Boost gauge (not using forscan) and more

[Ksnau]

They're not really old parts. They're from like a year ago but here if you want a picture of the parts. I've got them all gathered together except for the blowoff valve adapter because I left that on the full size bronco but it's the same thing that I had on my 22 Badlands and I just ordered a replacement.

And it's not that they're not the correct parts. It's that I'm not going to pay $180 for something that I can get for 30 and I know that the quality is just fine for what it is. Same thing with the catch can sometimes they want over 200 bucks for those when I can spend 20-30 bucks and I just have to do the hoses myself. You know I've got the catch can with a filter and everything. And the check valves, and good clamps that aren't the worm gear clamps, lots of vacuum line with plenty of different sizes.

Basically It just comes down to if you want to spend almost 10 times the price on something so that it just bolts right up or not but this isn't something that's hard to figure out. I mean I've made my own supercharger kids. This is cake and honestly I think it's fun figuring it out myself and then I know that it's designed right and it's going to work right? And I know how it works if something does happen.

But I do get other people wanting to just buy something that's just plug and play and done. But I have more time than money and I love working on stuff like this. So pretty much almost always going to go this route.

And sometimes they're just isn't an option. Like I don't think anyone offers a boost gauge for these and I think that that's a very important thing to have on a boosted car. Going for my 2014 escape and I'm going to do one for this one. If I hadn't traded in my 22 Badlands it would have probably been done by now on that one
too.

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[Sleddog]

Good for you. Please enlighten me why a boost gauge is so important. I’ve had them one my other turbos. And it was “oh, look at the pretty gauge.” After that I ignored it.

I guess if you are altering an under warranty engine, you should probably monitor what it’s doing.

Just how are you going to connect the gauge?

 

[Winds of Change]

For basic thoughts isn't the instant fuel economy gauge just a boost gauge. Longer line more boost. Shorter line less boost. Do I really need to know the exact number? After all I am not going up against a John Force at Pamona.

 

[Ksnau]

So no the boost gauge basically measures the leftover pressure that couldn't make it into the combustion chamber.

A lot of people talk about boost in psi as how much pressure is being put into the engine to make power but technically boost is the measurement of what's left over the didn't make it in there.

However, besides that yes a boost gauge can be very helpful like in my 2014 escape. I actually had the problem on the turbo where the wastegate linkage was stretching or basically the hole that it went into was expanding and it would leave the flapper valve for the wastegate open when it shouldn't be and it would let out exhaust gas that could have been used to spin the turbo up and i wasn't making as much power or as soon and the boost gauge helped me figure that out because I saw instead of making 17 PSI at wide open throttle I was only making 12 and then it went down to like nine and it wasn't happening until later in the, so it can be a good diagnostic tool.

And it's also just interesting to see how much boost you're making and when because on my full-size bronco if I just feathered the gas it would actually go without even getting into boost. But on my 2014 Ford escape 2.0 (It was a older version of the same engine) I was in boost pretty much anytime I even barely touched the gas.

Mainly it's on there as a diagnostic tool and it can be like a warning if all of a sudden I'm making 22 psi and it should max out at 17 or if my car feels sluggish and I see I'm only making 5 psi so for some reason it's not getting the normal amount of boost it should. Do I have a leak? Is the leak on the compressor side or the exhaust side? And so on.

That's all any gauges are for just, diagnostics. And you could totally drive one of these without a boost gauge and be fine. But for me personally, especially since I plan to modify it in the future. I want to have that in there.

 

[Ksnau]

Good for you. Please enlighten me why a boost gauge is so important. I’ve had them one my other turbos. And it was “oh, look at the pretty gauge.” After that I ignored it.

I guess if you are altering an under warranty engine, you should probably monitor what it’s doing.

Just how are you going to connect the gauge?

So for the actual setup they've changed a few things for 23 2.0 engine so I'm going to have to dig into it but once I have it set up I'll post about it here. But yeah basically I'm either going to have to cut a hose or when I had my full-size bronco I actually made an adapter to use the stock hose hookup.

And so I'm hoping that this has the same size and I can just use that. And so it's all basically plug and play. Nothing had to be cut on my escape because I was actually able to put a spacer between the throttle body and the intake. Which by the way, those throttle body spacers don't do anything for performance, but they had threaded outlets that I could hook a vacuum line up to and that's how I had it on my escape.

