Installed Boost guage like Fowvay... Ready for Diode/MBC

[zeusenergy]

Well, here it is 7 pm and today I had the day off. I did get a chance to play around with MoneyPenny today, and racked up about $50 worth of stuff. I got a SunPro boost guage, brass fittings to add to one of my vacuum lines, and a 4.3 V zener diode. Now all that's left is the MBC... And that will most likely come from a very cheap source as well. Most of this post is related to the boostguage install since it was a real bear, and I'd like to shed some light for others who wish to do it like this one or Fowvay's. BTW, thanx Fowvay!

I also removed the dang mudflaps today as well. Thank goodness, the snowbanks bend them back when I'm reversing... I'll need to do some touch-up on the paint under where they were in a couple spots. But just look at our weather.... it'll be a while b4 I can do much more:



Back to the mod....





I have no pix from the install itself (AGAIN!) because it was raining and miserable, plus I forgot the digital at home

The guage is mounted sideways for two reasons. The threaded fitting on the air line would have hit the radio(!) and I felt it was good to have 15 PSI at the very top of the meter- that will be my max continuous. I could have went higher in the dash panel but I like how it sits perfectly between the dash vents. Now where to move my PDA mount?

The install took plenty of time since I went slow and avoided rain for the underhood portion. I took off most of the dash panels top and bottom, plus the center sections as well. All I really needed to do was remove just the center sections and under the dash on the drivers side, the part that is held down with two white clips at the firewall. There is a grommet under the hood, behind where the turbo inake pipe/hose is about a half-inch in diameter. I read about this grommet in these forums and I guess it's the vestigial remains of a real throttle cable. It was easy to snake the tube for the guage through the foot pedal area up to the vent area once the proper parts were removed. The biggest pain was the radio- I had no tool for this so I made one up. I took a cell phone headset headband and cut it away, probed for the releases, and bingo. Well, maybe not that fast
With a 2 1/8" hole saw and some splices for the backlight to the radio lines, I had the center section done in about an hour. I used the grey/blue stripe for positive and the large brown for negative. (The wires are side-by-side in the black connector) Works a treat Also added a little blue rubber boot over the bulb for a closer match to my cluster, but it's an odd greenish blue... might have to change that out l8r.
The underhood portion is very easy and only takes a few minutes to set up. I used a female brass Tee and two male nipples, 1/8". The third port was used for the guage adapter that came with the part.
It seems like the guage is working properly and I think my boost is fine after all. I get 8-10 PSI with a spike of 12.

Next I plan to install the zener diode on the ECM wire instead of digging up the intercooler. And then it's time for the MBC. I'll be extremely careful adding boost in tiny increments until I reach max 15 PSI constant. This should be plenty for me, until I do a real chipped ECM- then the zener will come out. The MBC will go after the N75 inline, so the N75 can act as a relief valve in advance of MBC opening. We will see how this turns out in the next episode! Stay tuned...

[scarabY2k]

awesome work bro

[zeusenergy]

Originally Posted by scarabY2k

awesome work bro

Hey thanx
And BTW for any other readers: the pressure tube that comes with the guage is VERY difficult to maneuver from being in a blister pack for months, the coiled line tends to want to coil back! Suggestion: warm it up before installing....

[Lnzbug]

Nice! Too bad it's 90 degrees off

[Fowvay]

What I left out about my boost gauge is that I had to cut down the fitting on the back of the VDO gauge and then custom make an elbow to fit. The tolerance between the radio and the fitting is under 1mm. I literally cannot fit a 1mm feeler gauge between it and the radio.

[zeusenergy]

Originally Posted by Fowvay

What I left out about my boost gauge is that I had to cut down the fitting on the back of the VDO gauge and then custom make an elbow to fit. The tolerance between the radio and the fitting is under 1mm. I literally cannot fit a 1mm feeler gauge between it and the radio.

Before I started, the angle of the dash made me concerned it wouldn't work like yours did...
But the guage actually looks great the way it is since idle vac is straight down and max boost will be straight up.
Would be nice to mod the guage eventally with a new face to match. That and true matching lights!

[zeusenergy]

Ditched the blue boot on the light. It was too dim! Now at least I can see it. I'll prb. add a red LED cluster at some point.
But I did do a lot of reading both here and in the "tex, and came to the conclusion that i don't want to do the Diode mod at all. It's not cause I don't want to muck with the wiring, but instead it's a driveability thing. I've heard that it may cause boost to be onset even at partial throttle when you don't need it. I don't want to tax my K03s to death! Guess I'll just wait for an APR flash. It will be a while.
Any1 want to buy a pair of .5 volt diodes?