Pyro and Boost gauge - what kind and where did you mount 'em

[danfromvan]

Falco, maybe a little hard to read in that location unless you angled the pod towards you, and not sure how that would look.

Dan

[FalcoColumbarius]

You can buy angled bezels. It is something I have been considering.

Falco.

[danfromvan]

Yes, I've seen them but can you get them in either left or right?

Dan

[dfnder]

Should be easy if we were in Japan, wonder why nobody who speaks Japanese hasn't gotten any from a Japanese web page

[FalcoColumbarius]

People put their dials in different places in their vehicles ~ sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, or above or below. Depending on what your need is ~ I suspect many bezels are universal. Something to consider... smiles.

Falco.

[coaxial]

I got impatient and tired of reading different reviews and just grabbed the autometer boost gauge at lordco. For $83 I sort of question the build quality, but I have nothing to compare it against. Required supplying my own sealant (per instructions) and had a couple issues but it's working great now. I see my boost is still at 11 where I set it about 2 years ago. I'll probably be turning it up to 14 or something.

I popped off the 3-pod and routed the wires and hose down from there to the carpet and into the engine bay.

While I had the 3-pod off I drained the leaky gyrometer and re-filled with mineral oil, and re-sealed it with sealant. Wow, the mineral oil is cloudy, can't really read the thing now. Tried brake fluid as well (not much different than mineral oil) with same results, but yellow. Oh well, no more greasy dash.

The gauge lives beside the pod for now, I'm going to buy or build a house for it and the future pyro.




The dead rat is purely for looks

[delicat]

So you decided to go with the vacuum gauge? Why don't you just ditch the inclinator and put you pyro instead?

[patty]

Well its finally warmed up here in PG and im starting to think about installing my 3 gauge combo. couple snags with keeping each set of wires from confusing me in the planning stages. Anyways, how are you guys bringing the wires from under the seat to the dash, just running them across the floor under the mats?

[RichD]

Received our new 3-in-1 combo gauge from GlowShift today.

It was 194.25 (Canadian) shipped plus the duty was another 37.34 - 231.59 total. Comparably, it was slightly cheaper than the Lordco kit which is only a pyro meter.

Installation to follow...

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[RichD]

Question for the forum: what would you use the temperature gauge for: engine oil, water or trans oil temp?

It occurred to me that I could order two more temperature sender probes and put them on a three-way two-pole switch.

[Mr. Flibble]

Question for the forum: what would you use the temperature gauge for: engine oil, water or trans oil temp?

It occurred to me that I could order two more temperature sender probes and put them on a three-way two-pole switch.

I have the same gauge, not installed yet however. I plan on monitoring the coolant temp. I was originally going to monitor the oil temp, but given that I want to run WVO, it makes sense to have a more exact reading of the coolant temp.

If you don't plan on doing this, then I would say that it would make sense to monitor the oil temp as you already have an indicator for the coolant temp on the dash.

[RichD]

Question for the forum: what would you use the temperature gauge for: engine oil, water or trans oil temp?

It occurred to me that I could order two more temperature sender probes and put them on a three-way two-pole switch.

I have the same gauge, not installed yet however. I plan on monitoring the coolant temp. I was originally going to monitor the oil temp, but given that I want to run WVO, it makes sense to have a more exact reading of the coolant temp.

If you don't plan on doing this, then I would say that it would make sense to monitor the oil temp as you already have an indicator for the coolant temp on the dash.

Yeah, considering it more today, I think that oil or water temperature makes the most sense for this gauge. More precision on the coolant temp would be nice and more tactically interesting to me in context with the pyro. "1/4" isn't a very meaningful value lol.

[jessef]

Oil pressure
Pyro
Boost

[RichD]

Well the gauge is mounted up, and the pyro and boost sensors are live. Below are my install notes, in some detail. My cell phone photos in the dark parking garage suck, and I'm too lazy to take out the real camera so credit is due to lrp374's rather well-lit photos which I adapted.

Pyro/EGT & Boost Gauge installation, a somewhat detailed guide to encourage the uninitiated:

Drilling the hole for the EGT probe in situ was impossible with the tools available to me. Per Butch's advice, I removed the part to work with it on the bench. Highly recommend as the pyro probe fitting needs to be fitted with some care. I worked from under the truck. A lift would obviously make life easier.

The EGT probe fitting does not require tapping (threading). If you have the means to tap the hole properly, by all means do. I used a slightly smaller (11/16 I believe it was) high speed steel drill ("bit", if you must) and some finesse to insert the fitting without stripping it. As with so many things, if you have to force it in, yer trying too hard.

