Kiwipete's VX

[kiwipete]

I have started stripping out the Compass/Altimeter unit as I want to use it to house my Auber gauges.




A wee bit of cutting and grinding with my dremel to make them fit.


All I have to do now is to fashon a wedged spacer for the front and it will be all done apart from the wiring

[kiwipete]

Have spent the afternoon wiring up the gauges to program in the settings and to check the layout.

Boot-up settings.


A spaghetti of wires.

This will all be tidied up before it is fitted.
I will run 4 extension wires for the probes along the hood lining and down the A pillar.
There is already a power and park light feed in the main wiring loom where this will be mounted, so that is a bonus.


I find it a little weird how two identical gauges can have such a variation in their readings, the two (green) displays have identical probes attached to them, (as seen in the photo above), but the readings are different. I have checked the settings and both are identical. I even swapped the probes over on the gauges and it still made no difference. They are not out by much, but still?


Park light circuit enabled.


I have left the factory switch in this unit as I may use it as the master switch for the on-board PC.
This could all change when it comes time to mount mu LED spot and flood lights. I may decide place a bank of switches up there for them, but it is early days yet.

[cruiser80]

Can you adjust the calibration of the temp gauges? It seems a bit odd for digital units to be that different.
Try doing an ice/water test to see if they both read a correct zero.

[kiwipete]

I have sent an email off to Auber in relation to the temperature descrepency I have. I have yet to get a response, but in the mean time I did a trial with a cup of hot water as another example.
In this cup was the temperature probe for my multimeter, EGT, AT oil and Water probes.
The pictures should tell the story.









And a wee bit later....

[kiwipete]

I have finished with the fitting of the two gauges in the overhead pod and finally have them permanently mounted.

I cheated a little and used some VHB tape to secure them, then covered the face of the panel with carbon fibre adhesive.

It doesn't look so bad when it is up in place.

All the extension wires have been run through the hood lining and down the A pillar to behind the dashboard.
All that is left to do is to run the probe and sensor leads through the firewall and connect them all up.

I am still waiting to hear from Auber to see if it is OK to use some .5mm flexible wiring off the end of those extensions to connect to the gauges as I need to hard wire them before the pod is screwed in place and the extension wire is very stiff.

Wires run and labelled.


Gauges mounted and wiring tidied up.


Stick-on carbon fibre.


There will be enough shadows up there to hide the blemishes.


And finally a new sticker arrived for the back window, just for shits n giggles.

[kiwipete]

The main wiring loom for the gauges has been completed along with a custom made plug and socket to enable an easy removal of the unit for adding some future switches up there.



The buzzer warning light is securely tucked in behind it all as I do not need the light as a warning, just the sound will be enough.

Tomorrow night I will screw it all in place and finish running the probe leads, ready for Nathan's magic touch.

[kiwipete]

The gauges are finally in and all wired up!





With park lighting on.
Notice the readings on the two green gauges seem to have sorted themselves out?


I just need to sort out these wires later when I run them to their final positions.

[kiwipete]

The truck is in Nathan's hands for the next few days while he does his magic on it.

[pressy]

Nice work pete, looks great.

[kiwipete]

A BIG thanks goes out to Nathan at Kaiapoi Repowers for working his magic on the truck this week, it is a different truck to drive now.

[kiwipete]

Nice work pete, looks great.

Cheers.

[3VILC]

Did you hear back from auber Pete? I was under the impression you are not meant to change the lengths of thermocouple wires since it changes the resistance of the circuit and thus the readings. Something to consider. I don't have an auber but presume you could calibrate them using a known value like when you tested them in water. If its not super quality wire you've used chances are it won't have a specific resistance per Meter so might explain the differences.

[kiwipete]

Did you hear back from auber Pete? I was under the impression you are not meant to change the lengths of thermocouple wires since it changes the resistance of the circuit and thus the readings. Something to consider. I don't have an auber but presume you could calibrate them using a known value like when you tested them in water. If its not super quality wire you've used chances are it won't have a specific resistance per Meter so might explain the differences.

Yes I have heard back from Auber and now that the truck is back I can follow a couple of suggestions they made.
I have used the correct wire supplied from them for lengthening the wires, plus 100mm of flexible copper stranded wire to attach to the gauges, with all soldered joints so there is no heat loss in the joins.
The readings from the EGT and Boost are very close to actual readings so this issue is insignificant with these readings.
It just remains to fully test out the Water and AT Oil temp probes.