But they changed the bolt pattern for the throttle body on these so that blue anodized piece of metal in the picture. That's a throttle body spacer with a hole in it where I can hook up a vacuum line, but that's only for the older version of the 2.0 The bolt pattern on ours actually only has three screws and is slightly different so it won't work.

so I'm probably just going to tee into one of the PCV vacuum lines and I'll probably also use that for my oil catch can as well, but once I have it done I'll make a video and take pictures to show what I did if anyone else wants to do it

 

[Meanderthal]

So no the boost gauge basically measures the leftover pressure that couldn't make it into the combustion chamber.

A lot of people talk about boost in psi as how much pressure is being put into the engine to make power but technically boost is the measurement of what's left over the didn't make it in there.

Maybe this is just semantics, but boost pressure is the measurement of the pressure in the intake manifold. I don’t understand the logic behind “the measurement of what’s left over”? When an intake valve opens, that pressure in the manifold (really every bit of ducting from the outlet of the turbo up to the backside of the intake valves) pushes air into the cylinder as the piston is moving down (which would normally create a vacuum on a normally aspirated engine). The cylinder pressure would not exactly match the intake manifold pressure because there isn’t enough time for that to equalize, but it comes somewhat close. Maybe that is what you are trying to describe as the left over pressure?

 

[Ksnau]

There's a old website of a place that makes supercharger kits. I'll try to find it. They explain it better. But yeah, basically you're not measuring what's getting into the engine because your boost sensor isn't in the combustion chamber let me see if I can find the link and it'll probably describe it way better. Maybe I'm not saying it right.

 

[Ksnau]

this guy explains it pretty similarly. Maybe this one will help you understand better.

Also think about it like this pressure is pressure. It's more than what's normal. So if your engine can consume all of the air and fuel that's being injected in it and use that to make power you wouldn't actually have boost. You wouldn't have pressure in there for the sensor to sense.

 

[Sleddog]

So for the actual setup they've changed a few things for 23 2.0 engine so I'm going to have to dig into it but once I have it set up I'll post about it here. But yeah basically I'm either going to have to cut a hose or when I had my full-size bronco I actually made an adapter to use the stock hose hookup.

And so I'm hoping that this has the same size and I can just use that. And so it's all basically plug and play. Nothing had to be cut on my escape because I was actually able to put a spacer between the throttle body and the intake. Which by the way, those throttle body spacers don't do anything for performance, but they had threaded outlets that I could hook a vacuum line up to and that's how I had it on my escape.

But they changed the bolt pattern for the throttle body on these so that blue anodized piece of metal in the picture. That's a throttle body spacer with a hole in it where I can hook up a vacuum line, but that's only for the older version of the 2.0 The bolt pattern on ours actually only has three screws and is slightly different so it won't work.

so I'm probably just going to tee into one of the PCV vacuum lines and I'll probably also use that for my oil catch can as well, but once I have it done I'll make a video and take pictures to show what I did if anyone else wants to do it

it will be interesting to see how it works out. These vehicles are sensitive to what and how something electrical is connected. Take pictures along the way so we can see the progress.

 

[Ksnau]

it will be interesting to see how it works out. These vehicles are sensitive to what and how something electrical is connected. Take pictures along the way so we can see the progress.

Yeah the electrical part is where I got stuck when I sold it because I wanted to use an add a fuse. You can see it in the picture and the package is unopened for a reason. I couldn't get into the where the fuses were. I was trying to be delicate with it but I have a friend who is very capable with electronics. He's going to help me when his time frees up. I had pretty much everything else already figured out, but since I don't want to cut the tubes and I've made that adapter, I'm going to try and do it a different way now so it might come out different. And the one other thing I still have to figure out is where I'm going to mount the boost gauge and getting the wires to the boost gauge without it looking hacked up because I had it temporarily mounted but the wires were going behind the trim near the screen and it just didn't look that good . But yeah I'll definitely post everything. It's not going to happen this weekend because my mom's pool cover broke and they want like $1,000 to fix it so I I got to get my MacGyver skills out and make a bracket to fix it so she doesn't have to buy a whole new cover. But I'm going to Yellowstone with the sport in May and I want it done by that so it shouldn't be too long from now.

 

[Meanderthal]

this guy explains it pretty similarly. Maybe this one will help you understand better.

Also think about it like this pressure is pressure. It's more than what's normal. So if your engine can consume all of the air and fuel that's being injected in it and use that to make power you wouldn't actually have boost. You wouldn't have pressure in there for the sensor to sense.

I don’t know who this guy is that you are quoting, but there is literally no logic to any of this.

Let’s just look at the definition of boost: Well, it is the amount of pressure left behind in a given space or chamber after the engine has used all that it can. What in the world is “has used all that it can”? The engine can use more, if you give it more. It’s not using all that it can, it’s using all that it has been given (over simplifying here, let’s not debate the details). Boost is the pressure (above atmospheric) developed by the turbo in the intake tract. That pressure is used to push more air into the cylinders (more boost = more air) and the turbo is constantly working to replenish this volume of higher pressure air. The level of boost is controlled by the ECU driving the wastegate, once the turbo has spooled.

