Well they are installed mostly but I may have some problems still....

The needles on the gauges stay lit up red when the truck is off, but the rest of the gauge powers down. I don't know why this is because it doesn't say the needle is on a different circuit. Maybe it's supposed to stay on? Also, the fuel gauge doesn't seem to be reading any pressure.... I unscrewed the scharder valve portion on the fuel bowl and put the electrical plug in it's place. I'm pretty sure that's the correct spot for the sensor to go but maybe it isn't or the sensor is bad. The fuel gauge powers on, it just doesn't give me any readings.....


I've had enough of messing with those for today though, I'm going to try and install the chip, clean up, then call it a day.

 

I have those gauges in my truck. I ended up having to disconnect the constant hot wires because if I let my truck sit for over a week, the batteries would be dead. It took me quite a while to track down where the draw was coming from. Also, I don't trust the trans temp after I cooked my trans and it never moved. Now the gauge bounces around and pegs out randomly.

 

Hmm... that's not great news for me! I'll have to keep an eye out for that current draw. Since I have a manual transmission, I'm not as worried about transmission temperature even though it would still be nice to know. I was highly considering buying some solar panels and (as professionally looking as I could) fabbing them up under my sun visors, then hooking up a trickle charger to my batteries. That would hopefully prevent any parasitic draws from doing anything bad.

I'd use that for the batteries and also for some small cameras I want to install on my truck. I want one in the grill (like a dash cam) and one looking in the truck. I hope I can get some solar panels that would allow those mini cameras to stay running off the truck battery or charge the batteries in the camera enough for it to last overnight. That's just an idea, so once I get some money I'll see how feasible it may be!

 

Glowshift gauges are the very bottom of the bottom on quality. I wouldn't bother messing with solar panels, to fix a problem you wouldn't have with another brand. I have ISSPRO gauges, and they are great. Alot of others use DiProcol (spelling?) or Autometer. I wouldn't worry about the temps at 1150 for short bursts, those will drop when you fix your up pipes from leaking........ You're not done chasing your tail yet on Diesel fun lol

 

I should clarify a little bit...my batteries were near the end of their life (7yo Kirkland), so I replaced them. The gauges still had high enough parasitic loss that it would drain them down if the truck sat. I ended up disconnecting the constant hot and moving it to keyed power, so I lost the memory function.

I emailed Glowshift about the problem and never heard back, so I am done with them. I'm going to get quality gauges for my Crew cab (need to keep tabs on that $4000 built trans now) and just move the boost and EGT to my other truck (it's a 5 speed) as they still function perfectly fine.

 

I would like to get some quality gauges eventually. It's just they cost soooo much money for doing a small (I'll admit very important) function that doesn't help with power MPG (directly at least.) I know how important diagnostic stuff is, but 250 was all I wanted to spend on gauges at the moment. When I go with better ones, I can imagine it will cost me like 400+ for just the gauges themselves......



As a side note, I didn't forget how much I hated cutting exhaust with a hack saw, but I'm going to complain about it again. It's only about 100 out today compared to 118 it was last week, but it's getting more humid. Cutting this 3.5" pipe with a hacksaw is very tedious. I really hope I won't have to make any more cuts and that I can just fit the tailpipe in place. Otherwise I'll be driving with the cutout exhaust for a while still.

After I try and tackle this exhaust, I'm going to try and fix my overhead console. I believe the solder points on the computer are starting to break. I sometimes have the display for the ambient temperature and compass, but it's only about 1/3rd the time now.

The good news is that I replaced my driver side power window motor that had the nylon bushings fail (then I lost a c-clip and bolt inside my door so I couldn't fix the motor) and also replaced the door panel with one that was in better shape! My old door panel looked like it was in perfect shape, but the window weatherstripping edge was broken so it couldn't hold the weatherstripping in anymore.


After I get this exhaust cut and hopefully mounted, I'll take some pictures of what how my gauges are set up so there can finally be some more eye candy in this thread!

 

And then??

 

It's funny how stuff seems to sneak up on you. I've been super busy the past few weeks doing small jobs here and there, fixing our roof, fixing my friends vehicles and other things. I then went to California this last weekend with my girlfriend for her birthday and also to see my Aunt and Uncle who live in Manhattan Beach.

It was a pretty awesome trip and was really nice to see my Aunt and Uncle. The traffic in California (at least Southern California) wasn't very awesome though.



Anyways, after getting back from the trip, I noticed I had a small coolant leak from my truck. After driving around the ranch just a couple days, the small leak turned into a constant stream of coolant coming from the radiator. I think the tanks are split on the radiator so I ordered a new one online.

I decided to get around to pulling my chip so I can send that in finally and get it tuned for my stage 1 injectors!

