One of the best ways to make sure that your engine lasts a long time is by having good information from the engine. That means you need quality gauges to measure all of the different things that go on under the hood of the car. But if you look in a modern car, it may be a problem finding a place to mount after-market gauges.

That’s where items like this pod come in. They’re designed for specific vehicles or universal versions. They can go on to the A-pillar. Some of them can go into the center of the dash, others even in the console. Pick the one that best suits your vehicle and you’ll have a convenient way to mount the gauges, and in most cases you don’t have to cut big holes into the car.

Now, this Ford has what, well, it claims to be an oil pressure gauge, but it really isn’t. It’s either on, or it’s off. It’s exactly the same thing that you would have with a red light. That means that on Fords, or any vehicle for that matter, that a good, high quality oil pressure gauge would be a great way to go. Same with water temperature and voltmeter and things like that. You could do a whole kit if you like where you have tachometer and speedometer and everything that all matches.

But you know, in addition to that there are some specialty gauges that do a great job and give you some unique benefits, like this Sunpro air/fuel ratio meter over here. That tells you the air fuel ratio or how rich or lean your engine is running. What an amazing tool to make sure that your tuning is done right.

This Stewart Warner unit uses LEDs that are programmable to tell you the proper time to shift to get the best performance out of your vehicle. And you know one of the biggest factors in taking care of a car is preventive maintenance, yet for some reason the automobile is the only thing on the planet where we try to determine maintenance requirements based on the number of miles covered by the wheels.

Everything else uses a true measurement. They use hours of use. A meter like this Hobbs hour meter added to your car would help you dial in your preventive maintenance needs.

And if you happen to be a boater, one of the biggest issues with boats is keeping the engine cool, and one of the ways to do that is using a water pressure meter. It can save you thousands of dollars in damage from overheating. Gauges are a great idea.


If you have a question or comment, write to me.
The address is MotorWeek, Owings Mills, MD, 21117.