best boost gauge

[brett craig]

what boost gauges do you have and what do you think is the best unit.

i'm running a r-spec gauge and i'm starting to question its readings, it seems to stagger upto to pos boost, and yet its already on boost before it gets there. time for a upgrade i think !

[Alan M]

I have an article from Performance ford at work and in that it covers loads of gauges. I'll try to find it tomorrow the report back. I have a cheap auto gauge one and that came fairly high up in the article test. The best gauge you can buy is a calibrated gauge but one of those is going to cost a lot. Unless its calibrated the readings you get can vary a lot between even the same make and model. Your readings can vary from where you take the measure ment from.

For a test I took just a boost only gauge and took the reading from the compressor nipple via a tee in the silicone pipework and those readings were the most accurate I saw in my car. Tha test only showed boost though and not vacuum and I saw all the spikes in boost that my MBC was causing.

[brett craig]

that info would be great thanks, one question tho is where is the compressor nipple ? i'm about to install a vacume gauge along with a decent boost gauge.

[Alan M]

The compressor nipple is the one on the side of the compressor housing that would o to the bottom of an MBC. This will only show you a pressure + reading and not vacuum. Vacuum must be taken from the suction side of the manifold (vac tree).

[brett craig]

right i'm with you now, the hose that comes from the bottom off the housing to the bcs ( red if i remember correctly ), and my vacume gauge to the vac tree

[s70lpt john]

hi all i have fitted a rspec mbc to s70 lpt it works great but i will be buying this week and fitting a boost gage,does anyone know wheres the best place to fit the vaccume line!!i have a nipple on the inlet manifold which i could tree off,but i,ve noticed a tree of nipples by the inlet/throttle body,would i use one of these,many thanks john

[brett craig]

read above ^^^^^ lol

i currently run my boost gauge from the vac tree but since i'm going to run a vacume gauge i'm now ( after the above advice ) going to run my vac gauge from the vac tree and my boost gauge from the compressor housing on the turbo.

[ken10]

Mine's a VDO Boost Gauge connected to the vacuum tree.

The VDO gauge is in my opinion the closest to the original dashboard meter colour schemes on the Volvo 850 series. Even the gauge backlighting is spot-on.

[Pete_T5]

I agree the VDO gauge is a very good match to the instrument cluster colours & illumination. It seems pretty accurate too.