Aftermarket gauge advice needed

[4spdragtop]

So Dad and I were/are thinking of putting aftermarket gauges in his car(coolant temp and oil psi) and mounting them in front of the ac duct. We want to leave the orig ones in the dash and were thinking that maybe we could just unhook them from behind the dash, or unhook them from under the hood and hook up the aftermarket ones. Although dads orig gauges work, we just dont know exactly how accurate they are but want to leave the orig gauges in place. Anyone see any issues with this?? Its a 67 cuda with 273

Thanks
4spdragtop

 

[Bad Sport]

Hey Steve, if it were me I would leave the factory wiring intact and try and hide it. Use the new lines, wires etc from the new gauges. You will want to change the sending units for the new gauges as they are calibrated to the new gauges. That's what I did in my car.

If you run an oil pressure gauge I would suggest using the metal pressure line instead of the plastic line.

 

[4spdragtop]

Hey Bruce, how ya been?? Been frickin hot up here for weeks now!!
Ok so when you say sending units, do you mean the sensors themselves(coolant and oil psi)??? I hear ya on the steel/copper capillary tube as well. So its safe to simply unhook and hide the orig wires from under the hood?? We want the orig fuel to work, but want to swap the oil/volt/coolant.

Thanks
Steve

 

[Bad Sport]

Hey Bruce, how ya been?? Been frickin hot up here for weeks now!!
Ok so when you say sending units, do you mean the sensors themselves(coolant and oil psi)??? I hear ya on the steel/copper capillary tube as well. So its safe to simply unhook and hide the orig wires from under the hood?? We want the orig fuel to work, but want to swap the oil/volt/coolant.

Thanks
Steve

Been hot here too. We are getting a reprieve this week though, I just wish we could get some rain.

Yes on the sensors/sending unit. One in the manifold (water) one in the back of the block (oil). I would say it's safe, I haven't had any issues, it's just a wire that runs from the sending unit to the gauge on both oil and water. I did it that way in case I wanted to go back to original for some crazy reason. I just hid them and used the new stuff that came with the gauges.

The volt meter I have is still the original, I haven't got that far yet.

 

[4spdragtop]

We have had very little rain, but did have some Saturday night. I will get dad out shopping for some new gauges....I love spending his money!! Thanks Bruce!

Steve

 

[Mopar to ya]

I had aftermarket gauges hooked up separately from my OE gauges. I found out that for the most part the OE gauges were accurate. I didn't want to splice wires and at the time wanted to stay with original wiring on my dash. Later, I threw that all out the window and went with a custom dash panel and Autometer gauges right in the dash. If you do it, I prefer electric (not digital) gauges because then you can use electronic sensors and all you have to run is wires rather than oil tubes (that can leak) and a big thermal wire for the temp gauge. Either way, I vote for leaving the original gauges in place and not disabling them. Run new connections to your aftermarket gauges.

 

[4spdragtop]

Thanks Mopar to ya!! My concern was one of the OE gauges acts like a limiter or something to the rest of the inst panel???? I didnt want to create any electrical issues.

Thanks
Steve