Going to add an aux gauge to the ei fuel computer in my old Cessna. What do you guys suggest? Thinking digital oil pressure would be nice. Oil temp instead? Carb temp? What do you guys use n why. The old analog Cessna gauges have a lot to be desired but the guys that make the rules say I need to spend 5k+ or keep them so...

You didn't provide too much info to get this going.....but I will try to guess what you may find helpful.

Guys have flown their planes for years with the old Cessna analog gauges for oil pressure and temp. You are simply improving resolution on existing gauges by going digital.

If I were flying a 182 and presumably behind a carbureted O-470, I would add carb temp. I've seen planes go down due to improper use of carb heat and I believe a carb temp gauge would have helped them. Adding carb temp would give you new information rather than improved resolution on stuff you already have.

Good luck.

+1 on carb temp.

When I had my EI FP-5L installed, it replaced the mandatory fuel pressure gauge in my airplane, so that's what the aux position went for. If you don't need fuel pressure, though, by all means get the carb temp. I have that in another gauge (Insight G1), and I agree that it's a really good thing to have in any carb'd airplane. Serious carb ice is a killer.

Cary

Upgrading to a carburetor temp gauge would seem a logical choice for my 0360. Might do it during the next annual inspection in October, thread is good reminder.

Hard to say without knowing what you already have on screen and your mission.

I'd say if you have the GPS input, I'd go endurance, range, or fuel at destination.

If you don't have that, maybe OAT if you don't have anything for that already, especially if you fly any IFR.

Yeah, carb temp was high on the list, only reason I hesitate is that the only plane I've ever flown that had one, the gauge was always reading where it should be icing up, n here in northern Calif, vfr anyway, ice is rarely a problem. Reason I thought maybe a digital oil pressure may be good is you could see any trends. Probably end up w an ei oil press/temp gauge at some point or better yet the 30or50 so I guess the carb temp makes sense. Thanks for the input

How about a $ per mile meter?
Or a digital fun meter
Pretty much opposites.

SKYLANEDAVE wrote:Yeah, carb temp was high on the list, only reason I hesitate is that the only plane I've ever flown that had one, the gauge was always reading where it should be icing up, n here in northern Calif, vfr anyway, ice is rarely a problem. Reason I thought maybe a digital oil pressure may be good is you could see any trends. Probably end up w an ei oil press/temp gauge at some point or better yet the 30or50 so I guess the carb temp makes sense. Thanks for the input

Carb ice can form at higher temps, even in the absence of visible moisture. The various carb icing charts indicate that pretty graphically. For instance, today is a nice VFR day here. Clouds are a bit lower than usual, broken at 2200'. The temp/dew point spread is 6 degrees F, well above what is necessary for fog to form. OAT is 70F. Where the clouds aren't, the skies are crystal clear blue. But if you look at any of these charts (which are only representative--there are a lot more of them out there), the probability of carb icing, especially at lower power settings, is pretty significant:













This is a day when if I was flying, I'd be keeping an eye out on my carb temp gauge, and I'd be using carb heat periodically to check whether ice had actually formed. I'm guessing that you have similar days from time to time in northern California.

Cary

Cary;

Where are those carb icing charts found? They are way too small to read on your post. I live in the land of carb icing (2-4C w/ 90% humidity) and would love to have these on hand.

Thanx
TD

TomD wrote:Cary;

Where are those carb icing charts found? They are way too small to read on your post. I live in the land of carb icing (2-4C w/ 90% humidity) and would love to have these on hand.

Thanx
TD

If you Google "carburetor icing charts", you'll get a whole page worth of examples. Some are easier to read than others. Also, here's a pretty good article on the topic: https://www.aopa.org/-/media/Files/AOPA ... s/SB09.pdf As the article points out, the real key is to recognize that it can happen under pretty benign weather situations, to recognize it when it does happen, and to take immediate corrective action. The problem I've seen is called "denial"--it can't be happening! That's true of other situations, too, but really often with carb icing, because sort of like a stall can happen at any attitude and airspeed, carb icing can happen at a lot of different combinations of humidity and temperature.

Cary

Looking at the owners manual for my 1953 C180, it looks like a carb temp gauge was standard equipment...even though vacuum gyro's weren't! But they weren't required equipment. Like mine, most of the 180's I see no longer have a carb temp. I have the habit of just pulling on the carb heat once in a while, just because.

If you can do it, I would think about adding a CHT feature to your electronic gauge, preferably one which cycles through all 6 cyl's and maybe lets out a squawk if any of them exceed a pre-programmed limit. Not only lets you monitor all the temps in hot weather, but can be a good diagnostic tool if you have cylinder-related engine troubles. My airplane doesn't even have an EGT gauge anymore (had one but it was inop so I removed it), but I think I would invest the money & panel space into a multi-cyl CHT before installing an EGT or anything else.

hotrod180 wrote:Looking at the owners manual for my 1953 C180, it looks like a carb temp gauge was standard equipment...even though vacuum gyro's weren't! But they weren't required equipment. Like mine, most of the 180's I see no longer have a carb temp. I have the habit of just pulling on the carb heat once in a while, just because.

If you can do it, I would think about adding a CHT feature to your electronic gauge, preferably one which cycles through all 6 cyl's and maybe lets out a squawk if any of them exceed a pre-programmed limit. Not only lets you monitor all the temps in hot weather, but can be a good diagnostic tool if you have cylinder-related engine troubles. My airplane doesn't even have an EGT gauge anymore (had one but it was inop so I removed it), but I think I would invest the money & panel space into a multi-cyl CHT before installing an EGT or anything else.

Most multi-channel CHTs include multi-channel EGTs, such as my Insight G1.

Cary