My Prosport water temp gauge mod and install

[AHarada]

I've had a dual center speaker pod gauge holder sitting around a while, so I finally decided to do a permanent install on my prosport water temp gauge.

This pic shows a gauge powered up out of the box.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/x105t50ulx/6.jpg

There were a few things I thought I could improve on aesthetically, so I cracked it open. I replaced my Defi gauges with this, and these allow light around the gauge face for a light ring effect. I thought it was kind of cheesy, so I used some tape to block the light. I also thought the prosport logo looked kind of cheesy, so i used black touchup paint over it, but tape would work also. Since the lens of the gauge is tinted, only what is lit up is visible, so the tape cannot be seen. This is how it turned out: (bad camera phone pix, wouldnt focus very well)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/x105t50ulx/1007082329.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/x105t50ulx/1007082327.jpg

The colors in the pic don't really capture the true colors. The brightness is perfect and is easy to focus on at a glance.

Right now I have the sensor placed in a tapped hole in the filler neck, but I think I am going to move it into the stock gauge's sensor position.

Next, is probably a matching peak/warning oil temp gauge and I'll replace this water temp gauge with a peak/warning one. Or I'll move this water temp gauge over to the next slot, and fit a 60mm boost gauge in that slot. Or I'll put those 3 in Prosports triple center speaker holder. Hmmm.. decisions.

My original plan was to put water and oil temp gauges in place of the stock gauges, but tinted lense gauges would look funny in that position as they would always have to be lit. And my mods wouldnt work for their clear lens gauges either. I still need to figure out where I'm going to put a wideband gauge and dual EGT.

[Brent]

Looks great!! If you have time, it would be awesome if you could take some pictures of your filler neck and tell everyone how you modified it. Maybe a few more details... Turn this into a full blown "how to".

[RotaryXperiment]

if u had to retap or use a adapter to stick it out further i would recommend retapping the thread.
i used the adapter and the coolant temp gauge is less accurate since its sticking out further. i have a new haltech temp sensor located right above it in waterpump housing and they read like 10*F different.

[hades]

i think most people are tapping into the coolant hose that goes to the throttle body. it has constant flow even when the engine is cold. It just takes a trip to home depot.

[hades]

http://home.ptd.net/~blouzbee/guides/boost.html

[AHarada]

The main reason I didn't go more in depth in the write-up is that I don't have a good camera on hand. I only had my phone camera at the time and it doesn't show much detail. I can take any specific pix if you want them though.

I completely deleted the throttle body coolant circuit, I have brass plugs in the rear iron and in the thermostat housing.

When I got my car there was a different water temp gauge sensor already installed in my water filler neck. So there were already threads there and I just used the sensor there at first. I am relocating it to where the stock gauge's sensor is though, which is in the rear iron right under the oil filter. I don't like where it is right now since it is after the thermostat and the warmup temp is probably not the most accurate. Having the sensor in the coolant path actually in the motor is what I want to monitor.

RotaryXperiment I think you're talking about the sensors in the water pump housing. Those temp sensors are for the ECU water temp signal, and for the fan thermoswitch. Seperate from the gauge sensor in the rear iron. After I installed my motor again, I left that sensor unplugged since the stock gauge is next to useless.

[hades]

pics would be nice. Especially the wiring--which ones you used. I have these guages and hopefully i cna get them installed this weekend. I think I have the wiring down but not 100% sure.

[Brent]

Yeah, that's a good start. I'm just trying to get the 3rd gen section beefed up on technical knowledge. The more you could add to this the better. I'll be home from Afghanistan in a couple of weeks and doing a bunch of write up's for the section since I haven't done any since I left in March.

[AHarada]

I've driven the car a few times and I have a few issues with the setup.

1) In the position that the gauge is in, during the day it's very hard to see a reading. A lot of glare is reflected off of the gauge face. I tried it while it's white and Amber and both are the same result.

2) The light from the gauge glares onto the windshield. It's worse during the day when my gauge is lit white. I can still see it on the windshield at night, but the amber is not nearly as distracting. I found these that Prosport makes, so I plan on trying them out and hopefully they look ok, and fit ok in my gauge holder.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/x105t50ulx/52mmhood.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/x105t50ulx/60mmhood.jpg

3) The lighting doesn't always change as it's supposed to. All of my electrical connections are good, so I know that is not the problem. I'm going to try putting the orange wire on another light switched wire, I'm thinking where I have it on the dimmer switch is causing the problem.

Other than that, I'm happy with everything. I'm going to be playing with it a little more so I can take some more pix then, and do a complete write-up after everything is worked out.

[RotaryXperiment]

dimmer switch being too low (depending on where u tap for the source) WILL affect the lighting not changing.

put the dimmer all the way up (full 12v) and the light will change.
sometimes itll even flicker if its not getting the full amount of voltage.

[hades]

did you have to hook up a constant and switched power?

I have the boost and water temp. guages.

red-constant - use fuse tap on fuse panel - any good choices?
black-ground
orange - ashtray
white - switched power???

any wiring advice would be very helpful.

[AHarada]

To be completely honest with you, I lost the wiring instructions and couldn't find them online, so I just played with the wires until I got the color change I was looking for. I wired my red wire to the switched power source in the fuse box right next to the clutch pedal. There are 2 female slots and if I am not mistaken, they are both switched power.

Do you have peak/hold gauges? Those require a constant voltage source to keep the peak memory.

[lwnslw]

How did you hook up the boost gauge?
I just got my gauges and in the directions it says to tap into the line between the fuel regulator and surge tank???
I don't understand why?? I have the electrical Amber/White series boost/water temp/oil pressure and AFR gauges from Prosport.

Thanks

[AHarada]

I don't have their boost gauge yet, but any boost gauge can use any manifold vacuum/boost reference. It doesn't need to be the fuel regulator, but any vacuum line. There is an unused port on the UIM with a small plug that will work well. Please post when you have finished installing them on how you like them.

[hades]

pead hold memory makes sence. I heard one of those fuse is constant the other switched. I will find out for sure. Thanks for the help.

[Prosport Gauges]

dimmer switch being too low (depending on where u tap for the source) WILL affect the lighting not changing.

put the dimmer all the way up (full 12v) and the light will change.
sometimes itll even flicker if its not getting the full amount of voltage.

That is exactly right, you need 12v to get the color to change. Also we have the upper radiator hose adaptors to make installing the temp sender fast and easy.