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Newbie from VIC


DraftySquash
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@Kinkstaah 

The gauges are a real tough sell for me lol. 

I love the shift lights, I love being able to display any sensor I want with the click of the mouse, I love being able to create custom warnings that display on the dash. 

And so many little things, like when I'm road tuning, I love being able to see my timing and throttle % in real time (when I'm logging data, the cell I want to log data from might need me to hold at exactly 9% throttle position, being able to see that on the dash is so crazy helpful). 

I love having a display for the track and one for the street, I am interested in monitoring very different sensors in each setting. 

I love being able to see the exact ethanol value so in the back of my mind I know how much extra timing is dialed in etc. 

Also, I already have all of the sensors and the ECU, so it really is only the price of the dash for me (oh and I suppose the 3D printed surround, whatever solution you use for the alternator exciter, whatever solution you use for a speed signal and any other little things like maybe a pull up resistor for the fuel level sender - but who counts this stuff, they are the boring bits lol)

I could keep going on about how much I love my dash but it will start to get silly lol. 

Edited by Murray_Calavera
typo
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image.thumb.png.e500b164bbb1667310fb3e9b25bf3b01.pngimage.thumb.png.a10285ec68d6d20b2acea489de18a315.png
Yea but my dash looks like this.

I'm not saying the haltech dashes are bad, because I too like all that stuff. But I can't make any compelling argument as to a single reason I actually require it, not to mention one also needs to buy a haltech ECU whereas the setup I have will work with any ECU.

And tbh, road tuning should be datalogging with trims and all that. You know it to be true. The whole point is at some point you can set it and forget it. That said, I often commute around with a laptop checking how close my tune is when the weather changes and all sorts of tinkery stuff too.

And I can't even justify a digital gauge. There's plenty scope to still use external gauges and save multiple thousands of dollars for literally no benefit. The main sensors are pretty available all the time. And for those that aren't, I can use Torque to see... I dunno. IAT? Quarter mile times? I can also use lap timing on it too (and so could anybody).

That's quite a lot of functionality for stock slots, without needing a digital dash, the ECU to run it, and a LOT of patience. Also if you want to get crazy, Haltech do a IC7/ODB2 slot for the R34 MFD space, replacing the stock triple gauge cluster with that.

And I still can't justify the $ :p

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@Kinkstaah

The Haltech dashes have a few options, you can get them stand alone so they work with the factory ECU or if carby, no ECU lol. There is an OBD2 option and the regular version works over CAN with Link, Microtech, Motec, Syvecs and MaxxECU. 

The road tuning example I was talking about is quite specific, so I use scatter plots quite a lot with the way I tune. In the example I was talking about, I might be trying to build a scatter plot for a very specific area of my fuel/timing map, being able to see my TPS in real time I've found to be super helpful with being able to drive the way is required to be in those areas of the maps. 

I'll pop a video in for an example of the scatter plot software I use, it's really quite nice. 

But in the end, I suppose you don't "need" it as you say, but I fkn looooooooooooove it and I use so many of its features all the time. I feel like I get a lot of value out of the dash and for me it is a huge upgrade over stock. 

So many things in life you don't need, but we still throw our money at it anyway lol. 

 

 

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You could get TPS via ODB2 and is one of those 'useless' gauges that I have on Torque. When I tune, I pretty much just drive the car and look back on how far out the fuel map is in %, then trim the base map to suit after driving around for ~30 minutes or an hour. Hell, the last time I did the datalog for the fuel map I did a 30 minute track session with a laptop secured in the footwell :D

I had a Haltech before I went LS and I absolutely loved it too. The real kicker is that Haltech and other modern ECU's can actually *do* things with the signals from gauges, like say - Shut your engine down if oil pressure is too low, or oil temperature is too hot, or if AFR is too lean or literally any configurable thing.

To me that's the real big advantage over a stock ECU. But it can also do all of that no matter what gauge or cluster setup that you happen to have

1 hour ago, Murray_Calavera said:

I can't think of any reason why someone would start adding individual gauges. 

I was really responding to this though. 99% of people are between where the OP is and where us tragics are. With a R34, those gauges are already there in the GTT. What are you gonna do with them? May as well make them work/be useful as in stock form they are pretty useless. (volt meter, oil temp only usable with OEM sensor, and a strange boost gauge that caps out at any boosted amount)

So may as well swap them out for something functional/usable/tied into an ECU/provide relevant data, and there's plenty of space to do so.

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On 02/07/2024 at 8:39 PM, Murray_Calavera said:

You'll be fine mate, it's an easy job :)

Happy days!!!!
Cut my fingers a bit but managed to change the fuel filter today. It was NASTY! The fuel coming out was black. 
Those clamps were just part of the tube from how long it had been. I got some injector cleaner to put in the car as well because of what it looked like. 

I'll try to get the coolant done next weekend or this Sunday (now that I know how to "safely" jack up the car)

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Here’s something I was wondering. From the colour of the fuel that came out of the old filter and how hard it was to take it out, I would assume that was clogged AF!

Do you think the car was running lean during those times? And would it now run better now that the flow is better? Or would it run rich for a while and then start adjusting? 
I’m not really sure if the R34 ECU adjusts to changes like this. I mean it’s an ECU from 2000, not AI 😂

But also, interested to know if anything like that is there.

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I was using Realdash App on my entertainment unit in the sil80. Can connect over USB/bluetooth, can set up warnings and is discreet and doesn't stand out bonus was using android auto so had maps and music still going.
Put the dollars saved from a screen into decent ecu, sensors and other upgrades.

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