I will finally get around to posting up some pictures of my gauges as well! I still haven't fixed my fuel pressure gauge, it reads 0 still. I just haven't had the time to get around testing that.

 

SO hows the Bronco treating you these days?

 

Pretty well! I've been so busy these past few months I haven't been able to do much. It's funny, I thought I'd have a nice little break after graduating and before picking up a part time job then going off to the Air Force. I still have a little while before I go to the Air Force (I don't know the exact date yet), but I need to start doing some work soon just to pay bills in the meantime.

I haven't really had a break at all though... I've been swamped with helping my friends/family/neighbors I feel exhausted! Working full time would have been a much more efficient means of my time and I would have been getting paid! Oh well, I shouldn't complain though because life isn't bad!

For my Bronco, there were some issues that came up. I believe someone may have tried to steal one of my wheels and stopped midway through because I had my tire come off while I was driving out on the ranch here. I was the last person to touch my lugs too so unless my torque wrench was messed up or the lugs/lug nuts were chewed up, I don't think they should have come off! The tire coming off ripped off my wheel well trim on the rear drivers side, but that's really the extent of the damage. Once I find more trim and put it on, you'd never know it happened! I had to take the axle out to pound the lug studs out though.

I also developed a fuel leak, but I replaced the return hose from the fuel bowl and made sure the fuel bowl lid an o-ring were good to go and that got rid of the leak!

I just got back from seeing our new place up in Pinedale AZ, so it was about a 300 mile round trip up the mountains. The Bronco did great! There were a few areas I had the watch the exhaust gas temperatures very close, but it didn't struggle up the hills. When I was in 5th going around 75~80 on the steeper parts, the EGTs would be pushing 1100, and I know they would have went past 12 if I tried to accelerate more. Shifting down to 4th brought the EGTs down though, but I wanted to be lazy and try and stay in 5th.


Anyways, here's the Bronco in front of our new place!

 

Great job.

Here's to hoping you get your projects done before heading off to the Air Force.

 

Bronco looks great!!..Perfect lift and tire combination!!
Congrats on the new place...and Thanks for your service!!

 

Thank you guys! I'm hoping I get picked up for Officer Training School so I can do developmental engineering in the Air Force. I just got my mechanical engineering degree (after only a short 9 years or college, but I did switch majors once so you can't make too much fun of me), so we'll see how that pans out. If I don't get picked up for OTS, then I'll see which enlisted jobs have the best engineering related work so I can hopefully utilize my degree as best as possible.


I like this lift and tire combination as well! It used to be a 4" lift before the diesel went in, but the weight of that motor dropped the front 2 inches so I decided to lower the back 2" to take the easy way out. I think 33" tires look much better with a 2" lift than a 4" lift.

 

Figured I'd do a small update since I haven't been on the forums for a while! It's surprising how busy I've been when I haven't actually had a legitimate job. It's hard for me to say no to helping people when I don't have an excuse that I have work! I have legitimately been busier these past 6 months not working, than if I'd had a job, and I don't have as much money either!

My Bronco has been driving great with the powerstroke so far. I haven't pushed it much though because

1) I don't want to mess up my axles/driveshaft

2) I don't want to raise my EGTs too much (I'm scared I'll blow past 1250 degrees if I get on it too hard in 4th or 5th gear)


There's also the fact that if I hit the pedal too hard (especially at lower RPMs), I blow a ridiculous amount of smoke out the tailpipe and I don't want to be "that guy".



I get about 17-18MPG no matter my driving style as well so that's not too bad. I'd like to try and see if I can eventually push it up to 20, but I'm not too depressed if I can hit about 18 regularly. I plan on purchasing the Aeroforce Interceptor gauge for my gauge pod and tossing out my Glowshift Fuel pressure gauge since it's never given me a reading (probably a bad sensor). I have to get the money to do that first though.


As for me heading off to the Air Force, I wasn't able to have my package go up to OTS before the slots filled this year, and the next board selection for non rated jobs (which engineering jobs I'm looking for are non rated) aren't until next year in August! I contacted headquarters and as of now, they are allowing me to wait until August so I can get my package up and apply for OTS!

That means I'll be sticking around for a while here in AZ while I await for my package to be submitted. It's kinda nice that I have some more time to get things taken care of and maybe take a nice break, but I won't really be able to get an engineering job in that time to pay off my student loan debt (since I racked up a big debt for my engineering degree.) I just picked up a job working with my friend at a door company though. The owner is really awesome, the hours are great, and I get to work with one of my friends. I got paid more when I worked at Petco though, but I like the place now so I'll keep working here. I'll try and see if I can get a post graduation engineering internship as well, that should keep me busy!

 

Ask for flight school instead.

Which place do you like better?