Gauge Pods, and aftermarket gauges to fit

neutral · Post by **neutral** » July 4th, 2005, 8:59 pm

Hmm, maybe i'm just having a brain fart but still looks like PSI has the same product offering as gaugepod.com. I only see the triple pod for MX's w/auto seatbelts and only the double pod is described for manual seatbelt fitment. Am I missing something obvious?

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 4th, 2005, 9:25 pm

neutral wrote:Hmm, maybe i'm just having a brain fart but still looks like PSI has the same product offering as gaugepod.com. I only see the triple pod for MX's w/auto seatbelts and only the double pod is described for manual seatbelt fitment. Am I missing something obvious?

Sorry Jim, just noticed the auto seatbelt qualifier in small print. Very strange why a Canadian outlet would be selling an accessory item that's only good for the US market....very strange....think I'll send them a query.

FIMotorMX-3 · Post by **FIMotorMX-3** » July 5th, 2005, 12:10 pm

My gauges are just led style digital gauges, they aren't indiglo style. The gauges are lit all the time once my ignition is on. Certain gauges use sending units, depending on what gauges you are using. For the oil pressure unit, up near your front exhaust manifold near your alternator, you'll see a single wire spade connection. That connection is your stock oil pressure sending unit (it activates the dumby light that lets you know your oil is low). You have to unscrew that connection and install the sender unit that is specific to your brand gauges. I believe I used some teflon tape on that particular sender to avoid leaks. You have to be careful though because not all senders require teflon. You can't use teflon on water temp guages because it will screw up the reading. The instructions you get with your gauges will be more specific with that. Water temp is located on the passenger side of the car. On the coolant neck, where your coolant filler cap is, you will see three screwed in plugs. The one with the single wire spade connection is your sender for that unit. That will disable your temp gauge in your cluster making it read a constant cold. Air/Fuel can be either installed to your ecu or to your O2 sensor. Since I ran all my sender wiring into the engine bay, I tapped into the blue wire on the rear O2 sensor. Hopefully that helps you out. I'm not sure what other gauges you got besides the oil pressure but that's how my setup is run. Power and ground are the easiest. LOL, the senders get a little tricky but once you get through the dash and past the firewall, hooking them up isn't tough at all. You might want to remove your Radiator shroud and intake duct across your radiator to get to the oil pressure sender also... Clearance is tight, and you will be missing some skin on your knuckles trying to remove and reinstall, but it has to be done. Don't reuse stock senders.

MHMX-3 · Post by **MHMX-3** » July 5th, 2005, 2:23 pm

the blue wire was easy to spot for the o2 sensor. For the oil pressure gauge, i think i found the wire you were talking about. The head of the connector of the wire to the car is black, and when taken off, the piece from the car is a small rectangle with a hole in it. I was not sure if this was the wire i needed, so i turned the key to the on position, where all the warning lights on the right of the cluster go on, and the engine check light on the left is on. when i do this, and remove the wire that i was previously talking about, the oil pressure dummy light goes off. and when i put it back, it goes back on, like the rest of the lights on the right. so with these tests, do i have the right wire?

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 5th, 2005, 3:28 pm

FIMotorMX-3 wrote:Don't reuse stock senders.

Any reason why one can't reuse an old sending unit in the future? Also, I noticed that you made no mention of using "T" connections. For my purposes, I intend in tapping into the applicable sending units by using a "T" connection and thereby retaining all the functionality of the OEM guages (sort of a back-up) to verify/confirm the integrity of my own handi-work. I sometimes don't trust my own skills.

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 5th, 2005, 6:30 pm

MHMX-3 wrote:so with these tests, do i have the right wire?

Yes

Jim and Eric, here's the straight poop from PSI Tuning wrt the tripple guage pillar.

Hi John,
Yes the automatic seatbelt mx3 was only sold in the states.
However the gaugepod is very similar, there is only a small slice
removed at the side which leave the seatbelt slider go up and down.
When you install them to a regular seatbelt mx3, the rubber that goes
along the pillar hides it well. So it still fit great, we sold dozens of
those for regular seatbelt mx3.
Thank you,

Pat Toulouse
President & Sales Manager
Performance Street-Import Tuning Ltd.
sales@psituning.ca http://www.psituning.ca

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » July 5th, 2005, 7:11 pm

Thanks John.. It'll be a 4-5 months before I get to that stage.. but good to know that I can make one of those work.. I dont like the 3 gauge pillar with the humongous tach in it. Cheers

Tunes67

neutral · Post by **neutral** » July 5th, 2005, 8:03 pm

Hey thanks for getting that info and passing that on John.

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 5th, 2005, 10:34 pm

Tunes67 wrote:Thanks John.. It'll be a 4-5 months before I get to that stage.. but good to know that I can make one of those work.. I dont like the 3 gauge pillar with the humongous tach in it. Cheers
Tunes67

Does this mean I have missed something again? I thought all three mounting ports in the tripple guage pods would all take the exact same size guage (2 1/16"). Eric, what do you mean with the humongus tach?

