EGT and boost gauge install

[Derek]

I’ve been meaning to do this for a few months now. But I finally found a few hours today (3 infact, minus lunch).

Highly recommend if you start playing with fueling or boost.

Step one is spend lots of money on a 3” stainless dump pipe and down pipe. You could fit one to a standard dump pipe but the difference is night and day between stock and 3”.

Next, buy your preferred cheap Chinese gauges. I’ve found some for over £100 each on google from special gauge places. Ended up finding matching gauges that don’t look like they came out of a cover car of fast car magazine.
2" 52mm 7 Color LED Car Exhaust Gas Temp Gauge Pointer EGT Temperature Meter | eBay - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club]

I also bought a universal twin pillar pod holder thing. This was a waste of time and money as it was too big even after a lot of trimming and belt sanding.

I ended up fitting them to the vents either side of the clocks. Removed the plastic surround (2 screws), then the vents un clip from the surround, then gently lever the vents out of their pivot points.

Take the directional vents out, centre the gauge and mark the fins from the back and air hacksaw them out. It slides in nice and snug between the top and bottom fins, I then sanded a flat top and bottom of the gauge so it doesn’t twist over time.

Drill a 10mm hole in the vent duct to run your wires. I took the power and switch for illumination from two different supply’s on the back of the fuse panel. Won’t go into wiring much more as it’ll differ from gauge to gauge.

Very happy with how they came out. I’m a bit of a oem freak especially when it comes to interior things, and a pillar pod or dash pod would always bug me. The gauges have 7 different colours to choose from, one of them being that light yellow/ green to match the clocks.

 

[Dave2000]

With all due respect, I am all for modding an engine (OK twenty years ago) to get it to produce more power however, I am concerned about the first sentence in your fourth paragraph. After spending a lot of money on the down pipe and 3 inch exhaust and so forth you recommend purchasing a cheap Chinese boost and EGT gauges, this is not the way to go. Buying something cheap to dress up your car like I did a cheap digital clock for example, but buying something that may not read right that could damage your engine is not what you should be doing. Just half a turn on the pump diaphragm and you could have an over rich engine and if this does not go bang early on, it will certainly reduce the engines life, if one or both of the gauges are reading wrong.

I like your enthusiasm but have a rethink on the gauges, even stock the HDJ80 has an over boost warning light, so it does happen even in stock trim, start messing with settings without a decent set of gauges could bring on a costly failure.

Regards

Dave

 

[Derek]

Thanks Dave.

Which gauges do you recommend? I think you’ll struggle to find one that isn’t made in China. And even a £200 one could have a malfunction.

There isn’t an awful lot of ground breaking technology that goes into an egt probe and readout gauge, hence why they are relatively cheap these days. I’ve used a “cheap” digital gauge on an older modified Audi a few years back and it was fine.

There is a lot of information out there on egts on standard engines, when loaded up hills, after modification etc etc to determine if it’s reading correctly. If it’s only reading 300’ when towing a car up hill on a summers day then yes there’s probably something wrong with it.

In regards to tuning, I’m not going to go crazy. I’m quite happy with how it pulls just now with the exhaust and a slight pump tweak. I plan an inter cooler in the next few months which will safe guard things even more then I’ll probably leave it at that.

 

[Towpack]

I fitted Isspro gauges years ago and they're still working perfectly. The gauges I wanted (boost & EGT) weren't in stock in the UK at the time so I ordered them from a diesel specialist in Canada. I thought I'd also saved around £40 too, until I got a request for ID & VAT from DHL some time after they'd been delivered!

 

[Dave2000]

Thanks Dave.

Which gauges do you recommend? I think you’ll struggle to find one that isn’t made in China. And even a £200 one could have a malfunction.

There isn’t an awful lot of ground breaking technology that goes into an egt probe and readout gauge, hence why they are relatively cheap these days. I’ve used a “cheap” digital gauge on an older modified Audi a few years back and it was fine.

There is a lot of information out there on egts on standard engines, when loaded up hills, after modification etc etc to determine if it’s reading correctly. If it’s only reading 300’ when towing a car up hill on a summers day then yes there’s probably something wrong with it.

In regards to tuning, I’m not going to go crazy. I’m quite happy with how it pulls just now with the exhaust and a slight pump tweak. I plan an inter cooler in the next few months which will safe guard things even more then I’ll probably leave it at that.

With regards to what is and is not made in China consider this. Latest Samsung phone £1,000.00, typical no name mobile £100.00? Both made in China! What is not often known is that there are many manufacturing sectors in China, there those that make the Samsung phones and another that makes the plastic bowls on the conveyor belt next to the one with the no name mobiles, pop into your local Chinese cheapo shop and check out the air temperature gauges five gauges and five different temperatures, so whilst I agree that everything seems to made in China let the price be your guide. Go on websites that are focused on race cars (there are both diesel and petrol classes) and see what they use, I am not saying go and get a set of 'Stack' gauges, which will cost you serious money....oh and throw in your first born if you have one. What I am saying is look around and see what is about, the 52 mm gauge size has pretty much become the norm so you will not have to alter the dashboard to get them to fit, your right a very expensive gauge could have a fault, but then you present that to the manufacture (with proof) and you might get some compensation, try that with a 'no name brand' manufacturer.

