What are the most important stats on the car to monitor? I was thinking of getting one of the RB ashtray gauge cluster for a nitrous gauge, and I am either going to put blanks on either side of it or gauges, but I don't know which gauges are most important. Thanks for the insight!

AFR for sure if you don't already have one.

Since you have the AccessPORT you can monitor the factory WBO2 so I don't think it's necessary...especially since you're not doing anything too extreme with the car yet.

I would vote for water temp and oil temp, just because they are pretty important for a rotary.

Side note about the Racing Beat pod (I owned one), it sucks for viewing cirtical data, such as AFR or boost or whatnot, data that changes quickly. It's out of direct sight by 3ft or more, so you really have to look for it. When you're hauling ***, it sucks. But for just nitrous press and water/oil temp gauges, I don't think you need those in your face, so the RB pods works well for them.

You should always monitor your Flux Capacitor.

muffler bearing temperature

oil temp water temp oil pressure and afr...if you have turbo then boost if your car is tuned or modded up

I`m Batman wrote:You should always monitor your Flux Capacitor.

Dange wrote:muffler bearing temperature

These two crucial parameters often get overlooked, but none more so than the blinker fluid level light. And people ALWAYS loose the left-handed screwdriver in the tool kit that comes with the car...

I don't know if you looked at getting an Aeroforce Ineterceptor but I highly recommend not getting it. It's given me nothing but headaches. It's nice but does not do what it should. Support for it sucks when you have a problem.

I'm currently looking at the PLX Multi Gauge. It is a bit pricey but heck it seems to work and looks 1k times nicer than the aeroforce gauge. Only if I had $630 bucks handy to buy the gauge w/OBDII and the moduels I need. WTF are the modules so expensive? Atleast the WBO2 and the Fluid temp sensors I have will work with this. Save some money there.

But Oil Temp and Water temp are looking like all you'll need. I didn't like looking at the AP and trying to find a way to mount it. Plus the USB connection would always disconnect. That is the reason that I decided to go with the shitty Aeroforce gauge. To read multiple parameters on one gauge and leave the AP only for flashing and logging.

chickenwafer wrote:These two crucial parameters often get overlooked, but none more so than the blinker fluid level light. And people ALWAYS loose the left-handed screwdriver in the tool kit that comes with the car...

Bahahahaha hilarious.

Water temperature and oil pressure for piston engine cars.
For rotary, oil temperature is more important than oil pressure.
If forced induction, vacuum/boost is important, but heat matters more.
There were neat mods we did to Miata gauges to remove/replace resistors in the gauge needles - gave much more accurate and dynamic (non-damped) information.

GR-8 wrote:I didn't like looking at the AP and trying to find a way to mount it. Plus the USB connection would always disconnect. That is the reason that I decided to go with the shitty Aeroforce gauge. To read multiple parameters on one gauge and leave the AP only for flashing and logging.

Yea I didn't like using the AP for active monitoring either, which is why I used a DashHawk. Monitor up to 7 things at once instead of 1 (I usually did 4) and it mounted easier than the AP would have. Plus, my AP would not shut off when I shut off the car, so I'd have to keep unplugging it every time if I didn't want it to be on all the time. So yea, I just left the AP in the glove box for flashing and logging purposes.

muh' fuk' a guage' <------ignore. thanks.

One thing about the PLX gauges, if you're going to monitor fuel pressure stay away from them because their current sensor will corrode. They are working on a suitable replacement though.

I have fuel pressure, water temp, oil temp, oil pressure, boost and dual EGT.

Fuel pressure is good for troubleshooting if you're having trouble starting the car. That way you don't have to crack a line to see if you have fuel. Also just good to monitor in general. If you get an aftermarket FPR you can get a little gauge on it and that would help with troubleshooting but not so much constant monitoring.

Water temp is IMPERATIVE for a rotary, so definitely get that one.

Oil temp I don't personally believe is as useful as an oil pressure gauge, but it looks like some here disagree. My thinking is that hot oil is better than no oil, and hot oil wouldn't hurt your engine as bad as hot coolant/water. So that's why between the two I'd go for oil pressure instead, but I got my oil temp just to see what dual oil coolers could get the temp down to.

I hardly ever look at my boost gauge because my boost controller has those readings and it also holds the highest boost you reach until you turn off the ignition or reset it, so I pay more attention to that than the boost gauge. I'm getting rid of all my gauges and going to SPA dual gauges so I can simplify the interior and not having it looking like a space shuttle cockpit.

Dual EGT are good to monitor, mostly for tuning, but that would be after quite a bit more modding. I don't think you really need one or both if you're mostly stock.

So I'd say if you're mostly stock, I personally would get water temp, oil pressure and maybe even fuel pressure too.

And here is a great site for blinker fluid, muffler bearings, etc...
http://www.kalecoauto.com/

What are some things that should be monitored that cannot be monitored with the ODB2 PLX gauge? Just engine temp?

it will/should monitor everything the AP can through obdII. So anything you need to monitor that the ap cannot you will need a sensor moduel for..... like oil temp. Coolant temp is monitored through obdII so u woild need a fluid moduel for oil temp. and any sort of pressures u want to monitor.

A list of what you can monitor on the AP.

http://www.cobbtuning.com/info/?ID=4413

So really a PLX gauge and an oil temp gauge would really be the only two I need then...