Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

ok i got some shitty ebay boost gauge, i know it might not be accurate but i'm going to have a go at installing it.

through reading other topics i know the vacuum hose for the stock boost gauge is the safest place for the T piece to be put in.

what i wanted to know before i go cutting the vacuum hose is there any danger to the engine if this vacuum hose falls off other than the stock boost gauge not working from what i read it would suck air on idle i.e. negative vacuum?

also if later down the track when i purchase a better name brand boost gauge could i just remove the vacuum hose on my ebay boost gauge and plug it straight into the brand name boost gauge for it to be working?

thanks for any help, haha i know i'm a noob with cars but just dont want to destroy my baby

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/234650-boost-gauge-install/
Share on other sites

yeah it sucks air when it falls off, but its not going to cause crazy engine damage quickly.. Just limit the driving you have to do when it falls off before repair. The other option (which i used when mine was stuffed for a bit) is to put something over the end of the pipe (i used cling wrap) and lacky band the shit out of it.. :) all your trying to do is stop shit getting sucked in there.

As for using hose on new boost gauge you will be fine providing the hose size is the same on both..

Another tip would be to go and get fresh vacuum hose before you start (cheap cheap from super cheap). Fresh hose wont break, whereas if you just cut and use the old hose on a different size nipple it will end up splitting sooner or later.

Cheers

yeah the matching of t-pieces and hose is the tricky bit.. From memory the T-piece i got with my autometer gauge was WAY to big for the stock hose..

So i actually went down the path of getting a custom copper T-piece from a hose supply place in 2.5/3mm i think (closest to stock). you will struggle to find anything aftermarket in the same size as the stock hose.

Then i bought the new hose in the size to match (then again cant really get hose thinner than 2.5mm).

If you increase the size of t-pieces and hoses slightly, dont stress too much.. All you will lose is a few ms of response time from the gauge but the reading should remain accurate as long as there are no leaks. If you want to get really technical and keep the same response time with a fatter hose, just make the hose shorter, as its the internal volume that makes this difference..

R33 may have a larger hose from stock tho, which would be helpful and much less stuffing around.. :banana:

hope that makes sense.. :P

If it falls off, engine will run a little bit lean off boost and a little bit rich on boost...

Btw negative vacuum is actually positive pressure in a literal sense..but I knew what you meant...

PS...You can always get away with using T-pieces that are one size too big by putting the end of the tubing in very hot water to soften the tubing before you push it onto the fitting...(this is probably the most useful part of my post actually....)

  • 7 months later...
If it falls off, engine will run a little bit lean off boost and a little bit rich on boost...

Btw negative vacuum is actually positive pressure in a literal sense..but I knew what you meant...

PS...You can always get away with using T-pieces that are one size too big by putting the end of the tubing in very hot water to soften the tubing before you push it onto the fitting...(this is probably the most useful part of my post actually....)

I agree with this tip, very handy. I have 4mm brass t-piece going into 4mm vacuum hose at the moment, the fitting was a bit tight but the heat on the hose did the trick.

Edited by mosquitocoils

Why waste ur time getting a custom t-piece made up when u can get one from repco for like $1 and run the boost gauge to the hose running off the inlet manifold. It wont break and its the same size as normal vaccum hose that is compatible with all gauges ive seen.

Dont use the stock boost gauge hose, its small, flimsy and breaks too easily.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Yep super expensive, awesome. It would be a cool passion project if I had the money.
    • Getting the setup right, is likely to cost multiples of the purchase price of the vehicle.
    • So it's a ginormous undertaking that will be a massive headache but will be sorta cool if pulled off right. And also expensive. I'm sure it'll be as expensive as buying the car itself. I don't think you could just do this build without upgrading other things to take the extra power. Probably lots of custom stuff as well. All this assuming the person has mechanical knowledge. I'm stupid enough to try it but smart enough to realize there's gonna be mistakes even with an experienced mechanic. I'm a young bloke on minimum wage that gets dopamine from air being moved around and got his knowledge from a Donut video on how engines work.]   Thanks for the response though super informative!
    • Yes, it is entirely possible to twincharge a Skyline. It is not....without problems though. There was a guy did it to an SOHC RB30 (and I think maybe it became or already was a 25/30) in a VL Commode. It was a monster. The idea is that you can run both compressors at relatively low pressure ratios, yet still end up with a quite large total pressure ratio because they multiply, not add, boost levels. So, if the blower is spun to give a 1.4:1 PR (ie, it would make ~40 kPa of boost on its own) and the turbo is set up to give a 1.4:1 PR also, then you don't get 40+40 = 80 kPa of boost, you get 1.4*1.4, which is pretty close to 100 kPa of boost. It's free real estate! This only gets better as the PRs increase. If both are set up to yield about 1.7 PR, which is only about 70 kPa or 10ish psi of boost each, you actually end up with about 1.9 bar of boost! So, inevitably it was a bit of a monster. The blower is set up as the 2nd compressor, closest to the motor, because it is a positive displacement unit, so to get the benefit of putting it in series with another compressor, it has to go second. If you put it first, it has to be bigger, because it will be breathing air at atmospheric pressure. The turbo's compressor ends up needing to be a lot larger than you'd expect, and optimised to be efficient at large mass flows and low PRs. The turbo's exhaust side needs to be quite relaxed, because it's not trying to provide the power to produce all the boost, and it has to handle ALL the exhaust flow. I think you need a much bigger wastegate than you might expect. Certainly bigger than for an engine just making the same power level turbo only. The blower effectively multiplies the base engine size. So if you put a 1.7 PR blower on a 2.5L Skyline, it's like turboing a 4.2L engine. Easy to make massive power. Plus, because the engine is blown, the blower makes boost before the turbo can even think about making boost, so it's like having that 4.2L engine all the way from idle. Fattens the torque delivery up massively. But, there are downsides. The first is trying to work out how to size the turbo according to the above. The second is that you pretty much have to give up on aircon. There's not enough space to mount everything you need. You might be able to go elec power steering pump, hidden away somewhere. but it would still be a struggle to get both the AC and the blower on the same side of the engine. Then, you have to ponder whether you want to truly intercool the thing. Ideally you would put a cooler between the turbo and the blower, so as to drop the heat out of it and gain even more benefit from the blower's positive displacement nature. But that would really need to be a water to air core, because you're never going to find enough room to run 2 sets of boost pipes out to air to air cores in the front of the car. But you still need to aftercool after the blower, because both these compressors will add a lot of heat, and you wil have the same temperature (more or less) as if you produced all that boost with a single stage, and no one in their right mind would try to run a petrol engine on high boost without a cooler (unless not using petrol, which we shall ignore for the moment). I'm of the opinnion that 2x water to air cores in the bay and 2x HXs out the front is probably the only sensible way to avoid wasting a lot of room trying to fit in long runs of boost pipe. But the struggle to locate everything in the limited space available would still be a pretty bad optimisation problem. If it was an OEM, they'd throw 20 engineers at it for a year and let them test out 30 ideas before deciding on the best layout. And they'd have the freedom to develop bespoke castings and the like, for manifolds, housings, connecting pipes to/from compressors and cores. A single person in a garage can either have one shot at it and live with the result, or spend 5 years trying to get it right.
    • Good to know, thank you!
×
×
  • Create New...