HOW TO FIT A BOOST GAUGE

I have recently fitted a boost gauge to the ol`bus and thought id share my expedition .This mod is fairly straight forward and probably of interest to those wishing to mod their performance or monitor a potential problem.I have also fitted a temp gauge to act as backup to the original.As i didnt want to hack the dash to bits to fit the gauges and because i didnt want to pay£30+ for a door post pod to fit them in, i mounted them here Next step was to figure out where to run the piping to the gauge from the engine.Because my engine is the 2.4turbo this is where i had to tee into the system with the piece supplied (tee piece in white in centre of pic) .I fed the piping over the top rad hose and loosely clipped with tie wraps and pushed the hose through the small glimmer of light in the pick below the top hose in the picture .The pipe came out here under the drivers wheelarch and was run behind the pipes you see.Next step was to remove the plastic wheelarch trim inside(3screws DONT PULL),and the trim needs to be pushed forward towards the front of the van to release it from a hidden clip.The carpet was rolled back and the rubber grommit(left of pic) had a cross cut into it to push the piping through.The pipe was then layed alongside where the floor slightly raises to protect it and fed round the back of the accelarator pedal .The final step was mounting the gauges and where to feed everything.Because it was convienient i chose to feed everything through where the brake resevoir is situated and to modify the cap .The bottom of the dash(obviously) has to be removed to gain access to the wiring and to allow easy feeding of the piping.The clocks were mounted with a combination of a thin metal bracket purchased from motorworld(£2.50 seen in pic against and going behind door post) ideal as it didnt need cutting and used existing screw below resevoir cap as the bottom mount, and a couple of small strips of sticky backed velcro(£1.99)purchased from local diy shop.To get the gauges to sit together i fitted the clasps that came with the gauges and used milliput to attach them.The earthing was connected behind the dash to a mount and the positive was connected to the yellow and black from the ignition.The gauges were purchased from local dealer(£50 when i went in£43 when i came out) but i had to purchase extra piping for it to reach the front in one go(try local aquarium shop).Some usefull info if your thinking about modding or diagnosing,the acctuator pressure set on the 2.4 engine is 7 p.s.i(i have a new one and it produces this on the gauge aswell).This, depending on age an state of the acctuator can be up or down a little bit but 7 p.s.i is a factory setting.The e.c.u actually monitors this via the boost sensor and will cut back/retard fuel e.t.c to maintain safe levels of boost.The e.c.u is set roughly to apply safety measures at about 11.5 p.s.i (13.5 was achieved on mine).While upping the boost will get you performance,it will do so at the expense of the turbo/engine so PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.Levels of boost banded about around other forums reguarding tweaking this engine are between 9-10.5 p.s.i .THIS ISNT THE SAFE AMOUNT IT IS THE AMOUNT CONSIDERED TO BE ENOUGH SO AS NOT TO TRIGGER THE SAFETY SYSTEMS OF THE E.C.U.Those serious about modding boost levels would be advised to fit an intercooler first to their system as this helps reduce inlet temps and allows more fuel to be added.Hope all this blarb is of use to someone

Looks like a useful mod. Thanks for posting it.
Can I nit-pick? ....Rubber (or braided rubber) vacuum hose is available from motor factors and designed for jobs like this, unless you're sure the aqarium hose can stand the heat without going soft. You might want a grommet for that hole in the wheel arch too.
Al

cheers bud but the auto shops round here are a bit sparse for stuff.will have to get a gromit from work.the job was a bit rushed but im happy with the results,will let you know how the piping lasts

I have looked at boost guages and note that they seem to have different boost readings of(some are only 1bar and others 3bar)...... which did you go for?

sorry should have said,i used one which measured p.s.i as they wont quite generate a bar(unless you have serious problems).also figures quoted on other sites when i was reading up was all in p.s.i

Thanks for that!!!!!!!

for anyone who has a power loss and thinks that boost maybe the problem,the first place to look(on the 2.4) would be(2nd photo down)where the tee piece is there is a small pipe with a 90 degree bend in it.this goes to a thing that looks like a small filter that then connects to a fatter pipe and then to the manifold.this is an area where pipes tend to come off(probably because of the age/pressure) so a quick check around this area could rectify your problems

Many thanks for this Maximus, helped me no end. The only diff between yours and the 3ltr turbo that I could see was that there is a turbo sensor between where you put your T piece and the filter.

Good tut