FAO: Dave850R

**Ian C70T5** · Monday 25th April 2005, 14:18

Dave, i saw your install guide to the boost gauge, looks good, however you've not put the part that shows the best place to attach the boost hose to in the engine bay? where did you connect it. (i forgot to ask saturday)

**Wobbly Dave** · Monday 25th April 2005, 16:35

Depends on if you have ME7 or not.

If you have ME7 then you need to splice in a T piece into the vac pipe coming off the rear of the near side end of the fuel rail. Otherwise you can attach it to one of the spare pipes on the "Xmas Tree" under the throttle cover - removing one of the blanking plugs first. Kits normally don't provide enough hose - which is annoying. Luckily I had some spare and was able to extend it

**Ian C70T5** · Monday 25th April 2005, 16:36

Cheers mate, mine not ME7 so will have a look.. :-)

**V70RAWD** · Tuesday 26th April 2005, 00:19

Okay I'll ask the dumb/daft question

(how embarrassing is this !) ME70 is that the fly by wire 1999 onwards s70 & v70 ? thanks ....

**Mrsmopp** · Tuesday 26th April 2005, 09:03

Yes!

x

**swordy21** · Tuesday 26th April 2005, 20:41

Originally Posted by dave850R

Otherwise you can attach it to one of the spare pipes on the "Xmas Tree" under the throttle cover - removing one of the blanking plugs first. Kits normally don't provide enough hose - which is annoying. Luckily I had some spare and was able to extend it

Dave - do you have any photos of this - just going to be fitting a gauge in the next couple of days. I can do the wiring - just don't want to introduce an unnecessary leak tho.

Cheers

**Wobbly Dave** · Wednesday 27th April 2005, 00:39

Fraz has pictures if he would be kind enough to dig'em out?

Yooohooo! Scotty-lad? You still got them pics of the boost gauge install?

**Wobbly Dave** · Wednesday 27th April 2005, 00:40

Failing that you can wait till I see ye next? And I will do the install myself - wires and all!

**swordy21** · Wednesday 27th April 2005, 10:15

Originally Posted by dave850R

Failing that you can wait till I see ye next? And I will do the install myself - wires and all!

Thanks M8. I've had a look and see what U mean about Xmas Tree. Think I got all the bits so will have a go. I'll post a piccy when done.

If I screw it up

, then it'll be the old test tube bung and on the phone to you.

Cheers

**Wobbly Dave** · Wednesday 27th April 2005, 12:48

Xmas tree is under the throttle cover - can't miss it!!

**Ian C70T5** · Wednesday 27th April 2005, 15:09

Mine arrived today.. soo getting the old dremel tool out and will be trying to fit it shortly, however i do need to find a hole from behind the dash to inside engine bay.. hmm that will be hard as i didnt enjoy finding the hole for my amp power cable :-(

**swordy21** · Wednesday 27th April 2005, 15:25

Originally Posted by Ian C70T5

Mine arrived today.. soo getting the old dremel tool out and will be trying to fit it shortly, however i do need to find a hole from behind the dash to inside engine bay.. hmm that will be hard as i didnt enjoy finding the hole for my amp power cable :-(

Allegedly there is a pre-drilled hole in the bulkhead. So I have been told. Yet to find it yet, will be hunting soon as well.

**Ian C70T5** · Wednesday 27th April 2005, 15:31

in the bulkhead? bit harsh?

I found i cant take the a pillar cover off easily as on the coupe it goes all the way to behind the door, so thats a large bit of plastic to get off.. will have to be extra careful.

I did notice that the pod has 2 holes in it for screwing into the pillar

**swordy21** · Friday 29th April 2005, 09:51

Well, after much fettling (and swearing) last night in the dark (using the footwell light to see by), managed to fit my boost gauge (J3 Motorsport Stealth). Thanks Dave for your wiring instructions, mind you I did screw up and connect everything with crimp connectors, then realized I hadn’t fed the wires through the mount (Now connected with spades). Doh!