I do have a plan in mind to remove the 100mm copper extensions if needed, but that will be a last resort.

The tests done on the work bench were with the probes attached directly to the gauges with all factory wiring etc.

[kiwipete]

Now it is starting to look like a truck, bit by bit Thanks Nathan.

[cruiser80]

Looking really good KP
Now for ARB bars, rock sliders, winch..........

[kiwipete]

Looking really good KP
Now for ARB bars, rock sliders, winch..........

I'm going to put an Ironman bar and Runva winch on it, but that will be after tyres, (Maxis Bighorns) and rims of course. This will be after Xmas at this stage.
No sliders are planned for it.

My rear draw plans are being drawn up this weekend tho.

[coxsy]

80's can bend ARB rock sliders ,seen it

[kiwipete]

Well I have done a wee test run towing the caravan to Rakaia for the weekend. Looks like about $15.00 in fuel, filled up last night so have one days running around too, going by the gauge but I wont know for sure till i fill up in morning.
The truck is fully loaded with all my recovery gear and all the other shit i carry too, with this test. The van is fully loaded at 1750Kgs.
The gauge readings were;
2000rpm top gear
90 kph
450° egt
10 psi boost

im happy with this.

[kiwipete]

Out of sheer boredom or nothing better to do, I have chased a brush under the truck with some Black Guard to rust proof it a little.

I have given up for now as I am getting sore lying on my back painting upside down.

I might paint a new smiley on the front diff on this truck and something else on the rear one too.

It is nice to see that there is very little oil under the truck too, this one is not a leaker.

I did an oil change along with the filter and a new diesel filter yesterday. This just leaves the transfer case and diffs to look at another time. I was surprised to see how small the drain bung is on these trucks too.

[kiwipete]

The front looked much like this...........

[kiwipete]

Tonight I cut the rear (boot) seat brackets out in preparation for our Xmas holidays. I need the extra space in there for storage and they had to come out for the drawers anyway.
Not too much carnage except for a couple of cuts through the floor skin and a small hole where it tore as I could not get the grinder fully in there.

For now I have coated the surface in Balckguard to keep any rust at bay and the cut s through the skin I will RTV for now.
When it comes time to install the drawers I will weld them proper.



Almost out


Blackguarded

Now I have two spare rear seats available if anyone wants to make an offer, complete with seatbelts etc.

I am just going to bolt a sheet of ply in there for the holidays.

[Big]

Hey Pete, I have ordered a egt/ boost gauge and probes from aurbins and I didn't notice where you actually put the probe? or best place for it..I seem to think pre turbo but exactly where? as I've got a intercooler etc on my 80 and will be getting a 3"exhaust shortly, then a couple little mods, tweak the pump to maximise things.. but really need to keep egts right so have been searching for the best place to put probe.. How did you do it..? cheers K

[catalystracing]

Be careful when ask people where to put the probe

[Big]

Be careful when ask people where to put the probe

Priceless.. I should've known.. hahaha.. Ok I'll rephrase the question.. Where does someone put the egt probe on their manifold..

[kiwipete]

I'll photograph my probe tonight for you.

[Big]

I'll photograph my probe tonight for you.

as long as it's your probe that should be ok

[Petemcc]

Hi Pete,

Any reason why you are looking to change the rims? Bigger offset? I really like those standard 80 series rims. it would look good on those with a nice set of bighorns

[fullthrottle]

really need to keep egts right so have been searching for the best place to put probe.. How did you do it..? cheers K

In the exhaust manifold near one of the exhaust ports of the head. Last one I did was to put it on the exhaust port where they all collect to the turbo, but I felt this was actually reading hotter than the EGT per cylinder actually was. Possibly due to all exhaust ports accumulating in the same spot.

I took the nut supplied with the probe, stuck a bolt in it to hold the shape and then welded it to a thick washer. I then drilled out the spot for the probe on the exhaust manifold and then welded the washer/nut combo directly to it. Removed the bolt and screwed in the probe....done!

I would look at cylinder #1 or #6 since it's furthest away from the direct air flow and thus might be the hotter cylinders with a slightly richer fuel/air mix...just a thought anyway

[kiwipete]

Hi Pete,

Any reason why you are looking to change the rims? Bigger offset? I really like those standard 80 series rims. it would look good on those with a nice set of bighorns

No other reason than the black steel rims look nice, t'was what I had on the Terrano and I liked them.............

[kiwipete]

Here is the "Probe".........