HOOD mounted GUAGES

[vetteKID]

i need to install a fuel pressure guage and nitrous pressure guage on my hood area. Now the problem is that the hood moves. how would i mount the mechanical guages in my sight and still have the hood move properly? has anyone ever done this before?

 

[mike weyman]

sounds pretty rice to me,why not on the windshield frame?get an old console cluster and cut and rebuild as nescessary. when it's time to sell, switch them back.mike

 

[bossvette]

If you had a L-88 or a high rise aftermarket you might be able to mount them in front of the windshield under the bulge. Worse case scenerio is cut a hole in the hood and fiberglass a reverse scoop to cover the gages.
I would not want fuel or nitros in the passenger compartment

 

[mike weyman]

good point,never thought of the BOOM factor.the l88 hood has about 1 1/2 inches across the back,it would have to be a small gauge.

 

[bossvette]

some of the aftermarket high rises have 2 1/2"

 

[drags1998]

DONT mount ANY fuel or NITROUS guages inside the drivers compt. NHRA-IHRA & local tracks wont let you run the car down the track,ITS NOT SAFE!!!! Make a bracket that mounts to the area just under the edge of the hood.

 

[Robin7TFour]

GREETINGS, i am not up on drag racing rules etc,but doesn't someone make an electronic type gauge that would monitor the pressures from a remote location?
what do the racers use.i can't recall seeing lots of gauges on the hoods ruining the aerodynamic flow..

Bubba ...the village idiot

 

[WayneLBurnham]

Oh, I thought you wanted the hood mount style...

GREETINGS, i am not up on drag racing rules etc,but doesn't someone make an electronic type gauge that would monitor the pressures from a remote location?

Oh hell yes! Don't just mount a hood mount because you think you have to!

I don't know about nitrous pressure, bottle temp or bottle weight gauges, but I've had a Nordskog remote digital fuel pressure gauge on an 8-gauge auxilliary dashtop panel I made just because I'm a gauge freak.

This option, which I wanted since I went all digital, was actually CHEAPER than the usual remote read electronic ones sold through Summit, Jegs, PAW, etc. I think costs for the gauge and the sender which mounted in a fuel block fittings was only about $85.

Sources include:
Nordskog
Cyberdyne
Dakota Digital
AutoGauge (or Autometer?) Ultralight
Summit
Jegs
and possibly others. Note that Intellitronix seems to have made some, most of or all of the electronics behind several of these - including some of the Nordskog, Cyberdyne and Summit & Jegs "house" brands. Their styling is essentially identical and it seems compatible to mix them.

My A/F meters are the rotary LED type from AutoGauge Ultralite which seem to just have a better appearances that the little vertical bar type. (I have to get two others in fact which have BLACK faces - I only could find the white at the time, but it turns out they make a blacked out one.)

Again, I don't know about N2O gauges, as I never intended to use nitrous on this, but I have a number of digital gauges besides the Nordskog master definitely NON "drop in" replacement panels (which I actually put in six months after the auxilliary panel, so I could see if I liked it.)

I had to go to Cyberdyne for a digital vacuum gauge (everybody had blower gauges), but I have a digital tranny and diff temp (originally an oil temp, but the main panel has one now, in place of the clock), a digital tach and voltmeter. (The latter two will also be replaced by something else, since they are also the new main panel - probably an intake air temp and remote digital ammeter (can't run 150 amps through an IC) - or a pair of exhaust pyrometers, but they are pricey.)

One thing: I tried the green/teal/whatever from Nordskog and the sun DOES wash them out fairly easily, which it doesn't the red from any of them. I don't know about the other green variants from different manufacturers, the amber from Nordskog or the nice bright blue/teal from Dakota Digital. Red, however, does NOT wash out badly even in the brightest direct sunlight nor does it blind you at night when the gauges are dimmed when the lights are turned on. Just like the rest of the car, I never CARED for red, but it seems to work best.

 

[vetteKID]

well I know enough not to mount mechanical fuel pressure gauges in the dash. And I really don't want to buy another hood if I don't have too, whats wrong with mine? I don't know how you got rice out of a fuel pressure gauge on the hood. I need the gauge there for a reason, not just because I want to look good. I have received a few ideas from people, and it seems that I could make a bracket for the gauges.

 

[WayneLBurnham]

Yeah, I don't find anything ricer about hood gauges

It's a lot more '60's/'70's bubba muscle car.....
.....not even anything REMOTELY carbon fiber....:L
....I'll bet APC hasn't even HEARD of them!!!

Sorry....

I like hood mounted gauges - keep meaning to get a hood tach on my old Mopar, but they have some REAL drawbacks...

1)They are hard to read at the best of times - too far away and too small
2)They STAY dirty
3)Effective illumination on them nukes your night vision (it both puts a bright light out in the main line of sight AND can reflect light off of the windshield)
4)They are very vulnerable to vandalism or in a wreck

ANY mechanical pressure fuel gauge is dangerous to some degree. Know how often mechanical oil pressure gauges leak? While fuel is much lower pressure both the line is typically larger AND the fluid is much less viscous. A badly enough leaking hood mounted fuel gauge can STILL spray flaming gas over or into the cab - and will easily get into the HVAC intake and set your interior on fire. Fuel is dangerous enough confined to the engine bay.

A remote mounted electronic one solves much of this and doesn't route another fuel line anywhere - it just intercepts the line after the filter.