You will need...
- a set of metric ratchets and drives; 1/2" drive to loosen ("crack") the nuts and then you can step down to more wieldy 3/8" or even a wee 1/4" drive for the tight spots. Some metric wrenches always come in handy, too. I believe the sizes used were 19, 14, and 12 mm.
- If you have a torque wrench, see the manual for specified torque on the nuts. I am a hack so I do it by feel and check them again in a week.
- I always clean up rusted fasteners before re-installing. A bench grinder with a brass brush is ideal or, for the ghetto approach, a high speed drill with a brush will do a fine job. Don't try to hold small parts to brush them! You can spin a nut onto a corresponding bolt and keep it in place with your thumb while brushing the other side, or even use a pair of plyers to hold it securely. A tender touch for control and a few seconds worth of patience does wonders.
- safety glasses are A Good Idea when working under the truck with bits of mud, rust, and soot falling into your eyes. If yours fog up try working such that your face isn't directly below the area you are working. Use glasses when cleaning parts with a spinning brush (duh)!
- gloves are good, and you can always take one off to fish some crud out of your eye or accept cookies and juice from a doting spouse
- need I say that a hot exhaust is really really really hot? Probably, as it seems everyone learns this lesson (if only once!). I loosened the fasteners while things were still warm, but with gloves and due care.

Note: the fitting for the probe separates from the probe assembly itself. Use two wrenches to loosen it and it will spin off by hand. Install the fitting; leave the delicate probe aside until all the heavy bits are back together.

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1) remove the short exhaust pipe below exhaust adapter (two spring loaded nuts, two bolts)
2) remove the exhaust adapter (note the smaller bolt on the top right which retains the heat shield; remove this one first; see photo)
- be considerate of the relatively delicate wastegate actuator. Bending or stressing this would be poor form
- its a fairly small space and a number of combinations of drives and extensions were handy.
- note which nuts go where and which had washers. Yeah, it matters
- as it comes loose, note the metal gasket. Don't mess that up, eh?
- it will take some wiggle to remove. You can pry a little here and there with care, but don't pry against the gasket!
3) on the bench (or concrete floor of parking garage, as it were) drill at the same location illustrated in above photo. The metal is softer than you'd think; don't drill through the other wall of the adapter! I used a drill just undersized so the threads would bite (and seal), tested the fit and opened up the hole a wee bit (with the age old drill wobble technique) to get it just right. Install the fitting such that it clears the inner wall of the exhaust adapter and can be seen protruding within. Test-fit the probe to ensure it doesn't touch the far wall of the adapter. Looks good? Be proud. Now leave the probe off until later.
4) reinstall the exhaust adapter. Make sure its on appropriately tight (see 'torque wrench', see also 'hack'). Mind the gasket.
5) attached the exhaust pipe to the adapter and the exhaust beyond. Put all four fasteners in loosely to get it in place then tighten things up. For the two bolts at the muffler end of the pipe, note that you should tighten them alternately so the sleeved connection goes in straight. For the studs on the adapter side of the pipe, be sure you tighten the nuts until they reach the stops on the studs.
6) fish the EGT probe down behind the engine, then climb back underneath the truck and insert the probe in the fitting. Snug it up with a wrench (easy, now - just snug it don't break it) so that the metal shrouded probe harness is pointing up and through that void between the engine and the rear firewall.
7) back up in the engine compartment, use a tie-wrap to attach the probe harness to the engine as illustrated so that the harness has a nice clean arc back to the probe. It shouldn't be touching any thing, but likewise should not have any excessive slack.

Well that was the dirty bit, go clean up and have a brewskie, eh? You don't have to work under the truck any more.

8) Take a look at the red arrows added to the photo below for a wiring route that makes a whole lotta sense (cheers, lrp374).

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Boost probe:
This is super easy. See green arrow in photo above.
9) fit a length of hose to the tee-adapter provided.
10) cut into the air hose (see photos up-thread!) that leads to your fuel injection pump, insert the Tee-adapter inline
11) cut the length of hose to fit such that the pressure sensor is in a secure spot; I hung mine together with the EGT probe line to the firewall, as I wanted this hose to be as short as possible. My boost sensor is just to the left of where the large red arrow is in the photo above, bundled up with the pyro harness.
12) using tie wraps, make sure the wiring and hose is fitted neatly and out of harm's way in the engine space. Don't put any wires under stress; leave just enough slack/play for the usual movement of the engine while in operation. You really don't want this wiring getting loose and caught up in your belts/fans so tying things up neatly is A Very Good Idea.

(At this point you would typically move on to the 3rd probe - temperature sensor. I haven't done this yet so we'll have to add that step later).

Now you should be ready to run your wiring into the cabin:
13) I routed my pyro sensor wiring up over the engine as lrp374 did but instead of veering left, I kept going straight (see big red arrow in photo above) through to the firewall under the driver's seat and down under the carpet to the left of the "footrest" where a clutch lever would be if I had one.
- Note from TardisDeli (Jay): don't drill into the black panel under the handbrake. If you take a wider view of the engine compartment for a second you will note that this black piece is in fact a cross-member attached front and back and that it is removable for servicing the engine. If you run wires through it, you will be displeased at the time spent (and paid for) removing said wires during future maintenance. Instead, route your wire beyond to the firewall in front of the radiator.

