Should I get a 30 psi or 60 psi for an analog gauge? What do you guys use? I've seen both for sale through vendor websites and I've seen them both on a variety of trucks...

Anyone using digital boost gauge? Dakota has a nice one, I kinda like analog personally but am open to ideas here...

I figure with a mild/moderate truck 0 - 30 psi would allow a better sweep of usable boost. With a J-hook and/or programmer like a smarty my HY35 would go to just under 30 psi, even if the wastegate were modified to stay shut period, right?

But on the other hand if ever I got a mild turbo upgrade (for mileage, lower egt's, better streetabilty...etc...etc...) and say some stage 1 injectors (M1 or 1.6, DDP 1 or RV275) would I need to have a 60 psi gauge at that time? Would my usable boost sweep change that much that the extra range from 31 - 60 psi would be viable and beneficial?

thanks for the advice guys

 

I have a 01 with a welded waste gate and it makes 36 or 37 pounds of boost I would go with the 60 psi

 

I think that you should just get the 60 # to start off so that you do not have to upgrade when you start maxing it out. It is alot cheaper to pay the difference now instead of having to buy a new guage in the future.

 

You'll need headstuds and headwork to get to 60 psi., not to mention a beefed up tranny. I would get the 30 psi gauge now because I like the larger gap between the increments on the gauge. Plus it psychologically sux if you never see the needle go past the halfway point on a 60 psi gauge. Later when you can boost more, get the 60 psi gauge. Buying a new gauge later should be a very small portion of the cost that you'd put into upgrading your turbo, engine, and transmission.

 

Get the 60!

 

good info keep it coming. Trying to see what folks think, this is helpful. So looks like there's 2 sides both justified. Do it once and be done or go 30 psi with a larger gap between increments allowing me to see my usable range much easier...

 

Sixty, your stocker will see over 30, even if it is not often. I like knowing how much over 30 I am.

 

How about 35? Haha
I think its personal choice but if you are not making excessive boost its definitely feels better to almost bury the gauge than to barely get halfway. Plus if you are into monitoring and tuning it pretty precisely the smaller one will let you more precisely see where you are at.

The 60 does leave room to grow though!

Its fun to watch either way, you can't make a bad choice!

 

Isspro makes a 50, and IIRC a 40...

 

I've been doing some research on having something that may satisfy both the 30 and 60 psi criteria. Interestingly enough, there's a digital gauge by autometer p/n 6370 which is 0 - 60 psi which I like. However it goes from 0 to 5 and then it goes from there upto 60 in increments of 1...so it's 0, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, n+1,...60 where n = the number prior to n + 1, except 0.

I found this strange that it did not delineate boost under 5 psi in 1 psi increments...it's zero until it jumps upto 5 psi. Called autometer and talked to them, they said that under 5 psi the voltage fluctuates to much and too rapidly and hence it doesn't read those but rather goes right to 5 as the first increment after zero when 5 psi of boost have been achieved, then it goes up by 1 psi. Their MAP sensor is not a designed to interpret lower unsteady voltages, like a solid state unit would do. Maybe they have a reason for this...hold down cost or because boost under 5 is not relevent from their gauge design/engineering approach? I dunno

Now this poses 2 situations, under acceleration it's fine because you'd be above 5 anyway, however cruising say on the highway at 65 mph it'll sit there at 0 even though it may be like 3 or 4 psi...then all of a sudden if you throttle on the hihway from cruising speed it jumps to 5 and goes up from there??

What are your all takes on this gauge? good, bad, funny, like it, don't like it? thoughts?

 

I think with most 30 psi gauges the needle has enough room to go a little further up to 35 psi, which is the limit of the stock turbo.

 

Don't like digital, personal opinion, an autometer does in fact make a 35psi.

 

If the digital guage plugs into the MAP sensor and you have any sort of boost fooling, won't it read wrong? I would think it would, but I am not sure.

 

I guess it comes with a MAP sensor of it's own, I suppose to put onto the intake manifold, from their website the gauge includes:

Includes 8 ft. tubing or wiring harness.
Includes MAP sensor.
Includes T-fitting.
LED digital display.
Features E-Z View Display System which maximizes readability and minimizes distracting high speed digit changes

 

electric gauge's come with there own pressure sensor,kinda why there so much more money