Fitting Oil Pressure and Turbo Boost Gauges

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Disco1BFG said:
Not really - If you drive it like you stole it, that might apply - but used with EGT, paying attention to boost is good way to maximise progress and minimise fuel use. And, as @gazman says, its excellent practice to cool the engine down sensibly before shutdown - and clearly ragging the bum off it, and then just walking away is not sensible!
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i treat my cars like i treat my tools, they are for a job and they had better do the job I want them to do no matter what.
i over service my cars and my tools because i dont want them to fail, but if they do fail so long as the job is done Im happy, I will happily beat something with a hammer to get the job done, then afterwards buy something better to do the job with next time.

Drive it like you stole it is pretty normal down this end of the world, im all about maintaining constant speed and dont really care what the boost gauge says, if Im working it hard up a long drag at 70mph only thing I keep an eye on is the temp gauge, its a proper temp gauge and you can see it slowly climbing.

If you think about it ragging the bum of any car and switching it off just isnt going to happen as any journey involves a slow down at the end even if its just pulling onto your driveway or the petrol station/works car park etc
Nowadays turbos are tough bits of kit, change the oil often and they will literally last the life of the car pretty much no matter how you treat them.

I think if fuel usage is a worry any 4x4 is the wrong car for you.
 
Well, I've had a quote back from Demon Tweeks already. All the bits and bobs for a boost gauge and an oil pressure gauge is coming in at £207.87 including VAT. Does that sound about right? Think I'll go for one of those two dial units that fit in to the ash tray.
 
Al2O3 said:
Well, I've had a quote back from Demon Tweeks already. All the bits and bobs for a boost gauge and an oil pressure gauge is coming in at £207.87 including VAT. Does that sound about right? Think I'll go for one of those two dial units that fit in to the ash tray.
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Im guessing thats not far off. I bought a stack boost gauge of them and it was about £80 if memory serves.

I did have it in a single pod by the A pillar I do have a mudstuff pod to fit (just not yet), but ive now taken the clock out of my dash, and moved the fuel and water temp gauges one space to the right so the boost guage is directly infront of me and I quite like this set up
 
gazman said:
Im guessing thats not far off. I bought a stack boost gauge of them and it was about £80 if memory serves.

I did have it in a single pod by the A pillar I do have a mudstuff pod to fit (just not yet), but ive now taken the clock out of my dash, and moved the fuel and water temp gauges one space to the right so the boost guage is directly infront of me and I quite like this set up
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Cheers, gazman. Pic of your set up would be good. I'm trying to leave mine as standard with a subtly addition of the two gauges.
 
ok I can only find this picture of the guage on top from when I stripped it all down
 

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and here it is now just taken on the works carpark
 

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I think I might do a How To, for simple folk like me about fitting these gauges. I've got all the stuff from Demon Tweeks.
Posted this picture on another thread.
IMG_6377.JPG

I've tried dry connecting everything up and it doesn't quite make sense, so I've had to email Demon Tweeks with a few questions.
Anyhow, meanwhile I'm contemplating the electrickery set up as this is fairly new territory for me.
@Kwakerman can you elaborate on this for me please?
Kwakerman said:
I also put in a electrical connector that all the gauges went through (oil, voltage & temp) so that I could disconnect the whole pod if required
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I'm thinking I'll have to take a live from the fuse board, one that is switched by the ignition. Is this what you did, if so which fused circuit did you use? Cheers.
 
Al2O3 said:
I think I might do a How To, for simple folk like me about fitting these gauges. I've got all the stuff from Demon Tweeks.
Posted this picture on another thread.
View attachment 126194
I've tried dry connecting everything up and it doesn't quite make sense, so I've had to email Demon Tweeks with a few questions.
Anyhow, meanwhile I'm contemplating the electrickery set up as this is fairly new territory for me.
@Kwakerman can you elaborate on this for me please?

I'm thinking I'll have to take a live from the fuse board, one that is switched by the ignition. Is this what you did, if so which fused circuit did you use? Cheers.
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I used the 12 way version of this, you could probably get away with less if you work out how many wires you need. All I did was make up a bare end loom starting at the gauge end (made it long enough to reach the furthest point which was the oil pressure sender). I then laced the loom together to get all the wires running straight as they exited the pod and then cut the wires a few inches from the pod so that the connector would sit in the ashtray area. Fitted the connectors where I had cut the loom, fit the pins connector to the pod wires and the socket end to the remains of the loom. Doing it that way means there is a lot less chance of shorting things out if you disconnect the pod later as all the 'live' sockets are shielded away. I poked a stiff bit of wire from the instrument panel through to the ashtray area and then tied/taped the free end of the loom to the wire and pulled it back through to the instrument panel as it was easier than tying to feed it from the ashtray. Most connections were made behind the instruments but those for the gauge and earth I poked them through the rubber grommet near the speedo cable entry point, I used the main earth point on the bulkhead just by the air filter and then routed the pressure signal wire along to the sender. Nothing to difficult if you take your time. A couple of hints would be to use different colour wires, having all one colour is just making more work for yourself if you have an issue, make a list of which colour wire (and its function) is used in each pin of the connector (they are numbered), wrap your loom in electrical tape or heatshrink to protect it from chafing and finally make sure you leave just enough slack at the connector so that you can reach in to disconnect it.
 
