After messing around a bit with my ‘caterpillar’ gauge pod for a bit, I finally came to the conclusion that no matter what I did, I wouldn’t be able to get it to look like I wanted… so I ditched the idea and started on a new design. This one already looks 100x better and will still be just as functional. I still have the caterpillar pod in the car until this one is finished, but hopefully I’l have it far enough by tomorrow to be able to put it in (even if it is not 100% finished). The pod itself will stick up no higher than a standard clock pod yet will still hold all 6 gauges that I want it to. 3 of them will be sunken into the dash and 3 will be where the normal clock pod gauges would sit.
Pics:
The new pod:
Factory clock bezel next to the new pod
I also was able to finally get my EWG recirculated this morning so no more loud obnoxiousness when boosting. Just the beautiful sounds of the turbo spool, BOV, and exhaust. Now I can finally get the tune finished, leave her be for a while, and enjoy her.
YES… it is officially benny approved…lol. It was one of the ideas in the beginning, but I didn’t think I’d have enough room to have the 3 sunken gauges.
Aquamist failsafe (makes sure I have a good flow of water/meth
Boost
AFR
Oil Temp - most subaru failures (from what I’ve heard) are caused by oil temp or pressure issues.
Oil Pressure - Want to know if my pressure has an issue before the motor blows and then my dummy light comes on.
I know its not all needed, but its all stuff that I want to keep an eye on… call it paranoia, call it what you want, but I can’t afford to replace the engine if it decides to let loose so I would prefer to be able to monitor what I can to hopefully get some sort of warning on a problem that comes up before damage occurs.
I haven’t bought all of it yet. I only have the AFR, Tru-boost, Aquamist, and oil pressure. So I could have just stuck with what was there before if I wanted to.
I would love to do a CarPC setup with real-time datalogging / triggers / alarms. But thats a hell of a lot more than I have to throw at it right now. It would be different if I couldn’t do the fiberglassing myself and had to pay someone. The resin and mat is relatively cheap so I’m not really wasting much by making a pod.
That’s actually the first time I’ve seen that. I may end up eventually replacing the EGT with that (with the added EGT Sensor). The others are something I want to have a peak / warning that will alert me if something isn’t going right.
Made a little more progress today… until my compressor decided to completely shit the bed. It either blew out a seal or blew a hole in the ‘block’ because there is no compression and I can feel air coming out of the side of the ‘block’. But I was able to at least get enough done to get it in the car to start ‘testing’ it. So far I am much happier with the look… even though there is a lot to go yet.
I seriously tried looking for a funny picture of a car with too many gauges. Could not find a decent one. You officially have too many gauges. But to each his own.
I know I do, but its what I want to keep an eye on. Call it what you want… I just prefer being over careful since i can’t afford to be rebuilding this engine if something goes wrong.
