Turbo boost gauge

[bgc]

I have a 2005 stock turbo. Is there any value to having a boost gauge. I do not plan any mods at this time.

Thanks for any input. The factory gauge is rather pricey, I think.

[bgc]

HELLO!

[YBajaSteve]

gotta give a couple days for some turbo people to get on and check the forums... i dont have any clue so no help from me.... other then it does look cool having the gauge and i would assume it would let you know if something was wrong, if your PSI was all low or super high one day?

[bgc]

Thanks - I think the look is great as well

Hopefully, someone will know what boost the factory turbo should display.

I thought it would be a good way to show the turbo was still working and how much!

On the other hand I think I would know if it stopped working.

[Sabber]

OK, so I dont have turbo and I have never even seen a turbo gauge on a Baja, but from my reading here's what the gauge does: First off, the Baja using a turbo basically increasing the air pressure and horsepower of the engine in accordance to how high the RPMs are, ie. the higher the RPMs the higher the boost. The boost gauge shows how much boost is being given. So if you have a boost gauge you can more accurately alter your driving habits to give yourself more boost or less boost depending on your preference. Minimizing the amount of boost might save on gas, I dont know.

[bgc]

I ordered the premium Prosport 52mm electrical turbo boost gauge. It should be in early next week.

[bgc]

I had not posted any results. The gauge works fine.

It is hard to find the exact tubing that Subaru uses from the factory other than that the installation is perfect.

[bajasti]

So what does a td04 on a stock tune boost at? It has been so long since I hade a stock turbo I can't remember...

[Ahzlon]

I think it's supposed be somewhere around 11psi. Although I could be wrong. My boost gauge is going in this weekend. Still dont' know where to mount it cause I REALLY don't want to drill into my dash

[bgc]

I had been told it was higher but the last word I received on the forum was that the stock turbo boost is 7.5.

[bgc]

Gauge stopped working! Found out the furnished clear tubing where it went though the firewall got slightly pinched and closed down when it got hot. I replaced the tubing today and everything works fine again. I used the clear tubing the ProSport factory provides. I noticed that the tubing gets soft as the engine heat goes up.

I have placed an order for some silicone heat resistant tubing and will change out as soon as it come in.

[bgc]

I installed the new thermal tubing from Stylin'Motors Inc. Their site advertises the tubing for the turbo application.The ProSport clear white had already hardened because of the heat. Gauge works fine. I still do not quite understand the way the turbo boosts, but I know that it is working!

My 2005 is running sweet at 69,000 miles. I wish I could have bought one new! I have managed to get this one in like new condition. I bought it on e-bay and it was about 95% according to my likes.

I love my Baja Turbo!

[ascott]

The td04 on the baja is kinda restrained from the factory. i have a 2004 baja turbo with the pathetic factory boost gauge (reads in MPa, Mega Pascals...). our cars (including all modern turbocharged subaru's) use an electronic boost control solenoid which is managed by the ECU. It controls the boost by varying the pressure that the wastegate actuator sees in order to run higher boost than the wastegate actuator would normally allow (around 6-7 psi).

The baja's stock tune has the boost slowly increase until it hits around 11-12 psi at 3600 rpm and then taper back down to 6 psi at redline. This is nice, but the TD04 turbo can flow a lot more boost in the lower and midranges (and a bit more up top too...) which will give you an huge amount more torque and power once tuned appropriately.

I'm in the process of tuning my baja using the open source software (RomRaider and ECUFlash) with a Tactrix cable. I'm currently peaking at 17psi around 2800 - 3000 rpm and then tapering to 10psi at redline. This extra oomph down low makes the baja feel like a whole new car. One major issue i have run into with the baja is that the stock tubing and boost control solenoid are setup rather cheaply which severely limits the boost that you can run on the stock setup (12 psi is about all). The easiest way to fix that is to upgrade the stock 2-port solenoid to a 3 port solenoid like the Grimmspeed model which i use or any other 3 port for that matter. This allows more precise control and more boost to be gained.

i've just realized that i have kind of rambled here... basically, what i'm saying is that you can make the baja even more fun than it is on the stock tune. even if you don't plan to upgrade much in the engine bay, i would recommend you look into installing a cat-less up pipe. This pipe is between the exhaust manifolds and the turbo. The stock part has a small, very restrictive catalytic converter in it. Over time this cat wears out and will eventually crumble apart. Its bits and pieces then get sucked up into your turbo. As you can guess, this ends badly for your turbo...

[bgc]

Thanks for the info. I had wondered why the guage showed more boost at times when I thought it should and less when I though the boost should be higher.