Well need some advice. Wanting to upgrade to digital gauges. Anyone have any words of wisdom here? I glanced at the dakota digital gauges just wondering if this is a hard install or anything to watch for etc..

 

i'm running nordskog digital....but i did a custom cluster..... there is a printed circuit that's digital for the c3

b

 

Nordskog here too. Not a hard install considering you're taking over half the dash out and rewiring all your gauges....

Brett

 

cool. Price?

 

I went to nordskog, Dakota digital was over twice the price. I was under $500 with sending units. Let me know if you would like any other info.

 

I went with Dakota b/c of the intergrated turn signal and high beam indicators, and becuase I loved the blue color.

They were expensive and took 8 weeks to get because you have to send them your bezels and they do a professional install into your bezels (they require this) so when you get it all back you just reinstall your bezels, install a couple new senders (included) and wire up the control box basically.

I do not regret it at all but again, expensive...

 

The nordskog gauges do have turn signals, parking brake and high beam indicators, no installation though.

 

How visable are the digital gauges in the sun and tops off? I've thought about changing the 5 secondary gauges. And, I called Dakota and they said $500 for them and I could install them myself. Of course I told them I was a custom shop...

 

kinda been wondering about pillar post pods like the tuners use. Not real serious but just thinkin.

 

On the Nordskog gauges the numbers (red display) are visible during the day but the leds that light around the rim are harder to see. You can see the circuit board behind the tinted glass in bright light. The accuracy if the gauges is excellent (temp is right on).

 

How hard of a install is this?

 

I had no problems with the install but had to very careful with wire labelling. I had to move my oil pressure sending unit to a different port (above the oil filter) to install my oil temp sending unit.

 

Hey Onaqwst I was looking at your photo gallery, what are the holes on the top of the dash for? Do you plan on putting speakers up there?

 

(Sorry, couldn't resist....)

Yeah, that's where my next phase of the "gauge-o-rama" is headed - never saw a two or three gauge pillar for C3's, so I figured the "box o' glass" approach with an old pillar and a cheapy pod from anywhere to make a form would be what I'd do....

I did NOT have an easy time with the gauge installs on mine, but it was a two or three month rebuild/rewire/reHVAC of the whole dash, much of which was broken badly. (I used about twenty tubes of epoxy through that - fixing cracked or crushed housings, etc.) Ultimately it was worth it. DDig insisting on doing it is a BARGAIN!

The red Nordskogs are fully visible in direct 4PM over-your-shoulder sun in my ragtop. They really are stunning. I took a bunch of pics, poorly, but stupid sbcyahoo whatsit won't let me really make the whole deal public so posting the link is pointless. (It SAYS it's public, but when even I try the link, it barfs and says I can't look at it....)

The middle panel was by far easiest, even with altering the radio deal for a DIN.

If you are going with the install it yourself option, absolutely get new gauge panel lenses from you favorite vette house. Mine were so scratched and dingy the digitals would have looked hellish behind them. If I was doing it again I would also get whole new gauge housings instead of fighting with fixing and installing mine.

I took black ducttape and flat black spray paint behind the faces of the two main gauges in key places and especially sealed the top of the housings thoroughly to prevent any light coming in there to clear up most of the "look ma! you can sees the GUTS!" problem.

I haven't found any of the non-red ones I've tried to be visible in direct sun, but are in near.

I made an auxilliary 8 gauge dashtop panel that worked out great. (That was my first make-a-form-from-cardboard, glass-it, soak it-to-lose-the-cardboard, then-pad-it-and-cover-it-in-matching material-to-the-rest-of-the-interior effort and it actually worked!) On that panel I tried the various colors and keep changing it frequently with new gauges for different things I really have no need to get info on but want anyhow. (One simply can never, EVER! have ENOUGH pointless info flickering in your face at 110mph!)

I wanted the DD blue too, but never did try them since few things at the time were available in blue and I was afraid it would be low-vis like amber and green is.

I wish I could have done a bigger panel, but didn't want to hurt visibility. I designed this panel to coincide with the vision blockoff from the hood scoop so it doesn't affect visibility at all. Other than that you'd have room for 12-14 extra gauges on the dash top. You could FINALLY monitor IMPORTANT things like....like....well, there's rear deck temperature for one!

I currently have two Ultralight rotary display A/F meters, a second tach and voltmeter (from before the main Nordskog panels when my original was "iffy"), vacuum/boost, fuel pressure, tran temp and diff temp. Several are green and can't be seen in the sun, oddly the tiny LED's on the A/F gauges can be seen regardless of color but overall aren't super bright - I don't get that.

Now that Ultralight offers black faced A/F gauges, I need to change those, get a red tran temp and have a custom face made for a red diff temp that actually says "diff t" (instead of "oil t.") I also need to change the second tach and voltmeter - possibly twin exhaust pyros? or just a mundane clock and intake air temp (I already have that gauge and the aircleaner sensor run to it - what I used to use the diff t "oil temp" gauge for before I actually installed the sensor in the diff.)

