Where are you mounting your gauges?
 

I just ordered an LC1 from our friend WOT. Now I cant decide where I should mount the gauges. I want it to be visible, to me, but it shouldnt attract outside attention. Right now I am thinking of putting the boost and afr on the steering column in mounting cups.

Is anyone doing this? Maybe post a picture? I just dont know yet how much of the speedo and tach it will obstruct so I havent ordered the cups yet.But I figure I can get the line of sight just right the gauges will fall into the middle of the empty space of the tach and speedo.

The other place is the A-Pillar but that attracts attention, and I like my eyeball vents. I also dont want to attach them like mickey mouse ears to the gauge cluster hood.

Suggestions?

I put mine in the vents.

I put them on my keychain, I'm cool like that.

How do you get the wiring to them is my next question.

there's enough space between the duct and dash to fit anything you need.

yep who needs hvac on your face when you have info :rofl:

What about the gages at good win that mount in your center console? http://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda...ml?id=QVAoU3w8

i had a mechanical boost gauge so i had to cut a hole in the duct to run the hose though, just used a utility knife to do so.

As much as the a-pillar is an attention getter, the line of sight for important gauges doesn't get any better so I'd re-consider putting them there. Gauges in vents, console, dash certainly look good, but require you to glance down vs. a-pillar. Just a thought.

Savington uses mounting cups like that. I use a 3 gauge single din mount. They're $20 on ebay shipped and they angle the gauges toward the driver.

I had a little difficulty getting the braided thermocouple wire for my EGT gauge through. If you notch the big part of the eyeball surround it will free up some space.

A pillar is gonna be to much for attention man. I live in NY, I sometimes park my car on the street. Brightly lit gauges will just attract the wrong crowd on the street, and unessesary curiosity when its parked.

Thats great on an NB xcept it would be to low on my car to be useful. Plus its going to be a bitch to mount my radio with it because id need a new kit.

I need savington to post some pics of where he has his.


This is my second option if the steering column doesnt work out, at least its visible to me and relatively unvisible to people from the outside.

He doesn't have them on the steering column though.
https://www.miataturbo.net/diy-turbo-discussion-14/my-less-than-traditional-gauge-setup-12340/
He already posted pictures.

I have my boost gauge in the a-pillar, single DIN.

you'd have no clue it was there without trying hard to find it:

https://www.miataturbo.net/~web1_bra...yno_Day035.jpg

most boost gauges are simply backlit with a cheap ass bulb, they don't stand out in any way, hell mine's green and on my dimmer so It almost looks stock.

the AFR gauge, since it's LED and bright is on my eyeball just below. It's a good spot for quick checks but out of the way enough not to be annoying.

Hmm. Maybe you are right. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it would.

How did you run the wires to the gauges? through the pillar or did you come out of the hole on the side of the dash.

Oh right, I have seen his before then. Good idea but I think thats just to obvious.

The other reason why I like the column, it would be easy to look at the RPM and AF at the same time for tuning purposes.

The power and vacuum line both slip between the dash and windshield area, they not visible in the least. I think what i did was route them under the dash and back up around the out side and poked them back with a screwdriver behind the plastic trim. Something like that, its really easy the fish the wires, too long ago to remember exactly.

Just get rid of your HVAC and radio and replace the whole center console with this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cessn...QQcmdZViewItem

Why are you linking me to ebay auctions when I can just ask you to bring me one back from your next rotation at sea.

Alright, ill give that some more thought once I get the gauges. Ill kinda just hold them in the various locations and see what I like most.

If you want a really clean console install, consider the item below. It comes in black as well so it will blend in with your console and not be as attention getting as the stainless version. Also has two gauge versions as well as stereo on top or bottom.

http://www.ddmworks.com/Miatastore/s...surrounds.html

http://www.ddmworks.com/Picture_032.jpg

Actually, our gauges pretty much look just like that.

Oh yea, now thats sexy. But for 80 dollars it better come with a blow job otherwise I think ill pass. Dont get me wrong, the din below the stereo is a great place for gauges but only for gauges that dont change frequently or require frequent monitoring.

Im starting to like the A Pillar idea more because I don't have to put holes in my steering column plastics to mount gauges, the less holes the better.