Also took ages to find the spare holey pipe in the bulkhead with the cows udders on. Much trepidation as I applied steady force to pull one off hoping it wasn’t an expensive and fragile sensor – phew!!!!!!!! (And don’t try this straight after a run – there are some very hot bits down there - ouch)

Also as mentioned, the hose supplied was about 10cm too short, but had thought of that one and had obtained some extra hose, so connected them using the T piece that came with the gauge, sealing the spare leg with the spare cap off the Xmas tree.

Now the questions?

I noticed the T piece has a small brass restrictor on the down leg (this is what I have blanked off and gone for a straight through connection from the vac system to the gauge), or should I connect the gauge to this leg and blank off one of the other ends? Effectively giving a dog leg connection.

Should the gauge make a noise? – blew raspberries at me initially on full boost, but nothing since. Put this down to getting excess air out of the system.

Is there a max length of hose? I did join with quite a long piece of extra hose, I could shorten by about 50cm if needed.

What typically should the gauge be reading (Bar)? So far,
0 – Engine off
-0.8 – tickover (neutral)
-0.6 to 0 – regular careful driving – 75 mph down the M4 on cruise, to avoid Plods cameras.
Spikes to just over 1.2 bar before settling back to 0.9 to 1.1 bar under hard acceleration.
Most of the time accelerating to overtake, not racing etc etc – about 0.5 bar.

Oh, and would it affect performance? – yesterday I was starting to think I had a problem – felt down on power and the transmission was hunting a bit more than usual.

I had several ideas

Bad batch of Optimax (I don’t really trust the garage near work)
Hot air induction – ie the feed pipe come off the airbox.
ECU throttling back for some other problem. Although no indications of anything else wrong. (Temp OK, idle smooth@900rpm, no lights on)

But then today – wwwoooosssshhhhh

– going like stink – pulled to 135 before I even realised and was still going. And fuel economy seems improved.

Surely a boost gauge ain’t gonna do that?

Still Avon tomorrow may shed some more light. Gonna take some tools and cable ties just in case.

Thanks for reading and any help or suggestions you may have. Will post some piccys when I have time to take them, not in the dark.

**Wobbly Dave** · Friday 29th April 2005, 10:17

The boost gauges that cost about 30 quid are only an indicator. They are not 100% accurate - but all the same the readings, the boost spike and hold seems about right.
The install should be airtight. You might wanna check the connections or even use some instant gasket or araldite on the gauge junction to make sure.

They put the brass screw in to give you the option of using it as an extension or a t piece. It is useful for putting safe the blanking plug from the xmas tree.

The gauge is a blank end as far as the system is concerned. There is a fixed volume of gas in the tube and as long as there are no leaks then you'll be fine.

Any performance issues you had were transistory - air temp/bad fuel. I am sure you will be fine.

Sounds like you had fun.

**Ian C70T5** · Friday 29th April 2005, 10:24

I'm waiting for my length of red vacuum hose to arrive, its pod and gauge is attached and ready to go, also need to wire it in.. Its suprisingly not bad, i thought it might get in my way when driving but its ok. will be better when the needle is moving

**swordy21** · Friday 29th April 2005, 11:57

This is the Gauge I have installed - £49.99 from www.gaugeshop.co.uk

http://www.gaugeshop.co.uk/product_i...products_id=76

I know it's more expensive and I guess thats more cosmetic than anything - but I think it looks cool.

**Wobbly Dave** · Friday 29th April 2005, 12:20

I think it is very cool indeed. I am wondering whether or not to swap up?

All I am saying is don't rely on the gauge. the one at VT costs over 200 quid.

**Martinr** · Friday 29th April 2005, 12:29

Very nice.

I noticed on the web link that there was a DIN panel mounting shown lower down the page, (in the people also bought section).

There have been a number of enquiries on here about where to get such an item in the past.