boost gauge install write-up

[declasm]

Here\'s a quick write-up of my boost gauge install. It\'s funny - in pictures it seems quite quick and simple but there was lots of swearing and hiccups along the way. oops!


This is the pod and gauge as bought from Halfords for quite a reasonable £40. The pod is "carbon fibre" hmmmm. looks like plastic to me. the gauge is a simple mechanical affair that reads in psi (I prefer that to bar - I guess I like the bigger numbers)


this is a gratuitus dash shot - not much gauge related except I guess you can see what the other gauges look like. interestingly the thick red line starts at 7K on the UK model even tho the shift buzzer doesn\'t sound until 7.5K - then you change just before 8K  (is it the same on the import? - I can\'t remember on my old one)


this is the very bare "A" pillar without the gauge - with an attractive BMW E30 325i in the background!


here\'s what you get in the packs - 2 metres of tubing, some connectors, the gauge itself and the pod.


first thing to do is slide the dash binnacle out forwards - I think there were about 5 screws and I took the side vent, the steering wheel cowling and the knee guard out first - after that, with a bit of jiggling it slid out...


... so that I could get to the back of the cigar lighter - from which I picked off a line from the ignition +12v, ground and dash lights (I labelled them just to be safe). I also wired in the power connector for my gps speedo / camera detector as it\'s lighter-plug got broken and this keeps it neater anyway. you can see the extra wire hanging down a the bottom of the pic - the idea is that it feeds out above the steering wheel so the gps speedo can sit on the steering wheel cowling, while the rest of the wire goes on to the "A" pillar for the gauge. It all should have been pretty smooth but I accidentally shorted all the wires together when then were dangling and I blew a couple of fuses - one of which I couldn\'t find until a day later - I couldn\'t see the fifth column of the fuse box as it\'s in such an awkward place in the driver\'s footwell.


here is the pipe comming off the spare nipple on the inlet manifold (I zip-tied it in later)


One of the hardest things was finding a way into the cabin from the engine bay - eventually I found a post on the forum where some bright spark on the forum suggested using the hole that the bonnet release cable goes through so I did that


with the dash binnacle back in place, I removed the pillar trim and put a couple of drill holes in it and fed the wires and piping through


I found that the pod didn\'t sit flush with the pillar so I ground it down on my up-turned belt sander until I had a nice edge that reasonable matched the curve of the pillar - here\'s a close-up of the pod and gauge in situ.


and here is the gauge in the context of the rest of the dash. I think it looks pretty cool!

[shaunwil]

You may want to shield the pipe in the engine bay a little more. When I fit a boost gauge I got 1 run out of the pipe before it welded itself shut with the heat and vacuum.

Good write up and looks nice.

Shaun

[leon]

For what its worth this should be moved over into the technical sticki\'s its a nice writeup for this :yes

[S3TH]

Good write up but any more info/pics/details on what happened in the engine bay? I\'m a complete noob & never installed a gauge before, just wondering what exactly the boost gauge gets its "signal" from? Cheers

[declasm]

Sure - I could take a few more pictures - basically it seems that the rx-7 intake manifold was designed with boost gauge fitting in mind so their is a spare nipple on there covered with a small rubber sheath (oo-err!) the boost gauge gets its signal from a rubber tube connected to this nipple - I had a bit of trouble routing the rubber tube into the cabin but once it was into the footwell (through the same hole in the firewall as the bonnet release cable) I just routed it behind the side vent and pillar trim.

[S3TH]

Thanks bud, so once you\'ve penetrated the firewall into the cabin it\'s all fairly plug and play?

[RemarkLima]

Good write up but any more info/pics/details on what happened in the engine bay? I\'m a complete noob & never installed a gauge before, just wondering what exactly the boost gauge gets its "signal" from? Cheers

The nipple he\'s referring to is a spare in the middle of the UIM (upper inlet manifold) which appears to be designed for a boost gauge and pretty much that alone.

But the pipe goes from there to the boost gauge, which has a spring in it, so when the engine is on vacuum (low throttle etc...) it pulls the needle down, and on boost it pushes the needle up with the air pressure from the turbos.

Great write up BTW.