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » July 5th, 2005, 10:43 pm

I have seen 3 gauge A pillar pods that have 2 small gauge ones and 1 huge openning for the oversized tach. In fact.. when I first started researching gauges for my car.. those and the 2 gauge A pillar pods where the ones that kept showing up on searches. I found one 3 gauge A pillar Pod (probably that one from psituning you checked up on) but it was advertised for cars with the automatic seat belts. And I didnt know it would work for my car.. Thats when I gave up on the A pillar gauge pod and decided to make the gauge panel for under my stereo. Now I am getting greedy and want both

Tunes67

MHMX-3 · Post by **MHMX-3** » July 5th, 2005, 11:51 pm

wired everything up to the oil pressure gauge i just got into my new a pillar pod with three gauge holes. looks amazing. the only problem im having is that the aftermarket oil pressure sender, that sends information to the gauge, wont screw into the area where the stock signal was sent. the aftermarket oil pressure sender comes in 1/8 size, and also has a 1/4 adapter. these are both npt size. so since it doesnt fit, what do i need to do? im so close to being finished!

FIMotorMX-3 · Post by **FIMotorMX-3** » July 9th, 2005, 12:00 am

Sorry guys, due to a death in my family, I'm 800 miles away from my car and my comp. As for the question on the sender threading, I'm not quite sure what the tread size is. The tread on my sender was the correct size and it had two other adapters but I had no need for them. The only thing I could think of is to go to a plumbing supply store. with both the old sender and new one and try to find an adapter to fit. I'm sure that there is someone there that could find something to work. Drain your oil a little because you will get some leaking out of that hole if you leave it unplugged. As for reusing the old sender, senders have to be brand and guage specific. Brands may calibrate their senders a little differently so if you don't use the sender specific to that brand gauge you are using, you may get inaccurate info. As for using t or y connections to gain another bung, I'm assuming that could be done. I did a search on that topic when I was installing my gauges and the idea has been tossed around. I eventually decided against it because I was in too much of a rush to get the job done. There is also a clearance problem with both senders and I chose to just eliminate the stock units for ease of installation. I'm sure it's possible to fit adapters but it's going to take a little finesse to get them in there and with my short temper, I would probably have thrown the adapters through my windshield before I actually got them installed. lol, but that's just me. Goodluck and please let me know how things are going. I'm glad to help when I can. I may not reply too much in the next few days because I'm busy with family and not using my own computer so I'm not on as often as usual.

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 9th, 2005, 2:19 am

Years ago I would source those types of items through aeroquip. I think they're still in business. I used a number of aluminum (anondized blue) aircraft fittings to create my own psuedo "T" fitting for my Ducati's external oil cooler using 10mm pipe thread.

MHMX-3 · Post by **MHMX-3** » July 9th, 2005, 11:53 am

ok guys. this is an emergency. I have the gauge installed in the pod, and the lighting works on it. it looks amazing, and its so close to being done. All i need to do is find a way to screw the sender into where the stock sender was. Earlier many people said that I need a 10 mm bspt male fitting to a 1/4 female npt. Let me explain the problems im having with that. First, the 1/4 female npt size is only available to screw into with having that size adapter already screwed into the aftermarket sender, on the male size. In other words, the aftermarket sender from auto meter begins with a 1/8 npt, and then you have an available choice of screwing in a 1/4 female adapter if that fits your model. With that in mind, there is no way, even with a prayer, that another adapter (this 10mm bspt male fitting) would have enough clearance from the oil galley that the stock sender screws into, to the a/c fan gaurd on the front of the car. Just with the single 1/4 npt adapter on the aftermarket oil pressure sender, I had to remove the guard to see if it could fit. So, when I called mcmaster.com, and asked if they had anything that resembled a 10mm bspt male fitting, to either a 1/4 npt (with the adapter on the pressure sender) or a something that would work with the 1/8 npt size already on the sender, they said that this did not exist. Not just the size, but literaly British Standard Pipe Threads does not come in a 10 mm fitting. Earlier, this forum decided that that was the size needed for the adapter to connect to the pressure sender. If this doesnt exist, and the lady that I spoke to said that it didnt, "In America", then is the size wrong, or am I just SOL. PLEASE HELP!

FIMotorMX-3 · Post by **FIMotorMX-3** » July 10th, 2005, 11:18 am

I'm sorry but I'm not sure what I can tell you that will help right now besides plumbing supply stores. Someone who deals with fittings day in and day out would have a better recommendation for this situation. I am going to forward this Forum to a friend on this site. I know he has Autometer Gauges in his MX-3 and from what I can remember, I think he may have the Oil Pressure gauge. Hopefully he might have a recommendation that will a cure all solution for ya.... He has helped me out a ton with my ze swap. I'll also try calling him when I get a chance. It's worth a shot.