blackS197

Im going to get some gauges tomorrow and wondering what type of boost gauges you guys have. Mechanical vs Electrical and why. What is easier install, cheaper etc. All you 2 cents will be appreciated. I dont really mess with electrical stuff.

Mustang85

I'm relatively new to the mustang forums, but I did have a turbo MR2 for a while. I had the Autometer Cobalt electronic boost gauge installed in my car. As far as the Mechanical vs. Electric... price is a big difference - you can pick up a nice mechancial boost gauge for well under $100.. nice electrical boost gauges are often upwards of $200 and go higher depending on the features. Installation of a mechanical boost gauge is also easier - simply hook a vac line into the back of the gauge and you're ready to go. The electric isn't WAY more difficult or anything, but you do have to connect a sending unit to a power and ground source in addition to connecting a vac line to it. In terms of reading your vac/boost, they perform about the same. However, many electronic gauges recalibrate themselves to exactly 0 psi each time you start the car while mechanical gauges do not. Many people feel like this is a worthless feature. However, this can be a helpful feature - especially if you've known someone with a mechanical boost gauge that was knocked off a psi or two after the car got jarred for whatever reason. I've known several, and I would imagine it's not any fun having to figure out how far the gauge is off and adding +/- a psi in your head every time you look at the gauge. The nicer of the mechanical boost gauges usually don't have that problem, but some of the less expensive ones can. You can also get a slew of additional features with the electronic boost gauges - brilliant lighting in a variety of colors isn't hard to find. You can also purchase electronic boost guages (or a variety of other electronic guages) that come with datalogging features - that can be useful when tuning or trying to troubleshoot problems. If that's something you're interested in, Autometer makes a really nice set of electronic guages called the Nexus. Includes datalogging features, can be turned a variety of different colors, and - my personal favorite - can turn colors based on user provided input... for instance, if your boost pressure went above a certain max psi you specify, the gauges will turn bright red or whatever color you want to warn you. Not a lot of mustang related data in what I just mentioned but hope that helps!

tom281

Go mechanical for boost, electric for most anything else. Mechanical makes you run a live feed line into the car's interior- for example, this is OK with boost because you're only running a small plastic vacuum line that carries air. However for example a mechanical fuel pressure, water temp, etc. would force you to run a line carrying fuel, water, etc. into the interior which you don't want to do. So for these types of guages, an electric is the way to go, because you install a sensor in the engine bay that accepts the fuel, water, etc. and then only run control wires from the sensor into the interior.

zkiller

I would recommend a electrical full sweep boost gauge like the Autometer Cobalt or Nexxus series.

MustangGT0405

Mechanical Boost/Vacuum gauge,


Cheaper, easier install, and reacts faster.

Get Vacuum too as it can help you monitor certain things and aids in troubleshooting if something goes wrong.