Snow is falling like crazy here in Montana, so I went ahead and took care of one of my winter projects: Installing ProSport EVO series gauges, electrical boost and wideband AFR. These were installed into a Lotek A-Pillar Pod (review to follow)
Product: Evo Electrical Boost Gauge-Green and White
Rating: 7/10
Pros: Shipping was great, quick and well packaged. The gauge appears to be of good quality, very nice look. I love the completely black face when off and the starting "ceremony" or sweep it does when turned on. Instructions were fairly simple, but clear. Kit comes with enough vacuum line and fittings for me to install the MAP sensor in the location I chose. Light changing function works perfectly, white when lights are off and green when lights are on. Gauge is accurate thus far when compared to a mechanical AutoMeter boost gauge and a diagnostic vacuum/boost gauge.
Cons: Although the gauge is dimmable, the website is not clear on how this is achieved; I assumed I could tap into the dimmer circuit to make the display dim with the OEM cluster, or at least set a brightness for day and a different setting for night. Unfortunately, neither of these assumptions were correct; you set the brightness by turning a knob on the back of the gauge, and the setting is applied to both day and night. Dimmest setting is okay so far for day, wish the night was more dim though. Map sensor has a "cheesy" quality feel to it, although I have not yet had any problems with it during installation or use. Both the MAP sensor and Gauge come with wiring pigtails (Gauge is about 14", MAP sensor is only about 4"), so you will have to create your own wiring harness. Extra time and money involved to do this right, but not too difficult.
Notes: I've read on many forums that ProSport boost gauges usually read ~2PSI low, and will in fact show 2 in/mg engine off. This was also the case with mine. I discovered while attempting to adjust the brightness that you can calibrate the gauge for your altitude from the back side of the gauge, negating this "problem". Once I set mine to 0 with engine off, all is good as far as accuracy is concerned. Also, this gauge has a range from 30in/mg to 35psi, well beyond the typical usable range of a relatively stock 7MGTE. Even though the boost will not travel very far past the 10psi mark, the gauge has an LED "dial" that builds as the boost increases. This "dial" builds from 30in/mg to the current pressure, so the gauge still fills up ~50% at 10psi, which is aesthetically okay with me.
Overall, happy with the purchase of this gauge. 7/10 due to dimmer and wiring
Product: EVO Wideband White/Green Digital Air Fuel Ratio kit
Rating: 9/10
Pros: Once again, good shipping speed/packaging. Well put together kit, wiring for gauge and 02 sensor are both complete harnesses, had enough wiring to run both exactly as planned, without too much left over (very happy I didn't have to extend the harnesses as I suspected). This kit uses a control module as a hub for the different harnesses and pigtails to connect to (o2, gauge, power feed, and analog out). I was also happy to see that the power for the whole setup is fed into the module, so no extra/duplicate lines to run to the gauge. The analog output can be configured for 0-5DCV mode or 0-1DCV mode, and can therefore be used to provide the ECU with a narrowband output within it's expected voltage range (I am running both the OEM o2 narrowband sensor and the new wideband sensor, so I did not use this function). Kit also comes with the Bosch (in box w/part #) LSU 4.9 5 wire heated o2 sensor- good quality sensor from what I've read. Gauge reads from 10-20, most read up to 18. Also has a completely black face when off, does the same opening ceremony as the above reviewed boost gauge, and switches from white to green with the headlights.
Cons: Instructions are a poor translation from some other language, with a little bit of thinking and filling in some gaps installation was fairly simple. Also only has 1 dim setting for both day and night modes.
Notes: The control unit has a "calibration" button on it that is not mentioned in the instructions. After a little time on Google, I discovered that with a new sensor you must calibrate the module for accurate readings. It is recommended to do this again after about 500 miles on the new sensor to ensure correct readings on the gauge.
I'm happy with both the gauges, pics show them in both day and night. The night pic actually looks worse thanks to my camera; they are bright, but it's not obnoxious and is still easy to see.