summit gauge questions

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shadango

shadango

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Any of you guys running the summit mechanical gauges (oil, water temp and volts) ? Any opinions of their kits?

At $40 its a bargain and I need something to monitor my engine as I dont trust the idiot gauges in the stock dash. I dont want to spend big cash right now...just something to have til I find a better way to go....I like the idea of dash gauges but aint that far into the car yet....and want to drive it once I get the drivetrain squared away....seems like knowing the oil pressure etc would be a good thing.

At $40 I can use them a while, turn around and resell them later.

Is the mechanical oil gauge a huge deal to install? Seems simple enough....this will be the first mechanical oil gauge I have ever messed with....
 
You will have to run tubing with a mech oil pressure gauge. Easy enough
but makes a huge mess if it fails inside the car!

Personally, I'd go with a set of cheap electrical gauges, but you could also
try the AutoGage name made by autometer, they are nice. I am trying to
remember who makes the Summit brand, but I know it wasn't us! (AutoMeter)
 
Why don't you trust the lights?
Most people install gauges only to give them a warm feeling that they know
what is going on with their car. To be honest, none of us need them, thankfully though people buy them as it payed my wages for many years.

The Summit gauges probably have an accuracy of about 6%, your lights are
not much different than that.
 
you can easliy replace the plastic tubing from the oil guage with copper tubing.
 
Absolutely, if you do though make sure the tubing has gentle bends, and
it does not vibrate against anything. Copper was supplied with gauges many
years ago but there were failures due to the copper work hardening and
failing. Some of the new plastic tubing is awesome for abrasion resistance,
and hi temps.
 
Same issues apply to a mechanical temp gauge. The capilary tube is nitrogen filled. If it gets kinked or cracked its history.
It takes only 7 to 9 lbs of oil pressure to turn the factory warning lamps off. A light demands attention while gauges get ignored. The ultimate setup is both gauges and warning lamps.
My brother and I plan to incorperate warning lamps inside the gauge cluster of our custom rallye panels. There wont be aditional senders , just electronic monitoring of the stock gauges.
 
RedFish said:
Same issues apply to a mechanical temp gauge. The capilary tube is nitrogen filled. If it gets kinked or cracked its history.
It takes only 7 to 9 lbs of oil pressure to turn the factory warning lamps off. A light demands attention while gauges get ignored. The ultimate setup is both gauges and warning lamps.
My brother and I plan to incorperate warning lamps inside the gauge cluster of our custom rallye panels. There wont be aditional senders , just electronic monitoring of the stock gauges.
Click to expand...

Good Deal, keep me posted!

Some use ether for mech temp gauges because of it's low boiling temp.
This can also supply some entertainment when gauge tubing breaks, or
you are recycling a bunch of gauges :)

The other issue with mech gauges is that they are more sensitive to any
debris getting inside the unit, causing havoc on the small gears that drive
the bourdon tube. Keep in mind it's the flexing of the tube that drives
the gearing / pointer!

Red Fish, I'd love to see what you are working on! I have your IVR and love it.
 
i had a set of those on my scout while i was doing break in . the oil pressure worked fine (still works now) but the volt meter did not work and i found out while doing the break in that the temp wasnt working either. this was about 8 yrs ago, i think they are equus guages.. if i want cheapo guages i use sunpro, but for all my good stuff it gets the autometers (mainly because they look better, i dont think they are any better in quality imo).
also every mech oil guage i use gets the autometer braided hose kit, it never leaks.
 
There are differences in quality between manufactures, and it's true you
do get what you pay for. The sunpro mini's are actually pretty decent
gauges and the price is certainly good!

Auto Meter has several different lines with varying accuracy. The high end
full sweep electrics like the Cobalt and Nexus gauges are accurate to about
1.5% and auto calibrate every time you start your car. You are also
going to pay 200 bucks a gauge to get that! To be honest, like you mentioned, that is more for the cool factor than accuracy needed for our
street cars.
 
Well, I got the summits. Right on the faces of the gauges it says SUN.....so nice to know they arent complete crap at least....

I used some stiff black poly line and slid that over the provided white line..perfect fit and it gives the line inside an extra measure of protection and leak resistance. :)

So where is a good place to install the temp sensor on a 318?? Seems that the ports on my manifold are too shallow for the provided sensor.... :(
 
You can buy the copper tubing kit from carquest for 18.00. I just installed mine. They work great! They were also 40.00. No complaints here.
 
has anyone tried the oil gauges the are water filled and the fitting to the oil is under the hood not in the cab of the car so it a line brakes it water thats get in rugs
 
Look on e-bay for a 2 foot #4 braided line. Sometimes they are on there with ends for cheap.
 
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