Very very noob question

[Ron Jefferson]

I have never owned a turbo anything before, well I had this little dog one time, pretty sure he was on meth, but anyway, what I was curious about was the factory boost gauge. When idling, if I rev the motor it shows no boost being made. Is that normal? When I drive it shows boost fine. Again, sorry for the noobsauce, but I really appreciate all the help you guys have been giving me. Thanks.

 

[sylquebec]

This is my first answer to a noob simply because i feel happy tonight.
Yes, it is normal, load is need to make the turbo into boost.
(did you try the search button)

 

[Ron Jefferson]

I did, but I do believe the sheer noobishness broke the function, but thank you very much

 

[IJ.]

Boost will vary with load, most Tubo cars struggle to hig the wastegate in the lower gears, this is why they're ofter faster with lower numerically Diff gears, i.e. NA cars run 4.3:1 and the Turbo cars are either 3.9 or 3.7:1 as it loads up the lower 3 gears more making more boost and offsetting the mechanical advantage of the 4.3:1's.

Hang a Trailer on the back or head up into the hills and you'll notice this effect of load/boost/power

 

[Orion ZyGarian]

More importantly, the factory boost gauge (less of a "boost gauge", more of a "boost suggestion") probably couldnt be worse. I have an AutoMeter hooked up in my car, and I could hit something like 9-12 psi before the gauge even gets out of vacuum!

 

[jdemara]

More importantly, the factory boost gauge (less of a "boost gauge", more of a "boost suggestion") probably couldnt be worse. I have an AutoMeter hooked up in my car, and I could hit something like 9-12 psi before the gauge even gets out of vacuum!

LOL. "boost suggestion." yaaa its... between... 4..... and.....10psi somewhere-ish..

 

[radiod]

More importantly, the factory boost gauge (less of a "boost gauge", more of a "boost suggestion") probably couldnt be worse. I have an AutoMeter hooked up in my car, and I could hit something like 9-12 psi before the gauge even gets out of vacuum!

It just reacts slow. From my experience it's not terrible for accuracy. Having a mechanical boost gauge shows a MUCH quicker response though.

 

[3p141592654]

Yes, the factory boost gauge has a very low pass filter on it. I designed and built a better one, but have yet to test it out... one of these days.

 

[Maple191]

Not to steal the thread but, IM keeping my car stock and unfortantly it didnt come with an owners manual. But I noticed that the American modles show -4 to +8 on the guage but Canadian modles show -2 to +4 on the guage. Why is there a difference and 2nd part of the question is. What is it rated in psi or kpa. I know that the negtive side is Hg which is Inches of mecury a.k.a vacuume.

 

[Typhoon]

As a noob, all you should do is wind up the boost to the max, don't check the rest of the engine and fuel system is OK, then beat the hell out of it.
Then we can have another noob "It's not a BHG, but...." thread!

 

[Ron Jefferson]

The first thing I did when I got the car was replace the headgasket with a oem one from Toyota and arp studs, replaced the fuel lines, filter and blasted the tank. I was not sure on the boost gauge and was looking for clarification. Thanks for the help.

 

[Orion ZyGarian]

It just reacts slow. From my experience it's not terrible for accuracy. Having a mechanical boost gauge shows a MUCH quicker response though.

When you're in boost it's "close enough" sometimes. I personally dont consider being in positive pressure and it telling me I'm in vacuum to be accurate though