GEN 1 Gen 1 Guage cluster readout accuracy.

[Johnny Psyhos]

Hey all, so i looked around and didnt find anything on this topic, so i figured id put this idea out there and see if we can find a solution. The guages on our trucks that read temps and pressure seem to be dummy gauges. (as long as the trucks engine/trans is at the expected parameter for the given circumstance the gauge will be in the middle)

For example, at high rpm the oil pressure is high, thats how it should be therefore the gauge sits in the middle.

Well id like to know what my oil pressure really is. when the truck is idling, the guage should be down low, and if im at redline, that needle should be close to maxed out. same for the coolant guage. if my engine is at 240 degrees, that needle should be in the upper 3/4.

So my question is this: How do i get them to read accurately. call me crazy, but if i payed for 6 guages on my dash, i wanna use 6 guages.

and yes, I know that getting a tuner screen would show that data, and i have one. but that screen is better off being used to show data that my truck isn't able to read from the factory gauge cluster.

I recall seeing a stainless steel plate on the internet floating around that would actually go over the faces of the gauges and add graduations to them - that would be cool to have - if the gauges read properly

 

[W0n70n]

You'd probably have to interrupt the wiring on to the gauge cluster to wire in your own oil pressure sending unit that is next to the stock one since that would have to be there to stop the rest of the dash from lighting up about low oil pressure, then figure out the input range for the stock gauge and use a module to convert from the output of your oil pressure sending unit to the range of the needle.

Then you'd have to do the same thing for the transmission temps, engine coolant temp, etc.

The biggest issue you'd probably have is that I think the stock stuff would all have to remain "functional" to not freak out the PCM, but I'm not sure how much of a 2 way street that communication is.

I've resigned myself to just needing to install analog gauges on the a-pillars to achieve this.

If you do it you should definitely do a write up because if it isn't as bad as I think it would be then it would make for a cool mod to do.

 

[pat247]

There are many apps that can display various temps such as coolant, air, trans and many other values from the OBDII. Oil presure needs its own guage. I use an old Garmin that displays about ten different values.