Eventually im just gonna get a 3 pod a-pillar mount.
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This is offtopic but its my thread and I can hijack all I want, but how do you guys get the signal lines for the gauges into the cabin. I kinda looked around for a similar plug on the right like on the left and didnt find one. Only thing remotely like it was a big old fatty grommet with wires running through it and it was molded around the wires, i think.

edit: Just realized I should have made this thread into a poll. Damnit.

edit 2: Can someone with pillar mounted gauges post a picture of your setup if you dont mind. Thank You.

Hi Sam - I fished my oil temp line through a grommet on the firewall behind the ABS unit, under the carpet, and along the AC ducting under the dash.

It was kind of a PITA to get started through, but otherwise piece of cake.

//edit, and I put the OTG in the left center eyeball vent. Boost (when and if) will go in the right center eyeball. WB, I figure on making a LED bar indicator, 1/2"x1", sticking it somewhere REALLY obvious.

Pillar gauges suck dick. I hated mine.

Why?
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Nothing says rice, or pull me over more then a-pillar gauges.

I think I am going to fiberglass 2 pods onto the gauge console surround. Maybe redo the entire thing in CF with my SAE team. I have a spare anyways, probably going to do it on that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0PF0hQBAaY

look at my single pod. really, is it that "rice?!"

give me a break....



you can see my wideband guage just below as i rapidly spin the wheel.

What would be nice is if someone made something like this for the Miata.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/96-97...spagenameZWDVW
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Same reason most hate them, visibility. It's not that they block my vision so much as they're just there. They're in the way, they increase the small blind spot the pillar creates. I just don't like it, i much prefer my gauges above the stereo.

There is a mount that replace the gauge hood, it has 2 gauges molded into it. Looks like a frog but it works. I would prefer that route if I wanted them right in front of me. Or I would just screw them to the hood like savington. I'm almost 6'3, my head rubs the softop so my line of sight is about as high as it gets.

I still like that spinout. What tires were you running?

5-yo azenis that have no traction.

werd

I like savingtons idea, but I really dont want to take my gauge hood off. Plus if im mounting them up there then might as well just screw them to the column, which I think I will do in the end. Easiest to get wires there, easiest to get power too, and easiest to see for me and attracts the least attention. Plus the gauge cups that WOT linked me to are metal and look nice.

I am trying to draw as little attention as possible with this. My friend on the other hands keeps insisting that I get a knock off porsche "turbo" logo from ebay and stick that on my car.

The gauge hood comes off with a quick pull after you've taken the steering column cover off with 3 screws. Nothing difficult.

Stop making things so simple. ;)

I'm all for A-pillars. There are already state inspection and registration stickers blocking that view so throwing gauges right there can't hurt anymore.

More often then not they break when pulled out, Just a FYI.

Attachment 215202

Not exactly "stealth", but you cannot beat the visibility. My car is being built as a track car that I can use on the street (even though I daily drive it), so I chose line-of-sight over aesthetics. I can take a quick glance at my gauges at any time and get a very good reading of how the car's doing. It makes keeping tabs on things very easy, which was my goal. I'm very pleased with the layout.

I've driven cars with the 3 gauges where the radio is. Don't expect to look at them when you're actually driving.

(excuse the zip-ties. The screw holding the boost gauge cup came out at Buttonwillow and I haven't had time to get the hood off and put a nut/bolt in the hole.)

Mines been pulled once before when I had my alarm installed. I just dont want to risk pulling it because I dont know where the clips on it are. Besides, im not gonna do the mickey mouse ears.

who has the lowest price on a 3 pod a-pillar mount?
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Hmm. This is a good point, if you can get the gauge pod far enough down.

what about a 7" tach, crowned with shift light mounted on the dash?

I've used Apillar gauge pods in race cars because they're easy to view and don't block line of sight. I've got a single boost gauge there in my street car. The other gauges sit in the center console DDM piece powder coated a textured (crinkle) black.

