3 most important gauges

[AMechEng]

I was wondering what everone thinks are the most important gauges to have on a Vmax. Lets disregard the speedometer and tachometer for a second and focus on everything else. The ones that comes to mind for me are

• oil pressure
• voltage
• fuel pressure
• water temp
• oil temp
• air/ fuel wide band
• pyrometer
• nitrous pressure

My top three, in order, are water temp, oil pressure, and voltage. Lets here what your top three are.

 

[[email protected]]

Depends on what you are doing with your bike.

A basic vmax with just bolt ons- no power adders, I agree with your choices of oil pressure and coolant temp. I don't see voltage being something that needs to be constantly monitored and unless you tap directly to the battery your readings will be off. Doesn't hurt to have it. I have one and don't pay much attention to it. If I suspect electrical problems the multi meter comes out.

If you have a turbo or blower I think an AF gauge is a good idea. Otherwise, not needed. Not a bad idea but not needed.

Pyrometer? I can't see the use on a normally aspirated engine. Those are for diesel trucks

Nitrous pressure and fuel pressure. Absolutely if your running the gas.

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[VMax-Mike]

If you have a well mantain stock bike the best thing you can do and its a must is a rev limiter. I had alot of bling but at red line in every gear the last thing i was looking at was gauges. If you have a rev limiter and you want the bling than go for it. But i can tell ya you wont be needing them.

 

[Rusty McNeil]

It wasn't on the list but a proper fuel gauge would be my number three after oil press. and water temp.

 

[johnpclynch]

It wasn't on the list but a proper fuel gauge would be my number three after oil press. and water temp.

My thoughts exactly

and maybe a G-force meter :biglaugh:

 

[frank5079]

For me, one that wasn't on the list would be an "accelerometer".....

 

[srk468]

Only so much room to work with so the gauges I have are water temp, oil press, A/F ratio from the wideband, and nitrous pressure. I wouldn't mind a voltage gauge but no place left to put it, a working fuel gauge would be nice too but we have a fuel light and track mileage anyway. Don't really see the need for a fuel pressure gauge even with nitrous as long as you use a low fuel pressure switch in the kit but you'll still need a fuel pressure gauge to set the pressure switch but then your done. Gear indicator would be nice too, I tried one of the cheap ones but it didn't really work very well so I took it back off.

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[Fire-medic]

If you have a well mantain stock bike the best thing you can do and its a must is a rev limiter. I had alot of bling but at red line in every gear the last thing i was looking at was gauges. If you have a rev limiter and you want the bling than go for it. But i can tell ya you wont be needing them.

Yep, a tach is #1 (engine longevity), H2O #2 (same), speedo #3 (keep your license intact), oil pressure #4, and a cellphone app for your bank #5 (to placate the Mod Monkey!):rofl_200:

 

[VMax-Mike]

Scott did you think about a gear indicator out of a venture motor. I know for a fact it can be done. Like i said before you will most likly be balls to the wall when something goes bad and you wont be looking at the gauges at that time. The vmax motor and bike is a well built set up. but its main flaw is no rev limiter. But if you feel the need for gauges that you dont all ready have i would put a oil pressure gauge on and maybe a coolant temp gauge. In scotts case he needs alot more because he has alot going on. oil water and volt gauges have always been the most impotant for years.

 

[Redbone]

For me, one that wasn't on the list would be an "accelerometer".....

There's an app for that, check your phone apps or go to http://www.plaincode.com/products/accelmeter/

I already have a shift light, rev limiter and of course stock speedo/ tach/ water temp setup. I am going for Volt/ Water Temp/ Oil Pressure on the faux tank gauge area and either Prze's gauge setup(1st choice- Please hurry home Prze!:biglaugh or may go with a Koso if my first choice isn't available when the monkey bites.

It wasn't on the list but a proper fuel gauge would be my number three after oil press. and water temp.

+1, I have a larger tank from Sean with a fuel level sensor already and want a fuel gauge added into the mix as well. If I get Prze's setup I'll add it to my lower gauges and replace the volt meter. If I go with Koso I would hope to have the fuel gauge on it work.

 

[sdt354]

What sender is everyone using for the Koso fuel gauge?
Steve-o

 

[thepretender]

For me, one that wasn't on the list would be an "accelerometer".....

You have a fully functional accelerometer already. Just look in the mirror the bigger the grin the faster you accelerated

 

[bumper]

something like this for a fuel sender is being used by a few.
http://www.centroidproducts.com/

 

[srk468]

Scott did you think about a gear indicator out of a venture motor. I know for a fact it can be done. Like i said before you will most likly be balls to the wall when something goes bad and you wont be looking at the gauges at that time. The vmax motor and bike is a well built set up. but its main flaw is no rev limiter. But if you feel the need for gauges that you dont all ready have i would put a oil pressure gauge on and maybe a coolant temp gauge. In scotts case he needs alot more because he has alot going on. oil water and volt gauges have always been the most impotant for years.

Yea I've seen it done before and I may attempt it eventually. You make a great point about being balls to the wall Mike and really I only use my oil pressure gauge to know when the engine is warmed up enough to beat on it, I've got mine where the factory tach used to be so can't really see it while I'm making a pass. The only one I can see is the wideband readout for the A/F ratio because that's the important one on spray. I'll attach a few pics of how mine is set up, it's kinda busy up there but it does what I need it to.

