one, for oil presssure - you don't get much chance to look at a guage particularly in the corners when surge is most likey.

quote:

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Originally posted by lsdweb
And, water temp - triggered by the ECU and also programmable.
Wyn

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My vote goes for the SPA gauges too, they have two programmable LED warning lights on them, as well as two further external warning LED feeds as Wyn has used, so you get the best of both worlds.

Warning lights alone are of limited use on their own because low oil/water temperature is as bad as high. Also, with only a warning light you need to be 100% sure they are actually working every time you drove the car (what happens if a wire chafes for example?), whereas with gauges you can visually see things are all Ok even if the lights never come on.

[Edited on 20/5/06 by ChrisGamlin]

TimC

My ECU has a facility to control a fan - as I have no fan, I'm controlling the warning light from that. No good if I needed a fan as well though

Regards

Wyn