Boost is not what is “left over”. That makes no sense at all. Boost is pushing air into the cylinder. Because it is pushing air into the cylinder, there is more air in the cylinder, having more air in the cylinder allows for combustion of more fuel, and that increase in combustion is where the increase in power comes from.

The turbo builds pressure in the intake tract (from the outlet of the turbo to the backside of the intake valves). When an intake valve opens, that pressure pushes air into the cylinder, the turbo pushes more air into the intake tract to offset the air that just went into the cylinder, and the intake valve closes with a pressure similar to the pressure in the intake tract.

The concept of boost being the left over just doesn’t make any sense at all. Maybe if instead of a turbo, we had a compressed air tank on the car. With that arrangement, with every fill of a cylinder, the overall pressure in the system would be decreasing. Over time as the engine cycled, the pressure in the intake system would decrease and eventually pull some level of vacuum. Maybe with this kind of system there is an argument that the pressure in the intake is what is “left over” but even then that feels like grasping at an argument to attempt to make sense of this.

 

[Mark S.]

"Boost" is directly measured in the intake system between the turbocharger and throttle body. In the USA it's measured as pounds per square inch (PSI). Boost pressure builds to that required by the PCM and remains as long as the throttle is open.

I'm with Eric; I don't know what "pressure left behind" means in this context. The only time the engine can't use the pressurized air in the intake system is when the throttle body closes. In that case, the bypass valve opens and dumps excess pressurized air back into the intake system ahead of the turbo compressor. THAT excess pressurized air is the only "left over" air I can think of.

 

[Idahobro]

this guy explains it pretty similarly. Maybe this one will help you understand better.

Also think about it like this pressure is pressure. It's more than what's normal. So if your engine can consume all of the air and fuel that's being injected in it and use that to make power you wouldn't actually have boost. You wouldn't have pressure in there for the sensor to sense.

 

[Idahobro]

this guy explains it pretty similarly. Maybe this one will help you understand better.

Also think about it like this pressure is pressure. It's more than what's normal. So if your engine can consume all of the air and fuel that's being injected in it and use that to make power you wouldn't actually have boost. You wouldn't have pressure in there for the sensor to sense.

This is the most dumbass thing I've ever read about cars. Two words totally debunks this entire notion; waste-gate.

If what you said was true, how exactly would a waste-gate work? Sorry, you really have to have zero knowledge of the system to 1) say such a thing and/or 2) actually believe such a thing.

This is EXACTLY why some people should not be allowed access to the internet.

 

[Ksnau]

I think y'all are trying to make this more complicated than it has to be. Literally it has nothing to do with anything before the throttle body and nothing to do with anything after the intake valve. We're measuring pressure from the intake manifold that the turbo made from exhaust gases. That pressure or boost is forcing more air and then the engine would normally be able to consume with just the pistons moving down and drawing in air.

So the turbo is forcing extra air into the manifold and it's forcing as much air into the combustion chamber as it can. Into meanderthals comments? Yes then if the turbo makes more boost sure it's going to make more pressure there's going to be more pressure in the combustion chamber. There's also going to be more pressure in the intake manifold and when that intake valve closes it didn't suck all the air out of the intake manifold. There's still pressure in there and that's what your boost gauge is reading and that's all this is trying to say. Yes, it's kind of a strange concept. You could just say it's the pressure in the system and be done with it. But technically if there was nothing left over there would be no air. No pressure left in the intake manifold, which is where the boost gauge is reading from. Unless you could somehow read from the combustion chamber, but I think the combustion process would mess with that so you could only read from the combustion chamber while it's being filled. And actually, since the volume is constantly changing, it would give you different readings the whole time.

It's a very small technicality that you probably don't even need to get to understand the rest of the system. I just read about it many years ago. Thought it was a very interesting point. Makes sense to me. If It doesn't make sense to you. Totally fine but don't make fun of me for it. I'm not making fun of anyone else for their ideas. Be it right or wrong. And I'm not just making up some random thing. I could find multiple places where engineers who work on cars and turbos also say this. That's where I got this from.

Everything else about a turbo system still applies. Nothing else is different.

I'm so glad that everyone could act like a civilized adult on here and we could discuss this in a normal professional manner.

I understand what y'all are saying and it is a kind of strange way to think about it. Yes you can just think about it as the turbo makes pressure in the engine and that's your level of boost too.

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