Hey guys, I've been working with the nGauge folks to get better support for our generation of cars. It has pretty much any all PIDs you'd be interested in seeing on these cars, not a complete list by any means:

Commanded AFR
Equiv Ratio
Knock
RPM
Speed
Long and short fuel trims
E85 content and sensor freq
MAF freq and flow
MAP
Injector pulsewidth
Intake air temp
Coolant temp
Oil pressure
Trans temp
2 analog inputs

No tuning support at this time, but multiple gauge display/layouts, LED lights at the top you could use as an alert or shift light. Configurable alerts for all displayed params. Logging to SD card. Touch screen

Similar in functionality to the Aeroforce Interceptor, but you can see a lot more stuff on the screen at once, more alert options, touch screen so its easier to config etc. Better logging. Note it's not a standard 52mm gauge--it's larger. Which makes it a little harder to stuff somewhere but way easier to see.

Just thought I would share, these are popular with the newer GM and Ford vehicles, but I never saw much talk about them on these cars. They were a little limited on the data available for this car, but that is now resolved.

 

Very nice! Do you have a rough size available? As in, could a 52mm gauge pod be sanded/bored out a little to accept it?

This would just use OBD available PIDs, right? So not much more than the Torque app could provide? I have the Torque app with a phone mount in my daily, but the C5 dash really has limited places to mount a phone, so if I can take some material out of one of the a-pillar gauge pod holes, this would be pretty cool!

 

The outside diameter of this thing is about 3.25"...but it has a backing plate that would allow it to fit into a 52mm slot, would just need to make sure it has that 3" clearance around that general area. The backing plate also allows it to mount to a small compact suction cup mount. Mine that I got from amazon just arrived. I think suction cup is going to be the best bet unless it would work for you in the A pillar.

In comparison to torque app (which I've used a bunch too), this has a few more useful PIDs (you could define them in torque, but you'd need to find the PID, equation etc.) Biggest issue with torque I think is the connection speed.... with my OBDLink MX it gets about 20-25 pid/s. So with 5 things being logged or displayed at once, about a 5hz rate. I can't remember exactly what it is on ngauge, but about an order of magnitude faster. For example logging or looking at knock on Torque isn't really that useful if it's only updating once a second etc.

I think this gauge would be way better in terms of logging (not as good as hptuners or efilive logging, but super easy and convenient), setting up multiple alerts and just general ease of use.

I'll get some pics of my setup soon, but you can probably google around a bit to get an idea. Most use the suction cup mount or some custom in-car air vent replacement unit.

 

Here's a really quick mockup just to show you the relative size and placement I'm probably going to go with. With this gauge you really wouldn't need any others, for NA or FI setup. Can easily see boost via MAP sensor, and analog inputs for wideband and fuel pressure.

I'd like something a little more stealthy, but this is about the best I can do. This is held up via that suction mount.

But from a functionalist standpoint I don't think you could do much better. Nice, high quality bright screen, easy to read. The LED lights/bar at the top of the gauge I have linked to RPM so it basically can function as a shift light at will illuminate red once at whatever rpm I set it to. Could also make that boost or whatever you wanted. Very customizable which is a huge plus to me.

 

Man that looks perfect...I searched for a long time for something like that before I gave up and finally decided a-pillar gauges...NOW you post this? Lol
Unfortunately, unless I go back to an SD tune, which isn't gonna happen, I'm stuck with a 1 bar MAP sensor so I would still need a vacuum based boost gauge :/ This definitely works for a lot of other C5 owners though, good job on connecting with them to get this done!
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I had an Ngauge in my supercharged fifth gen 1LE Camaro. Awesome gauge. Should have kept it as I could definitely use it on the build I’m about to do on this 99 I just bought. What steering wheel do you have ?

 

C6/GS wheel. It was a little bit of an involved project but happy with the end result. Better than C5 wheel (IMO), but still able to retain a working airbag etc.

 

Yeah it looks way better, the C5 wheel is definitely not a good looking wheel. My C5 is a project car so I plan on changing it and now after seeing yours I am going to look into it
Thanks

 

cliffs: You have to remove the rack, probably buy a spare C6 rack, swap a shaft (different spline). Find single stage airbag from express van that has same style steering wheel. Install said single stage airbag in C6 wheel. Then plug n play iwth the C5 clockspring. IF you want steering wheel controls, you'll need C6 clockspring, might have to mess with some wiring for airbag. and of course steering wheel controller or whatever for the radio you have installed.

I got my wheel new on Rockauto, pretty good price. They didn't have the suede ones last time I looked.

There's some good how to threads on here. Info is kinda scattered around though, PM me if you have any questions, happy to help.

 

Are they working on the loading of tunes from efi or hptuner and where does it get power from for the electronics?

 

Boost gauge support?

 

No, no tuning support for our older J1850 VPW protocol sadly. Highly doubt that will, virtually no one uses the product on these older cars. Powered thru OBD port/plug.

Yes, it reads factory MAP sensor and will show you relative boost/psi or MAP/kpa or whatever units you want.

 

I think I will order one! Is there any differences between the HP tuner one and the generic one?

 

I'm honestly not sure. I emailed them asking some questions, which eventually led to me buying one etc. It might not be a bad idea to email them first, to make sure you're getting the right one. Tell them you're running J1850 VPW protocol PCM / Gen 3 LS PCM.

 

In my talking with them, it sounded like there was a generic version/firmware and Lund specific..... that sounds like generic vs hptuners like you are talking about.

So I suspect you want the generic version, but again, might not hurt to double check.

 

I had an HP Tuners version on my 5th gen Camaro and you could only tune the car with HP tuner software but since these cars are not able to be tuned via the ngauge I am also interested to know what we should buy or probably both work since we wont be tuning the car via the gauge