Turbo Conundrums

Righto, good ideas.
Yeah i have a head temp gauge. I went with the sensor that bolts to the head instead of a coolant temp gauge as it will notify me of temp regardless of what causes it - block rad, low coolant, low oil, failing fan etc.

I have one of these 3in1 gauges in my 4Runner, but i have oil, coolant temp and volts instead of EGT, Boost and volts:
3 IN 1 LCD DIGITAL 4WD GAUGE DIESEL EGT PYRO & BOOST & VOLTS GAUGE 52MM 7 COLOUR | eBay

It has been in my 4Runner which has been all around the southwest of WA up to Ningaloo, NSW and Tasmania and i love the gauge. The only negative to to the gauge is it wont auto dim for night driving you have to click the little button, cycle through backlight colours then to no backlight. So on short trips it is a pain but on long drives it doesn't take long to do.

On a side note, what do you get up to in your Disco your always tinkering with? You ever go out camping or exploring? Your up Queensland way right? That trip is on my list too.

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Originally Posted by Finnius

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On a side note, what do you get up to in your Disco your always tinkering with? You ever go out camping or exploring? Your up Queensland way right? That trip is on my list too.

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Melbourne.

When time allows, mostly trips to high country.
Just not enough time to do it between family and work.
My main interest tho, in terms of trips are the long arduous Central Aus types.

My last one was to head out to Innamincka and Dig tree area. Calder up to Mildura was slow.. many 40k/h zones and stopped for about 30mins at one section.
I reckon I'd lost about 1 hr at least on the drive.
Got to Packsaddle filled up and had to make a decision. risk continuing on with no time for any trouble, or turn back.
I had to work again a couple of days later.
So I turned back.
What I actually enjoy is the drive, rather than the actual destination of time off.

I'm not really a hard core 4WDer, in fact I have to say I hate 4WDing!
But I love the Central Aus area(Lk Eyre, and Torrens.. etc) try to do it regularly when time allows.
Now with the Tdi, I'm more confident to do those trips than I was with my Rodeo and Frontera too.
Just finding the time is the PITA.

A great trip if you've never done it .. Oodnadatta/Finke/Alice run. Basically the old Ghan line. Best areas in Aus by a long way I reckon.
if you've had plans to do QLD, that would be the way I'd do it from WA(knowing what I know now)
So my 4WDing usually involves sandy tracks. .. by the way which I also hate! [tonguewink]

Tinkering is always to make something better(if possible) or less bad(usually easier to do).
Almost every week or other week I'd be fiddling with the fuelling in the IP. Only one I won't yet touch is the overall fuelling screw. It still has the protective collar, and I'm happy with the way it drives in that sense.
I get a small puff of black smoke in startup, then basically nothing. On a hot day, I get a small puff on acceleration tho(not cold tho). with the current settings I have for the turbo compensator.

pps. the screw in the round cover you referred too before is the stop limit for the boost compensator pin.
it determines the amount of upstroke the pin has.
Obviously the diaphragm is depressed with boost, so downward travel give you more fuel.. more boost more fuel.
This stop screw is to adjust how much more fuel is used with boost but prior to boost coming in.
Basically it's the off idle boost adjuster but not taking into account boost built up.

Download the PDF I linked too .. interesting reading for Tdi owners that don't mind tweaking.

pps. that gauge you linked too should be fine. Obviously other than the auto dimming light bit.
Because I'm a habitual tinkerer, the first thing I'd have thought to try on the gauge would be a switch with a resistor of some values to make a quick and easy to hit dim switch .. or something like that.

Yeah i am into electronics/build circuit boards etc so if i had the time i would pull apart the gauge and make it dimmable.

I will actually be up the high country very soon! If you didn't live in the city i would drop in and say hi - but i hate city driving. We should have a disco convention at craigs hut! :)

my boost signal comes from the inlet manifold and i've piped it so that the inlet manifold pressure is what determines what the wastegate does rather than the outlet of the turbo (factory) basically i've sealed off the pipe at the back of turbo and re-piped it to the inlet manifold (bolt at the back near the firewall m10x1.5 from memory) this allows the turbo to boost a bit sooner as there is a drop in pressure at the manifold due to all the IC and pipe work. my tdi starts to boost at about 1600rpm if i am accelerating fairly hard by 3000rpm i will be at 14psi (my max). at freeway speed 100kms on a flattish road in 5th gear (~2300rpm with 245/75R16) it will sit anywhere between 6 psi to 10psi depending on road longitudinal grade.

Glad it is starting to make sense.