SPA Dual Guages

[rspeers]

Has anyone installed the SPA Dual Guage and where did you mount it? Also how does it perform and look during the day and at night. Is it worth the money. I need EGT and Boost guages and they look interesting in Geno's Catalog.

 

[LSMITH]

I have had mine for 2 1/2 years or so. Love it. Day is really good, night is a little bright but the newer ones have adjustable backlights. Performance has been great, put a little dielectric grease on the connections at install and they are trouble free. Brandon at www.xtremediesel.com is who I would buy it from. Heck of a nice guy and knows SPA better than anyone else.



https://www.turbodieselregister.com/user_gallery/displayimage.php?&photoid=582&width=2 for a Pic of mine on the pillar.

 

[BarryG]

Ditto what LSmith said. I have 3 of them in the A pillar. I didn't really have trouble with old ones at night but the new ones are even better as mentioned the adjustable lighting is nice.

 

[Ted Constantine]

I put mine in the little cubby hole to the right of hte radio. With the new version I would go for the pillar for easier viewing but with mine it is perfect. i think I would find it to bright on the pillar.

you can see it in this pict
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[TomGolden]

I have had 3 of the new Series 2 gauges in for almost a year now. Bought from and installed by Brandon "The Man" himself



The only complaint I have, the connectors between the sensor unit and the main wiring harness frequently gets loose. I have used the dielectric grease, and it is of varying success. The two worst gauges I have for wild fluctuations are fuel pressure and engine oil temp. My guess is this is because these connections are extremely close to the engine, and suffer the most from the rattlin' of the mighty Cummins.



I cut the factory connector off and hard soldered the darn things together - no more fluctuations!! Of course now if I ever have to change the sensor unit, it will be a bit more work, but I'd much rather have gauges that I can trust 100% of the time.



Yes, they are quite expensive, I chose them for many reasons, primarily because of the dual gauge feature, I now have 6 gauges where only 3 analog gauges would fit before.



To see pictures, click on the "Godzilla" link in my signature block.



Tom

 

[Ted Constantine]

Tom i have found that the yellow plug on the thermocouple vibrates off so i just put a little electrical tape around it. There is a nicer thermocouple with a SS braided line coming off it that I did not know about until almost a year after I got my gauge. I don't know what the conector on that one is like. My boost sensor is soldered in solid.

 

[willyslover]

Ted . . the thermo couple is now available... the end is still like the old style though

 

[nickleinonen]

anywhere in canada where SPA design gauges can be purchased at reasonable price?

anyone?



i have my eye on the DG200WB engine oil pressure / water temp gauge. looks like the msrp on it is $269 [taken from the spa usa website]



thanks

 

[willyslover]

try Rod at Wildcat Diesel. . he is near you in Sask.

I do not know if he carries SPA's or not. . if not he does have Hewett another very nice guage brand !



I also have SPA's and if I didn't I'd have hewett's

 

[David_VT]

I've had my SPA since the time the idea was introduced to the TDR and remain pleased with it. .



Thermocouple was a problem at first but no problems since.

The boost pressure sensor to wiring harness connection keeps having problems, likely due to it hitting the (I think) fuel filter housing. If it ever warms up again I will pull that apart and try the solder solution.



As a temporary mounting idea I found some 1" foam (kind of like the camping sleeping pad hard stuff) and cut it to fit in the cubby on the right side of the dash. It was grey and I used a permanent marker to color it black. I cut an undersized hole for the gauge and jammed it in. Two winters later it still looks fine in that temporary mount. . Also, even with my dirt road, the gauge has never moved and maybe is somewhat shock protected by the dense foam. It really looks far better than it sounds. Looks like a flat black finish on hard plastic.

 

[Steve G]

I had SPA when they first came out and then upgraded to the Mark IIs. The thermocouple on Mark II read low and was told that they were working on a fix to the problems with them. Have they fixed the problem on these? The first series worked great and never had a problem. If they fixed the Mark IIs I will probably go with them again on new truck.



Steve

 

[willyslover]

Steve I think the thermocouple issue was all of them the first and second generations LOL... and there is a new thermocouple for them now... . it has flex wrap comming off it now , but Brandon says it's all fixed

 

[Ted Constantine]

The thermocouple issue was not all the first gen SPAs it was after they changed the supplier of the thermocouples that they had the issue. As I understand it has been resolved.

I am thinking about doing the $150 upgrade on my gauge to get the mark II. Have any of you done the upgrade? any issues.

Also i am thinking of adding two more gauges, A fp/oilpress (where would you tap the oil pressure sensor?). Second thing I was toying with was a pressure gauge on my exhaust brake to give back pressure. Has anyone ever done this? I was thinking maybe of a egt/boost and putting a post turbo egt on as well.

I would love some opinions.

Ted

 

[willyslover]

Ted. . I have the FP/Oil Temp... the tap on mine is the port on the oil filter housing. . [gone thru 1 sending unit so far. . just installed the second and hope it has life. ]. . and I haven't thought of the brake one, but did like the dual EGT one however maybe an overkill IMHO as I have a temp switch for shutdown that reads off the SPA pre-turbo [I turn off walk away and it shuts itself down after 280* and that can be changed by the SPA for temp]... thanks to Nowel [HVAC] and Mike Crossley for the temp set up]



and your correct about the thermocouple suppliers... some were having failures on the first 1/8" because we were bending them over a little to clear everything... well the insulation was very thin in this thermocouple do to it being 1/8" and so we ended up with a direct short to ground. . they tried a different thermocouple and it wasn't a good one as it was 1/4" and slow reading... another new supplier and all is well [for now we hope]. . [thanks Brandon for all the work involved with this one and Patrick at SPA]



and do not know if the "upgrade option" is still available ... I kinda think its over... but who knows go for it



SPA's are available fron HVAC and Brandon both good guys ! [as well as others here]

 

[JohnMcIntyre]

SPA Mk.1s for 2 yrs - very happy!!

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[TomGolden]

Yes, the thermocouple issue has a solution now. I called SPA directly about 3 months ago, explained I had one of the slow/low reading T/C's, they sold me a new one, has been working great. The price to just buy the new T/C is like ~$40, but since I had one of the early, defective ones, they sold me the new one for $30 as I recall.

 

[Ted Constantine]

willys, I was assuming that the upgrade deal was over, but I saw it is the first thing that pops up under gauges on the SPA web site last night. Now that I think about it that is probably about what the gauge itself would cost with out the sensors and wiring harness, or they may even com out on to in the deal.



I have gone through one thermoscouple and one pressure sensor on my DG111. The pressure sensor was the original style where the plug was on the sensor not down the lead so they shook then selves appart. I never remembered to send the thermoscouple in to SPA so don't know what was up with that. It has been a while on these sensors and they are still kicking.



I am really wishing I had a FP gauge but have been dragging my feet on that for a long time so soon I will be doing the upgrade.



Ted