Speco gauges -any good?

[mick08]

Anyone using speco gauges are they any good? cause their pretty cheap on ebay, bout $30-$40.

[ecko]

i have a few mates using them and they haven't reported any issues.
they are on sale at repco atm for that same price..

[CrUZida]

http://www.toymods.net//forums/showthread.php?t=47644

http://www.toymods.net//forums/showthread.php?t=34957

[mick08]

Well i got me speco's today and will see how i go, pays to shop around but repco had the mechanical water temp for $38 and the mechanical oil temp for $99, rang around a few places and got the oil temp for $45 at autobarn, only prob i had was the mech sender on both gauges has a 5/8unf thread which is good for fuck all so speco sells an adaptor to bring it to a much more friendly 3/8 npt part# 544-44 $6.50, i just tee'd it into the 3/8 hose i'm using for trans cooler plumbing and bought it up thru the orig shifter hole in the floor, haven't mounted the gauges yet but will put em under the stereo in my RN90 Lux. They are smaller than the normal gauges at 2inch so they will fit well with a custom panel. water-temp part#524-23 oil-temp part#524-15.

[1JZ-Rolla]

Anyone using speco gauges are they any good?

Nope.

Well not the basic series that gets sold at Repco etc anyway. Good if you want an indication of whether your engine is freezing or boiling, boosting or on vacuum, above or below 4000rpm etc, but not much else inbetween Maybe that's a bit harsh, I guess they are ok to show the difference between normal operating and something wrong, but they certainly aren't a precision measure.

Built to a price, not a standard.

Then again you could spend a lot more on some of Autometer's products & get not much better, so its a tough market to find value for money!

[mr2gze]

Nope.

Well not the basic series that gets sold at Repco etc anyway. Good if you want an indication of whether your engine is freezing or boiling, boosting or on vacuum, above or below 4000rpm etc, but not much else inbetween Maybe that's a bit harsh, I guess they are ok to show the difference between normal operating and something wrong, but they certainly aren't a precision measure.

Built to a price, not a standard.

Then again you could spend a lot more on some of Autometer's products & get not much better, so its a tough market to find value for money!

Are you referring to any particular gauge in either range? Might be an idea to provide some reference to your thoughts. . .

http://autospeed.com/cms/title_Giant...8/article.html
http://autospeed.com/cms/title_Giant...7/article.html

Going by these 2 tests (apart from the Speco 537-03), they appear to be of similar accuracy to many of the other gauges tested (yes these may be shit also).

2.5%, 3.7%, 2.6%, 3.6% average error rate, I would say is rather accurate (especially for a street car). 13.1%, 7.3% is less than good, however the other gauges tested also show a significantly higher error rate.

Where would you spend your money?

cheers

[1JZ-Rolla]

Yeah sorry, bit of a generalisation I s'pose More making the point that you get what you pay for. Have personally seen variance of 3psi on Speco mech boost gauges (from brand new), and over-reading of 15 degrees C on elec water temp, and annoyingly also the oil pressure gauges (both mech & elec) seem prone to moisture inside the lens/cover, which fogs them up terribly on cooler days.

Autometer/Autogage seem no better (maybe worse!), but you can't go wrong with VDO, or if you feel like splashing some cash, Stewart Warner gauges

[MWP]

Unless you pay high $$s and have the gauge calibrated often, you wont get much better than +-2psi accuracy.

My Speco boost gauge, blitz elec boost controller and microtech map sensor all give different readings.
I have no idea which one is the closest to being correct, and really, does it actually matter?

[crownv8]

I won't use them again.

I had been chasing a "running hot" problem with my 1UZ ever since I got it on the road until one day I put a temperature gauge straight in the top tank. I found the same thing, the speco electric temp gauge was over reading by about 10-15 degrees.

The engine would constantly sit on 95 and temps over 100 were common.

I bought a Pricol electric gauge now. I've used them a bit and they are quite accurate. Plus now I don't have an overheating problem.

Shane.