dmac
05-04-2011, 01:44 PM
Been working on a custom gauge pod for a while now and I thought I would show you the rough version. Been a lot of trial and error and a couple redos but I finally have a workable solution. It's uneven in the pics but when you press down on the corners it sits flush all around. I'll have to glue or screw it down to get it looking right just because when the filler dies it seems to pull tighter and stiffen up the piece a bit.
http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae308/2008AWDRT/Interior/IMAG0528.jpg
http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae308/2008AWDRT/Interior/IMAG0529.jpg
What I did was cut out the center plastic dash piece, cut a hole in it, stick the gauge pod up through the bottom, and then used Bondo fiberglass filler to fill in around it. Then I spread a thin layer of normal Bondo body filler over the whole thing since it is lighter and much easier to sand. Lastly I painted over it with a **** load of thick filler primer because I still had trouble getting a few spots right around the gauge pod even lol.
Right now I've sent it off to be water transfer printed in carbon fiber to match the other interior stuff and once I get it back I'll post pics of the final install. I went ahead and installed my first gauge though while waiting on the pod. It's a Glowshift wideband AFR and I used an AEM no-weld o2 sensor mount to install the sensor.
http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae308/2008AWDRT/Interior/IMAG0531.jpg
The o2 sensor controller I mounted down low on the center console next to the pedals. It's not too visible or in the way here but I still have access to it because you occasionally need to press the calibrate button on the controller to keep everything calibrated correctly. It also has a port for data logging if I ever need it.
http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae308/2008AWDRT/Interior/IMAG0536.jpg
And the gauge:
http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae308/2008AWDRT/Interior/IMAG0537.jpg
Because of the stupid integrated cats in the 3.5 manifolds I was forced to install the wideband after the catalytic converter. But I did a lot of research online and what I've found is that the cat doesn't skew your results that much. It introduces some lag to the AFR and may ruin it for tuning purposes, but for checking on what your car is doing it should be perfectly fine. The gauge reads about 15.4 at idle, 14.7 cruising, and 14.2 under hard acceleration which seems about right for stock fuel settings. May look a little leaner than actual because of the cat and how far down the exhaust it is though. I had to install it way down by where my resonator used to be because the sensor needs to be at least 10 degrees above the horizontal and that was the only place I could get my drill up at that angle.
http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae308/2008AWDRT/Interior/IMAG0528.jpg
http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae308/2008AWDRT/Interior/IMAG0529.jpg
What I did was cut out the center plastic dash piece, cut a hole in it, stick the gauge pod up through the bottom, and then used Bondo fiberglass filler to fill in around it. Then I spread a thin layer of normal Bondo body filler over the whole thing since it is lighter and much easier to sand. Lastly I painted over it with a **** load of thick filler primer because I still had trouble getting a few spots right around the gauge pod even lol.
Right now I've sent it off to be water transfer printed in carbon fiber to match the other interior stuff and once I get it back I'll post pics of the final install. I went ahead and installed my first gauge though while waiting on the pod. It's a Glowshift wideband AFR and I used an AEM no-weld o2 sensor mount to install the sensor.
http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae308/2008AWDRT/Interior/IMAG0531.jpg
The o2 sensor controller I mounted down low on the center console next to the pedals. It's not too visible or in the way here but I still have access to it because you occasionally need to press the calibrate button on the controller to keep everything calibrated correctly. It also has a port for data logging if I ever need it.
http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae308/2008AWDRT/Interior/IMAG0536.jpg
And the gauge:
http://i982.photobucket.com/albums/ae308/2008AWDRT/Interior/IMAG0537.jpg
Because of the stupid integrated cats in the 3.5 manifolds I was forced to install the wideband after the catalytic converter. But I did a lot of research online and what I've found is that the cat doesn't skew your results that much. It introduces some lag to the AFR and may ruin it for tuning purposes, but for checking on what your car is doing it should be perfectly fine. The gauge reads about 15.4 at idle, 14.7 cruising, and 14.2 under hard acceleration which seems about right for stock fuel settings. May look a little leaner than actual because of the cat and how far down the exhaust it is though. I had to install it way down by where my resonator used to be because the sensor needs to be at least 10 degrees above the horizontal and that was the only place I could get my drill up at that angle.