- before I could drill the hole and install a grommet for the wire harness, I removed the plastic housings all around the driver's cabin that hold the carpet down. I also unscrewed the lower part of the housing that is around my shifter to free the carpet and lift it away. This may likely be a damp, wet-dog-smelly place to work. (See "wet foot" and other such posts.)

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- while you have the carpet up, neatly route any other cables that need to go through (like, in my case, the to-be-defined temperature sensor wire harness). You can come up where I did, by the "foot rest", or just behind the steering column is another good spot.

14) At this point you should work back from your gauge installation point to the harnesses coming from the probes, which meet somewhere underneath the driver's side dash, in my case left
- I actually cut into at least one of my probe lines and add connectors so that the gauge harness and the probe harness were separate. This is, I think, necessary for installation and later serviceability. I also had to make a small extension (thanks Jay!) for the pyro sensor harness as it was a bit too short.
- I installed the gauge on my steering column as some others have done. I wrapped all my wiring from the gauge back in a loom and drilled a hole for same (with grommet of course) in the steering column's plastic shroud. The loom runs within the column shroud and out the same path as the two main steering column wiring harnesses. Make sure there is a bit of slack for things to move as the steering wheel column is adjusted up and down while driving, and that the harness isn't getting abused against any sharp edges.

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- Slack and most of the wiring interconnects were wrapped up neatly in the loom and, once everything was fitted and working, tied up under the dash with tie-wraps (aka zap straps).
- Power for the gauge was supplied by an auxiliary fuse panel, installed by our resident sparky, Jay of TardisDeli fame. (I will document the power project in a separate thread.)

And there you have it:

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Comments regarding the GlowShift gauge kit:
- there are some minor inaccuracies in the documentation regarding the markings (shrink wrap colors) on the sensor wires. The actual wire colors and pin counts are correct. Its fairly obvious if you rough it out on the bench first. Take not of the assembly order and save yourself time and trouble during assembly. I recommend mounting the gauge first, then removing the gauge housing from the mount bracket to connect and disconnect the harness. Trying to do this while the gauge is mounted is tricky unless you leave a lot of the harness free to work with. Be sure to leave some slack to work beyond your grommet if you fit the harness like I did.
- the hose provided for the boost sensor sucks, and is hard to fit. Recommend using something better if you've got it.
- the rather large shade for the gauge seems unnecessary at first. I was wrong. In fact, the rounded gauge face is quite reflective and the shade is FTW. Recommend fitting the shade over the gauge first.
- a piece of sticky foam is supplied to friction-fit the gauge. Electric tape works better and can be adjusted and removed more easily than the foam. It doesn't need to be very tight; if you put the tape on AFTER the shade you can adjust the gauge position (level) and shade independently. Don't tape the shade to the gauge; you'll want to adjust them independently. Note: If you used the foam and realize afterward that you need to remove it (e.g. to install the shade...) it rolls off with your thumb.

Readings:
- the lowest temperature reported by the EGT probe is 200 degrees. This is normal and indicates the probe is connected. No probe or bad probe connection reports nothing on the gauge. Note: a just-started idling engine will not report over 200 degrees; you will need to put the engine under driving load and the temperature will rise immediately.
First Observations from the EGT and boost readings while driving:
- when you first accelerate normally, and can hear the turbo spin up, the boost kicks in at 1-2 PSI
- on kickdown acceleration, the boost pressure increases steadily with the engine powerband up to 9 PSI (as designed!)
- the EGT is quite dynamic and reveals a lot about how much load the engine is under in real time
- EGT drops quickly when the engine is no longer under load and will fall steadily toward baseline when at idle
- my nominal EGT is ~450-650 F while driving in city traffic, and peaks out at ~750 F on steady climbs up hills at city speeds (~3200 RPM). Steady climb at highway speed ~850 F.
- on the North Van Cut test (acute 1.2KM highway climb) the EGT hits 1000 F fairly quickly until I back off to barely 3K RPM and I can stay around 850 F
- in short, as I already knew from experience, 3000 RPM is the cap for any sustained engine loads in my current configuration. If you follow this rule, you probably don't need a pyro. But its really nice to have the realtime feedback and see exactly whats going on. I think I'm going gauge-happy.

[crushers]

remember a pyrometer is an important GUIDE to use to modify the driving habits. probably the most important gauge a diesel engine can have. i did a write up on another thread recently as to how the pyro and coolant temp gauges react differently and why.
the location of the probe is the most important part of the installation. if the probe is too far away from the turbo the exhaust gasses expand and cool dramaticly. i like to mount the probe before the turbo or in the exhaust elbow for the most accuracy. once you are down to the tin then you are getting too far away.
if PRE trubo then max i recommend is 1200F, POST turbo then max is 1000F. we have found on average a 200F drop through the turbo. if that is the case then 1200F post turbo will work out to roughly 1400+F PREturbo.
if anyone wants i will be happy to copy and paste the posted info here.

Thanks for the link, Profister. That's an option that I'll have to keep in mind. I imagine my Delica driving habits would change too if I knew what that little bit more/less throttle would do to my exhaust temperatures!

Anyone else have pyro and boost gauges mounted in their Deli?