(You might be suspecting by now - in some tiny corner of your mind - that I might be something of a gauge nut...BUT I DENY THIS! It's all just reaction to the repressed information age of the '80's when they were on the verge of putting in just an idiot light for fuel level.....)

I always liked the idea of putting a set of nitrous gauges on a pillar - even if I don't HAVE nitrous yet... ..but the digital offerings are slim so far.

 

work. I didn't forget to try, but it didn't work.

 

anyone have a website for these gauges?

 

Wayne L Burnham you are BY FAR one of the most entertaining people (next to myself naturally) I have ever had the pleasure of reading!!

On another note, Im really very curious to see pics, you can upload them here on CF. Im also wondering whose sensors you used, did you have to do any taping to get them to work? Ive been thinking of doing a full on digital conversion myself plus a HUD so I can REALLY see all of that pointless information. Oh, where did you get a new speedo? The kit I want from Defi doesnt have one, alas...

EDIT: Ive contacted Dakota Digital about the possibility of using their full on kit, sensors, wiring ETC with the DEFI processor and HUD unit... from my standpoint I cant see WHY there would be a conflict, its simple input/output. Ill keep everyone posted about the result. Just an FYI though, to do the Dakota system with everything plus the DEFI CPU/HUD would run in the neighbourhood of 1500 USD

 

{Lisa Kudrow voice: ON} No! YOU ARE!!! :o


I'll try that again manana....


I have pretty much gotten all the Nordskog or other gauge vendor sending units where applicable (mine are not all Nordskog). Other than the electric speedo sender, this was all optional and the original (or whatever else was on there) were fine. They all go into standard locations. The water temp was exactly like the original as was the oil pressure sender, except it was the more noise resistant more stable two wire type.

The temp senders are all one type for oil/water temps (do NOT use the silly air temp sensor - I used one for the intake air temp and it MELTED!) I welded a bung on the new Moroso 7 qt, had one tap done to the deck of the tranny case (since it was being rebuilt and that's more stable than a pan mounted one.) The diff temp goes into the drain plug (I don't recall if the thread was the same right now, if I used an adapter or if I drilled out a drain plug and threaded it for the sensor.) The O2 sensors have both been Bosch and went into welded bungs I had the muffler shop put on both secondaries of the headers. (On CAC, several said the newer Denso general one wire ones were responding almost like fast reads - of which supposedly now some cheapy ones are available for <$100, but I haven't seen them. I think I'll try a pair of the Denso's next.)

The fuel pressure sender just goes into a standard fuel block on the fuel line. The vacuum sender just takes a vacuum line to a supplied transducer (they recommended putting it under the hood, but that tranducer seemed absurdly "plasticish" to expose to engine bay temps so I ran the line inside to the tranducer stuffed under the dash.)

The Nordskog electronic tranny sender included an adapter thingy to use both mechanical output and the transducer, but it wouldn't fit and since I could think of no reason to use the mechanical line/cable again, I could see no reason to keept the original in there - so it just now has the electronic part only. (Later I even removed the manual cable entirely.)


O U 2!!!! Wow I'd love to see a HUD on one of these! I almost bought a whole unit from a wrecked C5, but my main problem was angle of the C3's windshield is so much more acute with so much greater curvature I thought I'd need some custom shaped mirror or lens to get it to project (if the steeper glass angle on the C3 didn't even reflect back so much less light that it was nearly invisible.) There was also the problem of the dash top deck are being less and under dash top volume being a lot less to house the circuitry and projector. The fore to aft of the C5 dash is a lot deeper too, which is really needed for the projector and other guts. Possibly if the driver dash top 4x7" speaker was removed there would be enough room.


On a dual use setup, some of that would depend where you split signal and what kind it was. I think all the 4-20mA types would be splittable directly, but I don't know if any of these gauges use that at all. The 0-1V sensors MAY be more easily split, depending upon if any of the sensors or gauges were power hogs, which they probably aren't. The straight resistive ones may prove the most problem prone as any split in detected resistance would skew the action of both gauges.

Yeah the cost on these things is not cheap. Then again, this is fairly cheap for the moment-to-moment impact of the gauges you get while driving. I more hated how damned LONG it took to do this project - the car was down for an age and I put a good 20-30 hours in it each week.

I'll put links up in a sec but I don't want to lose the text trying to paste them...so I'll edit them in....

http://www.nordskogperformance.net/

http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerc...55&prmenbr=361 (Cyberdyne via Jegs)

http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...=egnsearch.asp (Summit Digital Gauges)

 

Please do keep us informed! I am sure there are a number of us who are quite interested in the response. I have always expected Dakota to come out with a HUD system, seems like it would be a hit with the street rod crowd who make up most of their customer base.

 

Well Ive been talking to Mike at Dakota, but Im a little confused here. He did confirm that resistance differences could cause a problem, but then he suggested

"I would think that the best thing to do would be to run both senders,
ours and theirs. You could just Y them both in to the engine. This
would eliminate having to change multiple resistance curves and hoping
that the gauges both remain accurate."

Does this make sense to anyone? How can you run 2 sets of senders, through 1 wire, to a Demi sending unit that may have different impedence than the Dakota guages and still have it work? electronics at this level is beyond me help