Kwakerman said:
I used the 12 way version of this, you could probably get away with less if you work out how many wires you need. All I did was make up a bare end loom starting at the gauge end (made it long enough to reach the furthest point which was the oil pressure sender). I then laced the loom together to get all the wires running straight as they exited the pod and then cut the wires a few inches from the pod so that the connector would sit in the ashtray area. Fitted the connectors where I had cut the loom, fit the pins connector to the pod wires and the socket end to the remains of the loom. Doing it that way means there is a lot less chance of shorting things out if you disconnect the pod later as all the 'live' sockets are shielded away. I poked a stiff bit of wire from the instrument panel through to the ashtray area and then tied/taped the free end of the loom to the wire and pulled it back through to the instrument panel as it was easier than tying to feed it from the ashtray. Most connections were made behind the instruments but those for the gauge and earth I poked them through the rubber grommet near the speedo cable entry point, I used the main earth point on the bulkhead just by the air filter and then routed the pressure signal wire along to the sender. Nothing to difficult if you take your time. A couple of hints would be to use different colour wires, having all one colour is just making more work for yourself if you have an issue, make a list of which colour wire (and its function) is used in each pin of the connector (they are numbered), wrap your loom in electrical tape or heatshrink to protect it from chafing and finally make sure you leave just enough slack at the connector so that you can reach in to disconnect it.
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Tremendous, thanks for taking the time to write that out. :) I get most of it, but I'm still not sure about where to make my connections in to the vehicle. "Most connections were made behind the instruments" I'm afraid I'm not clever enough to be able to do this without some guidance. I was thinking I'd be taking a positive supply from one of the fuses. How do you know what supply, behind the instruments, will have capacity to take the extra load? Sorry, I'm a bit clueless here. :oops:
 
Probably the most useful thing to do is wherever you have a crimp on connector, put a dab of solder on. No matter how carefully or tightly you crimp, chances are it will either come loose through vibration or get corroded with moisture. It's not too difficult to hold the soldering iron against the join (for less than a minute with thin wires) and a quick poke with the flux cored solder - it's so satisfying to see it run into the joint - and it will last indefinitely.

Once again I'm not familiar with the 300 TDi arrangements, but when I put additional instruments on mine I needed an ignition switched live which I got from using a 'piggyback' spade connector on one of the spade terminals on the back of the ignition switch, a feed for the lights where I spliced a 3 way connector into the instrument lights wire behind the main instrument cluster, and a permanent live whose origin I can't remember but there's one behind there somewhere. I also put a little inline fuse in the 'lives' before they went past any sharp bits of metal in case they ever chafed. There are a lot of online auto electrical retailers where you can get short lengths of wire in various colour combinations as well as all the connector pieces. So I was able to use a roughly similar colour scheme as the rest of the car. Much better than just doing everything in red or black and you'll be able to keep track of what's what at the multiplug. The instruments typically don't draw a lot of power so you probably won't be blowing anything. As well as heatshrink I like those little preformed plastic things that cover spade connectors which I find very useful
 
Brown said:
Probably the most useful thing to do is wherever you have a crimp on connector, put a dab of solder on. No matter how carefully or tightly you crimp, chances are it will either come loose through vibration or get corroded with moisture. It's not too difficult to hold the soldering iron against the join (for less than a minute with thin wires) and a quick poke with the flux cored solder - it's so satisfying to see it run into the joint - and it will last indefinitely.

Once again I'm not familiar with the 300 TDi arrangements, but when I put additional instruments on mine I needed an ignition switched live which I got from using a 'piggyback' spade connector on one of the spade terminals on the back of the ignition switch, a feed for the lights where I spliced a 3 way connector into the instrument lights wire behind the main instrument cluster, and a permanent live whose origin I can't remember but there's one behind there somewhere. I also put a little inline fuse in the 'lives' before they went past any sharp bits of metal in case they ever chafed. There are a lot of online auto electrical retailers where you can get short lengths of wire in various colour combinations as well as all the connector pieces. So I was able to use a roughly similar colour scheme as the rest of the car. Much better than just doing everything in red or black and you'll be able to keep track of what's what at the multiplug. The instruments typically don't draw a lot of power so you probably won't be blowing anything. As well as heatshrink I like those little preformed plastic things that cover spade connectors which I find very useful
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Like you I crimp the spade connectors and then solder too. As you say, very satisfying to know that it's a solid job.

