How install a boost gauge

Those seeking to get the best performance out of their turbo or super charger vehicle can better regulate boost pressure with a boost gauge. A boost gauge shows the amount of pressure produced by a turbo or super charger. Those systems are designed for optimum benefit at certain amounts of boost pressure, so monitoring them with a boost gauge can help keep components in the right power range and produce the best performance in your vehicle.

Items needed for the job

You will need certain items to complete the job.Obviously in first place, you will need to buy a boost gauge. You will also need wire cutters or splicers, a coat hanger, electrical tape, an Xacto knife, two to three feet of vacuum hose and a 10mm socket

Working with the vacuum port

There are two types of gauges and many do not have a sensor to install. If that is the case, you will need to tee a nylon line into the vacuum port. For those installing electronic gauges, there will be a remote sensor that you will need to tee into the port instead of the nylon line. One important thing is to mount the pressure sensor away from heat in the engine bay. Otherwise, you could get a bad reading. You should splice into an existing vacuum gauge and it’s best if its one that goes to your fuel pressure regulator. The port should, at the very least, be past the throttle body.

Attach the tee

You will cut into the vacuum line and splice into the vacuum line with the three-way tee. Your boost gauge line will tee into the three-way tee.

Run the hose

The vacuum hose has to be run through the car. Slide it down near the steering column boot on the driver side of the firewall. Using your XACTO knife, cut a hole to pass the line into the pedal assembly. Be careful here, so not to kink it or have it be too close to the pedals, steering column or other things that could cause it to break or kink. You can also run it along under the weather stripping, so it won’t get as much heat from the engine and turbo.

Connect the hose

Connect the hose to the boost gauge. Those with an electronic boost gauge will have a few more steps. You will need to connect the wiring harness to the pressure solenoid. Then, run the electrical connector into the cabin like the hose would have run.

Connect the wiring

Remove the lower dash from the metal support beams under the steering column. This usually involves removing four bolts, but there could be another bolt behind a small panel on the lower dash. If so, pop off that panel and remove that bolt. Remove the center column cover also. Now find your turbo timer harness or ignition harness. Look at the wires. White leads to the source for lights. Red is your constant power and black is the ground wire. Orange is switched power. Carefully strip away a section of insulation on the red wire with your stripping tool. Splice your boost gauges constant power – red wire – to this wire. You can use a test light and probe for power with the ignition off if you do not have a turbo timer. The orange wire should connect to either a green or blue wire on your turbo timer harness. You can tee into the ignition column and that wire will be blue or you can attach switched power to the cigarette lighter. That wire will likely be a black wire in the middle of the lighter.

Connecting the lights

Now, you are going to work with the white wire. You want to do this properly so you will still be able to dim your lights. You will be connecting the white wire to the tail light circuits. Look for a wire that is in a wire harness running along the rocker panel under the driver’s side carpet. You will need to slit the loom cover to see the wires. The tail light wire is green with a white stripe and dashes. Connect the power and illumination wires to the boost gauge. Use zip ties to hold the vacuum hose securely in place.

This content was originally posted by a Car Throttle user on our Community platform and was not commissioned or created by the CT editorial team.