I've had mine above my stereo for years now, and I love them there. It's pretty damned stealth, looks nearly factory. I have an NB which makes this much more attractive, they are near the top of the dash. It's a piece similar to what goodwin sells, but I think I paid 20 for it. I'm in the process of taking my old tape-deck face and making a magnetically mounted cover for the guages, so cops and would be theives only see the tape-deck and main deck swapped vertically, not guages proclaiming heavy mods.
Pic Gallery:
http://abefm.smugmug.com/gallery/1158944#54094640

This also leaves lots of room for cables, lines, etc. Also, I did a slick remounting of the link AFR guage into the steering collumn:
http://abefm.smugmug.com/gallery/1158718#54082978

Not great unless you know what each light means. Though I have seen reflections of the lights on the dash, I imagine a carefully constructed digital read out would show, if bright enough, between the tach and the speedo at night.

http://www.miata.net/garage/cdrl/e11-plug.jpg

I had this great idea today. I didnt want to tap wires that are floating around, and I didnt want to drag more wires from the engine back then I had too. So I had this great idea.

Can I use the DRL plug next to the steering column for my gauges 12 volt and ground?

Nice. I like that a lot. What brand guages are those, how much, etc? That's what I want to do for guages one day, but it looks expensive.

Just kind of a offbeat question here is it a big problem to take the tach & the speedo so I can place the tach in the middle & the speedo to the left?

Westach, they used to make all of FM's guages. They are really cheap, those duals cost less than 1 autometer. The EGT is a SLOW guage. The boost guage I absolutley love. The oil pressure is fine, except it shorts out a lot - but I think that's because I used left over ethernet cable for my signal. For a while, I thought it was the pressure sender, and having convinced them, they sent me another, free of charge.

The little light condoms are a pain in the ass, but still, overall I love the whole set up. It saves a lot of space and even passes for a conversation starter. I'd recommend them fairly highly - only their website is a PITA as well.

I always wanted to pull the fake factory oil pressure guage, and make a little slit thing with fix of six OH Shit lights. It looked kinda hard to get out..... I have moded the water temp guage and I'm really happy with it, so I can say setting up nice guages will make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

I called on westach gauges at one time. They're a good solution to save space. The only thing that is expensive is the oil pressure sending unit. None of us need a different OPG anyway, the stock one when modded works great.
I modded my coolant gauge but messed it up some how. Need to redo that.

I never put my pics up of my guage mod - but I ended up using pots instead of resistors, one essentially did slope, one essentially did intercept, though there was a bit of mucking with it to get it to not cross talk.

Then I set it so my thermo temp was at the edge of the little wavy symbol, the thermo mark in the middle was my fan temp, getting "warm" was the far side of the wavy lines, and the two marks on the end of the swing were "back the hell off", and "shut it off and probably call the machinist", respectively.

If you're bored, check this out, it's my patented ring-only leakdown tester adapter.
http://abefm.smugmug.com/photos/126429980-L.jpg

Do you happen to have those pictures of your gauge mod? I've gone over mine three times since i did the mod. At this point, when i turn the car on, the gauge goes to the middle and stays, never moves a mm.

If I knew when I did it, it would be easy. Trouble is, I've got... 25,000 pictures or so to sort through. :-)

I'll dig, but all it'll do is keep me up late.

Wow, a little detective work, and I found it.

http://abefm.smugmug.com/gallery/3923107#227732516

There's really precious little information there about values, but you can certainly get a feel for what goes where, which way to face the diodes, etc etc.

Google miata temp sensor and wally or wallyman and you should get reasonable values. I liked that better than pulling the temp sensor and boiling it - plus it's hard to get temps over 215 on the stove, and really, who cares below there?

boost, oil temp, afr go in the ddm panel, and egt on the steering column.

Got a Zoom eng console thing on mine.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...s/IMG_2709.jpg

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d4...s/IMG_2706.jpg


The PLX-R500 (under the Stereo) has 6 inputs, i'm using
Speed
RPM (Both for datalogging)
AFR (Wideband)
Boost
EGT
G-Sensors x 2 (X&Y Axis)

On the Zoom console thing i've got
Engine oil Temp
Engine oil pressure (soon to be swapped for tranny oil temp)
Aquamist DDS3 Flow gauge.

On the steering column i've got me TurboXS KnockLite mounted.

That's pretty much everything i recon i need as far as gauges go.

Where did you get the new center console, I would seriously consider that. Do they make one for 94 - 97?

less intrusive than it looks, as my head's higher than the camera in this shot
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member.../197112_13.jpg

Looks good but takes up a bit to much room with the pod. I am anticipating that with gauge cups it will look a little better.