Thanks for the electrical guidance - I need it! :) I'm just putting the two gauges in. The turbo boost just needs power for the light. The oil pressure needs light and supply for the sensor.

Any idea what gauge auto cable is? I'll go and google it ;)
 
Al2O3 said:
Tremendous, thanks for taking the time to write that out. :) I get most of it, but I'm still not sure about where to make my connections in to the vehicle. "Most connections were made behind the instruments" I'm afraid I'm not clever enough to be able to do this without some guidance. I was thinking I'd be taking a positive supply from one of the fuses. How do you know what supply, behind the instruments, will have capacity to take the extra load? Sorry, I'm a bit clueless here. :oops:
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Load won't be an issue. For the gauge backlighting (from what remember there are two connectors per lamp holder), make up the loom so that both lamp holders are in parallel inside the pod (doesn't actually matter which way around they are as they are normal bulbs rather than LEDs), that way you only need to feed two wires back to behind the instruments, connect one wire to the to a backlight +ve supply on one of the original instruments (should be a red/white wire) connect the other to a light -ve (black wires). For the oil pressure gauge +ve connect it to a switched live (which should be the white wires), for oil pressure ground route it through to the bulkhead to the ground point like I mentioned before (don't be tempted to use the lighting black wire as the gauge needs a separate ground for technical reasons you don't need to know about! As for the actual signal wire route that out through the bulkhead along with the ground wire and then route it to the sender
 
Kwakerman said:
Load won't be an issue. For the gauge backlighting (from what remember there are two connectors per lamp holder), make up the loom so that both lamp holders are in parallel inside the pod (doesn't actually matter which way around they are as they are normal bulbs rather than LEDs), that way you only need to feed two wires back to behind the instruments, connect one wire to the to a backlight +ve supply on one of the original instruments (should be a red/white wire) connect the other to a light -ve (black wires). For the oil pressure gauge +ve connect it to a switched live (which should be the white wires), for oil pressure ground route it through to the bulkhead to the ground point like I mentioned before (don't be tempted to use the lighting black wire as the gauge needs a separate ground for technical reasons you don't need to know about! As for the actual signal wire route that out through the bulkhead along with the ground wire and then route it to the sender
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A picture is starting to form in my dim mind...........a lights coming on I think :) Cheers Kwakerman. I've bought spade connectors, wire and a mate n lok connector.
 
Again, most auto electrical suppliers will have wire in different sizes and different colour combinations. Like the wires in domestic settings it's usually specified by the cross sectional area of the conductor. I tend to err on the side of using a slightly thicker wire than the manufacturers - I've used a lot of 1 square mm for instruments whereas the manufacturers often use something thinner. As Kwakerman says, some accessories appreciate having their own earth wire as common earths are vulnerable to interference. I usually find a nut and bolt somewhere with decent path back to the battery to fix things on to. When I was young a lot of instruments on cars earthed themselves through their metal casings and hence back to the battery, but now with so much plastic about you've often got to set one up separately. Where I've got a lot of wires I've even got a chunky length of black cable and run it all the way back to the battery box and fastened it to the earth terminal bolt with a ring-shaped terminal, just to make sure. The inside of a Land Rover dashboard isn't a very forgiving environment for cables, as there are a lot of sharp bits of metal as well as self tapping screws sticking out all over the place. So any additional protection you can give the wires will improve reliability in the long term. Bits of trunking, wrapping with tape etc. all helps.
 
Brown said:
Again, most auto electrical suppliers will have wire in different sizes and different colour combinations. Like the wires in domestic settings it's usually specified by the cross sectional area of the conductor. I tend to err on the side of using a slightly thicker wire than the manufacturers - I've used a lot of 1 square mm for instruments whereas the manufacturers often use something thinner. As Kwakerman says, some accessories appreciate having their own earth wire as common earths are vulnerable to interference. I usually find a nut and bolt somewhere with decent path back to the battery to fix things on to. When I was young a lot of instruments on cars earthed themselves through their metal casings and hence back to the battery, but now with so much plastic about you've often got to set one up separately. Where I've got a lot of wires I've even got a chunky length of black cable and run it all the way back to the battery box and fastened it to the earth terminal bolt with a ring-shaped terminal, just to make sure. The inside of a Land Rover dashboard isn't a very forgiving environment for cables, as there are a lot of sharp bits of metal as well as self tapping screws sticking out all over the place. So any additional protection you can give the wires will improve reliability in the long term. Bits of trunking, wrapping with tape etc. all helps.
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I've done the same. Last night I bought some 1 square mm (16.5A) wire off ebay. Should arrive by Thursday, though this weekend I reckon I'll be mostly investigating the oil consumption and carrying out compression tests.
 
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