Install Performance Gauges

A turbocharged car is definitely one of the dopest things you can possess—second only to having Anna Kournikova as your personal love slave. The problem is that many people think everything will run perfectly after they turbocharge their cars (that goes for upgrading cars that are turbo- charged from the factory as well).

Monitoring boost levels and air/fuel ratios is very important but often overlooked. A lean-running car might make more power, but once you cross that hair-thin borderline, you’ll need to borrow your dad’s truck to haul your motor to the junkyard. Your stock oxygen sensor monitors how your car is running and sends the signal back to the ECU for fuel-delivery adjustments. The only problem is that you don’t know what the signal is reading. Wouldn’t it be awesome to intercept that signal so you know what adjustments your ECU is making? Wouldn’t it also be awesome to know how much maximum boost you’re running to help you determine how much more power you can extract from your motor? And if you could do that by reading actual numbers (psi in this case) off an aftermarket boost gauge instead of the “-” and “=” signs on the factory boost gauge, wouldn’t that be awesome too? (And wouldn’t that be awesome if Ricky would stop saying awesome?—JN) If you could monitor boost and air/fuel ratios from as close as your steering column, what would that rate on a 1–10 scale of awesomeness? Well, with Auto Meter, now you can do it all. Except for the Anna Kournikova detail. We decided this turbocharged 2000 Honda Civic Si was seriously lacking some gauges and that an Auto Meter boost gauge and an air/fuel-ratio meter would help monitor the newly turbo’d motor.