I have autometer gauges Pyro And Boost.. My questions are 1. Should I see boost level at all time?? Mine only moves when accellerating. If travel at 60mph in cruise , records 0 is this normal?? 2. What exactly Is the boost mearuring?? 3. Why is it important?? Hope these are not too stupid of questions.. Thanks in advance for helping me with diesel 101..http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Confused.gif http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Geek.gif

If your truck is idling and you mash the pedal you will see no boost change. Basically you need load on the engine to create boost. Even like your saying at 60mph, you possibly won't see boost if there is no load on the engine. Ussually at that speed i see 5lbs sometimes less sometimes more, pending on headwind or if i have some material in the back. Basically its not that important to the average diesel owner. When in stock form or even modded form i haven't seen anything were i should be concerned. Now when you start playing with wastegates and tweeking, thats when you pay attention to your gauge. I hardly ever watch it too much anymore, ussually keep an eye on the pyro as it rounds 1600http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Shocked.gif

No dumb questions here! We all asked them at some point.


Jeremy's (heartbeatcanada) post kinda confused me so I'm gonna jump in here... If you are sitting at idle, you won't see boost pressure as there is no load on the engine (or more specifically, the turbo). However, when you mash down the pedal, you *WILL* see boost pressure as there will be a load on the engine. Typically, on a stock engine, I doubt you would see more than 20 psi. You may see a little more if you're pulling a big load, but not much more. I tip the scales at about 28 psi max under hard accelerations with a lot of mods. I could probably take it to 30psi if I really tried.


Boost is simply measuring the pressure being created by the turbo on your truck. As Jeremy stated, normally this isn't of concern to normal diesel owners. It only matters to those of us that really start modifying the power we get from the trucks. If you create more boost pressure than the turbo can handle, you'll loose the turbo ($$$). More boost pressure usually means more power, but there is also a limit to the amount of boost a turbo can handle.


Traveling at 60mph, I usually only see about 3psi of boost which was never enough to show on my "needle" gauge. I have since changed to a digital gauge which more accurately reflects the pressure. With a load, or if the engine is working harder to go up a hill, it'll climb based on the load.

http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Clap.gif Well Stated

I see 24 psi stock WOT. I see 26 with the Predator. All settings.


I can also get ~5 PSI by standing on the pedal all of the sudden at idle...


Most boost seen in first gear: 20! http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/Evil Smile.gif 5000 lb trailer up 25+ degree grade...

I can get 23psi boost in 5th gear (6spd) with the juice on level 0, running empty on the highway. With the cruise control on at 60mph I see about 5psi boost.