Printable Version | Subscribe | Add to Favourites
New Topic New Poll New Reply
Author: Subject: Believe mechanical gauge or ECU?
coyoteboy

posted on 23/9/13 at 10:54 PM Reply With Quote
Believe mechanical gauge or ECU?

Found an interesting connundrum. Got two mechanical boost gauges which read within 1.5psi of each other, but when reviewing EFI logs (MS) I see a fairly large difference. The mech gauges give me 0.95 of boost (13.8psi), the MS logs give me a peak of 176kpa (11psi).

I'm inclined to accept the MS logs more than the 10 year old mechanical gauges, what do folks think. Anyone else noticed such disparity?






View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
owelly

posted on 23/9/13 at 11:11 PM Reply With Quote
Absolute or gauge pressure?





http://www.ppcmag.co.uk

View User's Profile E-Mail User Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
coyoteboy

posted on 23/9/13 at 11:27 PM Reply With Quote
Gauge (Ok the 176kpa is absolute but I've converted it to gauge psi for ya! )






View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
Bare

posted on 24/9/13 at 01:53 AM Reply With Quote
Dunno.. EVU gets input from the MAP sensor These can be great OR crap.
Mech gauges ? Ditto I use a Warranteed 2% accurate boost gauge from Mc Master Carr ~$20 too Compared to one (most?) of the aftermarket Bodge Gauges.. this thing is like an Atomic clock for accuracy .
Before you can go pointing accusing fingers at the existing hardware.. you... Really! ...need to test with a genuinely Trustworthy gauge.

View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
v8kid

posted on 24/9/13 at 02:01 AM Reply With Quote
Calibrate the gauge yourself. 10m head of water is 14.2 psi.
Set up gauge attached to Hosepipe filled with water, vertically that is, and drop height of top of hosepipe until reading on gauge matches previous ones. Pro rata to 10m head to get true value. Google for other stuff to ensure accuracy. Bingo!
Cheers!





You'd be surprised how quickly the sales people at B&Q try and assist you after ignoring you for the past 15 minutes when you try and start a chainsaw

View User's Profile E-Mail User Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
cliftyhanger

posted on 24/9/13 at 06:04 AM Reply With Quote
Like others above I would question the sensor that is sending the signal to ms as much as a a mechanical gauge. You need to calibrate the mech one or you will never be sure.
View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
balidey

posted on 24/9/13 at 07:48 AM Reply With Quote
As above, you have to check as you have no way of knowing.

Although it does depend how old you are. Most younger generation automatically believe anything digital or electronic must be better or more accurate.
The number of times I am told my speedo is out because the GPS in their phone says it is. How do they know?
Digital calipers are 'more accurate' then my dial vernier.
etc.





Dutch bears have terrible skin due to their clogged paws

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
matt_gsxr

posted on 24/9/13 at 08:30 AM Reply With Quote
What does the MS gauge read in normal air? should be about 99kpa, but depends on your altitude and climatic conditions on the day.

I assume they get their pressure feeds from the same place (before and after intercooler can give you the kind of drop that you describe).


Personally I don't trust mechanical gauges any more. In turbo applications they can struggle because of the fluctuating pressure, are either of them liquid filled.

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
mookaloid

posted on 24/9/13 at 09:50 AM Reply With Quote
It is possible that they are both 'accurate' but the sampling rate of the digital one might reveal stuff that the hysteresis loop on the mechanical gauge might be masking.

just thought I'd chuck that one in





"That thing you're thinking - it wont be that."


View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
coyoteboy

posted on 24/9/13 at 12:05 PM Reply With Quote
quote:

Calibrate the gauge yourself. 10m head of water is 14.2 psi. Set up gauge attached to Hosepipe filled with water, vertically that is, and drop height of top of hosepipe until reading on gauge matches previous ones. Pro rata to 10m head to get true value. Google for other stuff to ensure accuracy. Bingo! Cheers!



V8 - Bit difficult as I can't check the linearity of the gauges as I can't get to 10m height

Yep, I'm at 99kpa at initial turn on on the MS, so I know that's approx correct, but again doesn't mean the rest of the range is.

Sample rate shouldn't be an issue unless I have significant boost fluctuation in the order of 10Hz, which I don't think I do! I've tried sustained boost periods of 3-4 seconds and only see peaks of 176kpa. You're right though mook - it could simply be spotting the peaks that the mech gauge averages out. I'll get more logs and check for this. Neither are liquid filled and both have some lovely oscillations at light throttle which seems to be a resonant point in my intake geometry!

I tend to trust digital items more because in my experience they're usually more accurate as there's usually much tighter tolerances on the manufacture and they can be linearized in hardware and temperature compensated when designed for a specific task.

I'm half-way between old and young so I float and look for peoples experience! I trust a GPS over a mechanical speedo because, at steady state with good signal, they are more accurate by definition of their method of operation (time compensated triangulation from 12 simultaneous sources with atomic clocks, versus a 10 toothed gear wheel in a gearbox with unknown tyre pressure)

Bah, I'm going to have to go down the route of trusting no-one and calibrating aren't I. Damnit.






View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
scudderfish

posted on 24/9/13 at 12:41 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by coyoteboy
Bah, I'm going to have to go down the route of trusting no-one and calibrating aren't I. Damnit.


Do you trust the tools/methods you're going to use for calibration?

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
coyoteboy

posted on 24/9/13 at 01:03 PM Reply With Quote
No

Boost profile from a light throttle press showing 0.95bar on the mech gauge...
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t069p9psppsznzw/boost.png






View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
beaver34

posted on 24/9/13 at 03:58 PM Reply With Quote
i have the same with my map sensor on the ecu reading lower than the boost controller does, i take the map as correct as that what the engines fuels for
View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
coyoteboy

posted on 24/9/13 at 06:22 PM Reply With Quote
It poses quite a risk though, if conventional wisdom suggests x psi is sensible max.
In my case I really am questioning the ms too because it's significantly more powerful than stock yet using only 60% duty on the n injectors too. A world of questions!






View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member

New Topic New Poll New Reply


go to top






Website design and SEO by Studio Montage

All content © 2001-16 LocostBuilders. Reproduction prohibited
Opinions expressed in public posts are those of the author and do not necessarily represent
the views of other users or any member of the LocostBuilders team.
Running XMB 1.8 Partagium [© 2002 XMB Group] on Apache under CentOS Linux
Founded, built and operated by ChrisW.