- Boost gauge
A boost gauge is a
pressure gauge that indicates manifold air pressure orturbocharger orsupercharger boostpressure in aninternal combustion engine . They are commonly mounted on the dashboard, on the driver's side pillar, or in a radio slot.Turbochargers and superchargers are both engine driven air compressors (exhaust driven or mechanically driven, respectively) and provide varying levels of "boost" according to engine rpm, load etc. Quite often there is a "
power band " within a given range of available boost pressure and it is an aid to performance driving to be aware of when that power band is being approached, in the same way a driver wants to be aware of engine rpm.A boost gauge is used to ensure excessive pressure is not being generated when boost pressure is being modified to levels higher than OEM standard on a production turbocharged car. Simple methods can be employed to increase factory boost levels, such as bleeding air off the wastegate diaphragm to 'fool' it into staying closed longer, or installing a
boost controller . To prevent thefuel-air ratio from goinglean (caused by increasing the boost beyond the fuel systems capacity) care must be taken to monitor boost pressure levels, along withoxygen levels in the exhaust gas, using anoxygen sensor .A boost gauge will measure pressure in either psi or bar; many also measure manifold
vacuum pressure in inches of mercury (in. Hg) or mm of mercury (mm Hg).See also
*
Automatic Performance Control
*Vacuum gauge
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