legacycentral bbs

So here is what I was thinking. I would like to monitor as much as possible without having a million gauges. Since we are OBD-1 I can't get multi guages and anything that might work cost way to much. So correct me if im wrong but could you hook up one gauge with 2 senders and then have the senders connected to a dual switch and when you want one reading you flip it up and when you want the second reading you flip it down. This way you can monitor difference throughout the block or pre/post turbo for oil or whatever.

What type of universal gauge are you planning on getting that would work with two different input sources? What do you want to monitor?

its a glowshift water/oil temp or oil pressure guage. well i assume if you use a double switch ou could basicly turn off one sender and then turn on the second one. this way you can use 2 reading on on guage but only one at a time.

You could possibly use one gauge for only temperature, since you're measuring the same thing. The problem though is going to be the ranges are not going to be the exact same, so getting a gauge to monitor oil temp, it's going to need to read higher numbers, than what you would get if you were just reading coolant temp.

The other possible issue is that the switch would need to be a decent switch and not add any resistance to the system, as that could change the readings on the sensor. It's doable, but may have some drawbacks.

I would only use one guage for coolant and another for oil, but there would be 2 readings on each guage(not at the same time) by using the switch.

I don't think finding one with a range that works would be a problem, but I would worry more about the resistance. Also, the sensors will have to measure temperature the same way.

SILINC3R wrote:I would only use one guage for coolant and another for oil, but there would be 2 readings on each guage(not at the same time) by using the switch.

Maybe I'm not following you. Would you have two gauges or only one?

evolutionmovement wrote:I don't think finding one with a range that works would be a problem, but I would worry more about the resistance. Also, the sensors will have to measure temperature the same way.

Most if not all two-wire temperature sensors are standard bosch NTC temp sensors. So the resistance is all the same. However, the one-wire temp sensors are likely a different animal. Since they are typically grounded through the chassis, there's a lot more chance for the values to vary due to poor grounding.

Thanks, Josh. I figured they used the same sensors for both, but didn't want to assume.

He's talking about using a single gauge with a range that covers both coolant and oil temps and being able to switch between either reading. Unfortunately, this may be one of those things you'll have to try to really know if it will work.

There are dual gauges in a single housing, 4-ways even. Check out aircraft supplies, but the prices might be high.