After boiling over twice on my last Ocotillo trip with the gauge reading "normal" I decided
it was time for something else. The Toyota temp gauge seems to have three positions, "cold"
"normal" and "fucked." I've gotten the Auto Meter gauge up to about 235 (normal operating temp
is in the 190-210 range) with the Toyota gauge still at "normal." I need to know when my
cooling system is running hot, not when my engine melts....
Requirements:
I wanted a four gauges mounted on the dash (where the OE inclinometer would go) so I needed
to find an flat mounting bracket set. I assumed a flat generic set would be easy to find
instead of a Toyota specific kit.
I wanted coolant temp for sure, Oil pressure because I
could never get my SR5 cluster to read correctly, ammeter for monitoring my
off-road lights in conjunction with the Toyota voltmeter (which seems to be very accurate)
and vacuum for power monitoring and trouble shooting. Easier said than done.
I looked and looked all over
the internet and couldn't find anything. One day Kev came over with a JC Whitney catalog
in which he found just what I wanted. It was only $40 so I went for it, thinking in the
back of my mind that I'd have to replace the gauges because these ones were cheap.Installation: 
The mounting surface of the dash works great, just below about 5mm of plastic and padding
is sheet metal that is strong but easily drilled through. The mounting plate was chrome,
so I painted it black because chrome sucks. The original (cheap) set of gauges
came with all four gauges that I wanted, all of which where worthless
and retarded in design.
Both the coolant temp. and oil pressure were mechanical and I didn't feel like dealing with
running oil and coolant into my dash...also the crush connections for the oil lines never
worked. The Ammeter was designed to hold up to 60 amps between a 2mm thick piece of
cardboard and about 3mm separation between them, not very safe, as I would find out.
The vacuum gauge would rattle,
more like buzz, when it got towards the "0" mark, which is about all the time.
The instructions for this kit didn't tell my anything useful, it actually said to hook up the
+ side of the ammeter to the starter...it didn't make sense. I decided to wire the
gauge directly in-line from the output of the alternator, this worked well for monitoring
but it was a little more than the 60 amps the gauge read, with all four KC's lights and the
electric fan on.Overall Impression:
After a week and a desert trip with the ammeter and vacuum hooked up, the ammeter almost
set my truck on fire while melting the gauge, it was time for some
quality gauges. I went to my local Kragen for a catalog and because they deal directly with
auto meter they got me gauges at a great price, average of about $50-$55 a piece
(about $210 for the 4). This set was much much stronger, better designed and
far easier to hook up.
Coolant: I ran the sender directly into the gooseneck pipe right on top of the thermostat.
This location rules because the stock gauge tells me the block temperature while the
Auto Meter tells me when the t-stat has opened and the output temp from the engine.
I had to buy a tap then drill and thread the gooseneck, which has held up so far. The
normal operating temp. of my engine is about 200.
Oil Pressure: The threads for the sender are the same as the Toyota sender, use some teflon
tape and put it in the same hole in the block. The Auto Meter gauge is far more accurate
and responsive than the Toyota gauge.
Ammeter: I read the actually helpful instructions from auto meter and hooked it up from the
output line from the alternator (I just three wayed it in) and the battery. This
way I get a reading of what is being put into the battery directly. This isn't a very
sensitive gauge but it serves as a "second opinion" when you are trouble shooting your
charging system.
Vacuum: I ran the small vacuum line to the air intake plenum, there is a convenient fitting
at the back of the plenum with 3 ports, one of which is plugged, pop off the cap and hook on
your new line. This gauge is kinda wild, it moves all over the place. It serves as a dash
mounted throttle position sensor, not really useful until something isn't working right.Regrets/Problems? 
The only problems I've had have with the Auto Meter gauges have been minor and my own fault.
A loose wire or two and leaks from the coolant sender.
I do need to make a cover for the back of the gauges because all those wires really really
look bad.
When surfing the web I found this pic of somebody's (I'm sorry I forgot where I got it) gauge
set up. He has used single pods and I think it looks cleaner than my naked backed set up.
If I had to do it all again I would look into this option.Conclusions:
If you haven't already picked up on it, but I would not recommend the JC Whitney product,
after about a week of running the gauges I was over at my local off-road parts store (ORW) and saw that they
had the bracket I was looking for, much cheaper. Spending $40 on a small piece of
steel is pretty damn lame.
It's so much nicer to actually know what's going on with your engine instead of
guessing. I can honestly say this has been one of the best mods I've done, and I'm thinking of adding more.
I highly recommend it to just about everybody I talk with, GAUGES RULE!Helpful Links Roger Brown's write up about his gauges Jeff Moskovitz's 2 and 3 pod gauge pillars that replace the stock A-pillar Back to Words |