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[jagco1]

My pick, oil, water, fuel,

 

[VMax-Mike]

Scott you get an a+ on cool look. And im sure you need them. I to had a oil gauge so i new when to twist it and leave the Beekeeper in the rearview after a bar stop. Just so you guys know if you have great fun and fast ridding buddy's that just cant wait to twist it after every stop than a oil pressure gauge would be good to have as you dont want to rev the vmax motor with oil that is not up to temp do to oil pump seal and flow. Rick if your reading this im not talking about that kind of twist. LOL..................vmax-mike

 

[KJShover]

Tachometer, water temp, speedo would be my top three.

My nitrous gauge and airshifter are on their respective bottles, simple to see whats in there when I twist the valve. After 30 years with nitrous, I'm gotten pretty proficient with tuning a nitrous motor, so no a/f meter for me. I have a regulator I've been meaning to put on the nitrous bottle to guard against over pressure, but just haven't got one of them round twoits. Not worried about fuel pressure from either fuel pumps, that's covered with a pressure switch for a just in case scenario.

The gauges I have, I don't really pay a whole lot of attention two after the initial warm up. The water temp will get glanced at a few times after warm up, the oil pressure as well (The warning light is a flashing LED on the instrument cluster and it's wired up to the speedo/tach's oil light for easy seeing if it turns on). Volt meter, same thing. I see it when I first start up the bike, then not too worried about it. I don't even pay attention to the tach that much, I have a rev-limiter and a shift light, so I'm not overly concerned with over-revving or when to shift. Hell for a while I didn't even use a tach, I just had the instrument cluster (oil, water, volts and lights), speedo and a shift light.

One thing I might add, there is a parking brake lamp on the speedo/tach. It's a "P" I was going to wire it up to the nitrous purge, but I got to thinking about brake lights. So I might wire it up so that if/when I loose the brake light, it will illuminate. We all know how much cages pay attention to bikes, running around without a brake or tail light can be a messed up thing.

My number 4 gauge would be my fuel gauge. Didn't think much about it until after I put it on, cause to me it's not a big deal to count mileage. But, after installing it, I loved it.

 

[srk468]

I was wondering what everone thinks are the most important gauges to have on a Vmax. Lets disregard the speedometer and tachometer for a second and focus on everything else. The ones that comes to mind for me are

• oil pressure
• voltage
• fuel pressure
• water temp
• oil temp
• air/ fuel wide band
• pyrometer
• nitrous pressure

My top three, in order, are water temp, oil pressure, and voltage. Lets here what your top three are.

This is why I didn't mention a speedometer or tachometer. I agree with most of your line of thinking KJ but the wideband is essential when changing things in your nitrous setup in my opinion. What spread do you run on your jets in your nitrous kit? I started with what NOS recommends 18N 22F but it was obscenely fat, next I tried 18N 20F and was way better (had I not had the wideband I probably would have stopped here) but still very fat, then I squared it at 20N 20F and that's where it liked it, about 12.3-5 on the wideband so still a touch rich but safe and fast. Different people mount their fuel pumps different ways for juice too, I've seen some guys just T into the stock line but I'd never do that myself but pump location will also effect fuel pressure so that has to be considered while jetting which is why I wanted a wideband on my bike before I started spraying and it also pointed me in the right direction for my carbs and I managed to pick up a little over 2 tenths on the motor. I'm not saying that everyone needs a wideband, I'm just saying that even with 17 years experience messing with nitrous it really helped me get my tune down pretty quickly.

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[AMechEng]

I have a oil pressure gauge from Marshall (one off's kit) mounted on my handle bars. I bought the matching fuel gauge on ebay and I'm going to mount in next to the gas fill up cap so that when the bike is idling at the gas station I can see what kind of pressure the fuel pump is making (in case it is getting ready to crap out). I'm going to scrap the stock gauge cluster and install a voltage gauge, AF wide band, and water temp. All of the idiot lights in my speedo so that is covered.

 

[KJShover]

What spread do you run on your jets in your nitrous kit?

It varies. On the multi-stage system on the old funnybike and my XS I kept the spread 4 apart and started with a 40-50hp 1st stage and 100+hp for the second. If I was just going to run a single stage It would be a 24/26 N2O/Fuel.

The first system I built for the Vmax was a square bore of 24/24 into generic fogger type nozzles. It gave just a nut hair under 80hp (+/- 19hp per cyl), after doing the math, in about 10 seconds it would inhale about a quarter pound from the bottle. My plugs look good as new, so I leave the nitrous alone and just "fine tune", so to speak, with the carburetors and that's just the typical enriching or leaning the fuel mixture.

The new system's setup is jetted at the solenoid then fed to a pair of metering blocks then off to the carbs. I'm probably going to build a couple of new solenoids over the winter, as the 150hp solenoids that are on the bike now are needing to go, in favor of some newer technology. Or I could just save myself all the heartache and shut my doors then order the Wizards setup and be done with it all :biglaugh: Them cats over there are using alien technology and are just killing the numbers. I've sent customers over to them several times. My shop is still in the R&D of a couple three systems and who knows where that will end up, but I'll give credit where credit is due and Trevor's stuff is the best out there.