Re 'ground breaking technology', you would be surprised at what is available today, using a one off gauge on an Audi is fine, if it was accurate and as you mentioned later that it is not 'over tuned'. But the 80 is a long term 'lugger', it is not in anyway whatsoever a performance engine, and your comment about the 'engine probably being alright' and 'if the gauge is reading correctly', I guess you can see with the 'if' and the 'probably' means to someone like myself who has drag raced a 500 BHP (at the wheels) manual Jaguar XJ12 C, if's and but's just don't cut it.

I am assuming you have a 3" exhaust all the way through, if not then just changing the down pipe will do nothing for power whatsoever if it is going into a stock system, a bit like the old 'pan cake' air filters, sounded great (more air going in) but actually reduced horsepower. So again I am not in any way criticising your mods, but as a mechanically sympathetic mechanic trying to offer advice approaching 50 years of experience 'under the bonnet', it could save you a lot of money.

As an aside check out my long running thread (12 years) on 'MUD', Builds - My LC 80 thread. - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club] Apart from my perhaps anal approach to servicing, and so forth, you will find where I actually calibrated ALL the stock gauges! OTT perhaps?

Regards

Dave

 

[RBG21]

Almost completely off topic but what exhaust system did you go for?, mines got a split just below the flexi and thinking of just getting a turbo back stainless system for it.

 

[Derek]

Almost completely off topic but what exhaust system did you go for?, mines got a split just below the flexi and thinking of just getting a turbo back stainless system for it.

Hi, his name is Trevor and has a thread in the classified section I think.

 

[Derek]

With regards to what is and is not made in China consider this. Latest Samsung phone £1,000.00, typical no name mobile £100.00? Both made in China! What is not often known is that there are many manufacturing sectors in China, there those that make the Samsung phones and another that makes the plastic bowls on the conveyor belt next to the one with the no name mobiles, pop into your local Chinese cheapo shop and check out the air temperature gauges five gauges and five different temperatures, so whilst I agree that everything seems to made in China let the price be your guide. Go on websites that are focused on race cars (there are both diesel and petrol classes) and see what they use, I am not saying go and get a set of 'Stack' gauges, which will cost you serious money....oh and throw in your first born if you have one. What I am saying is look around and see what is about, the 52 mm gauge size has pretty much become the norm so you will not have to alter the dashboard to get them to fit, your right a very expensive gauge could have a fault, but then you present that to the manufacture (with proof) and you might get some compensation, try that with a 'no name brand' manufacturer.

Re 'ground breaking technology', you would be surprised at what is available today, using a one off gauge on an Audi is fine, if it was accurate and as you mentioned later that it is not 'over tuned'. But the 80 is a long term 'lugger', it is not in anyway whatsoever a performance engine, and your comment about the 'engine probably being alright' and 'if the gauge is reading correctly', I guess you can see with the 'if' and the 'probably' means to someone like myself who has drag raced a 500 BHP (at the wheels) manual Jaguar V12, if's and but's just don't cut it.

I am assuming you have a 3" exhaust all the way through, if not then just changing the down pipe will do nothing for power whatsoever if it is going into a stock system, a bit like the old 'pan cake' air filters, sounded great (more air going in) but actually reduced horsepower. So again I am not in any way criticising your mods, but as a mechanically sympathetic mechanic trying to offer advice approaching 50 years of experience 'under the bonnet', it could save you a lot of money.

As an aside check out my long running thread (12 years) on 'MUD', Builds - My LC 80 thread. - [Leaving Land Cruiser Club] Apart from my perhaps anal approach to servicing, and so forth, you will find where I actually calibrated ALL the stock gauges! OTT perhaps?

Regards

Dave

I can see the point you’re trying to make. OTT? “Probably”

My “expensive exhaust cheap gauge” comment was meant to be a joke, you can drill and tap your manifold for free then spend £300 on an egt gauge. The outcome will most likely be the same. It’s very easy to be analytic about these things.

A high performance dragster, yes you want the best. A big old bomb proof Toyota engine, I don’t think you need to worry about a couple extra psi/ degrees.

 

[Shayne]

I been a fan of CAT phones for a couple of decades mainly because they are hard to break and the last one probably cost in the region of a grand .

Signal was rubbish and giving up I ordered a £70 Ulefone direct from China which is probably twice as tough and actually works . I will never go back to CAT .

As for gauges cheapos are reproduced copies of the more expensive stuff so how much room for error is there ?