I installed the pyro and boost gauges last night.
I know some of you won't believe this, but the installation went flawlessly! Anyone who works on their own stuff knows the kinds of setbacks that can occur!

Some tips for future installers:

1. I did not bother to put grease on the drill bit or tap. The position from which you drill permits the vast majority of shavings to fall straight down, especially if you go slow when tapping. Judging from the size of the debris from both operations, I can't see how any of the very tiny remnants could possibly hurt the turbo when you fire it up and blow them through. My opinion.

Especially if you have 4wd, before you drill the hole in the manifold, hold the drill in various positions to find one that is comfortable and allows you to apply pressure to the drill before you actually center punch. Mark that position and then place the tap and tapholder at the site and rotate it to make sure you have the clearances you need to be able to turn it 360 without hitting anything or sliding the T handle back and forth on the holder. A little trial and error to determine clearance will make tapping the hole much easier.

2. I connected the pyro sending wires and heat shrink before I inserted the probe into the fitting in the manifold. Otherwise, you have to reach way up in there and the lead coming out of the pyro sensor is pretty stiff to flex around to a suitable position while making connections. A heat gun or hair dryer(I used heat gun-I am guessing that a hair dryer gets hot enough) works best for the shrink tube insulation.
3. I bought my gauges from Tymar and therefore used the copper tubing for the boost gauge. It is a pain to cut without crimping it. The only tool I had was a hacksaw blade. If you are patient, it will work ok. Sand the burr off the outside of the tube to make sliding the fitting and ferrule over it much easier. I used a tiny drill bit and by simply twisting it with my fingers was able to deburr the inside of the tube.
4. I have a 97 and found a knockout in the firewall that permitted me to pass the boost tube and pyro wires through without drilling a hole. It is located just below and to the left of the brake fluid resevoir and was partially hidden by the heat shielding in the engine compartment. Pry it off from the engine side of the firewall. The supplied grommets are too small for this hole, but a breather tube grommet from an 8-14 hp Briggs engine works nicely.
5. I installed all wires and the tube to the gauges in the pillar pod first then fed everything through the firewall after looping it above the steering column under the dash. Go slow and it works well. The nice thing about the copper is that it stays in place and can be used to support the pyro wires. Examine it carefully and make sure there is no metal-topmetal contact between the tube and all the junk under the dash and near the pedals. I made homemade loom (I forgot to buy some in advance) out of el cheapo 3/8" ID small engine fuel line and taped it closed in a couple of places to protect the tube and wires under the dash.
6. In the engine compartment, I fed the copper tube through the supports for the A/C plumbing. I T-eed into the MAP line closer to the sensor rather than closer to the intake Y to allow a little more room to get the Sawzall in there when I cut the downpipe out in the next week or so.
7. I was somewhat unimpressed with the pillar pod. I don't understand why they just don't make the whole piece. Gee-whiz, it probably is only 2 cents worth more plastic to simply make the entire piece, at least for this body style. Instead of using the ratchet push pins in the initial install, I just drilled matching holes and used the screwholes for the OEM A-pillar plastic. I will have to wait and see if everything stays in place to my satisfaction. It may well be that I have to retro fit the push pins in if the pod gets to rattling or something like that.
8. I chose not to have the pod match-painted and left it black over the grey plastic trim in my truck. IMO, it looks good that way. It blends nicely with the black dash and dash face and trim.
9. Fuse taps work great. Put the tap on the lower fuse terminal to have the circuit protected by the fuse. #10 for illumination, #17 for pyro power.
10. I'd like to thank the academy and all the posters that provided other info on the install. You are too numerous to mention, but you know who you are. If you posted about gauge installation, I read it!

Rather immodestly, I now consider myself somewhat of an expert on this install and would be glad to offer any help to anyone that needs it.

 

great write up man. sounds like you did great.

 

I have my gauges sitting on my kitchen counter now. I wish you could come supervise! I prefer experienced eyes when I do something like this the first time. I skipped the trans temp and replaced it with a mechanical fuel press. w/ isolator.

Maybe I'll venture this on Sunday. Thanks for the write-up.

 

Thanks 97-350. Your info on which taps to use saved alot of monkeying around in the fuse panel. When I reviewd your old post about which fuses to use last night, it occurred to me that I didn't know which side of the fuse was hot. You weren't online so I quickly determined the hot side with a voltmeter.
I honestly have been on a mild high all day long. How many times have guys worked on stuff like this only to have to, say, pull the pod back off because a connection came loose (I soldered my connections), or inadvertently cut a wire 2 inches too short or something ridiculous like that? I don't know about the rest of the posters here, but it seems like every job I do there is at least one glitch, whether it be self-inflicted or simply unanticipated due to inadequate preparation. Well I prepared by reading up on the install over and over. From reading previous posts, I knew exactly what I'd be looking for before I ever crawled under the truck. I knew where the MAP line was. Etc. Someone had posted that they wished their boost line didn't run across the engine so I found a different route before I even started feeding the tube. I knew to keep the T closer to the MAP sensor because I have read about the difficulty encountered finding a good angle to keep the Sawzall when cutting out the cobra head downpipe.
Man-it looks like a factory install. You can't see a single wire dangling under the dash or poking through a seam in the plastic trim. I showed some of the boys at work and they were duly impressed.
TX_Atty: Life is too short to make all your own mistakes. Learn from others. It won't take even an hour to search this forum, skim the relative posts and print the good ones off. Then another 20 minutes reading and re-reading them and you will be ready to work. The job took about 4 hours for me to do, but I wasted at least 15-20 minutes looking for the spool of wire I knew I had, but couldn't find, to wire the lights for the gauges. Between that and the night custodians coming by to shoot the breeze, I should have been able to do it in about 3 hours. But you should block out a nice big chunk of time so you don't feel rushed. Haste makes waste, brother, and I know how much those gauges and install kit cost. You want to be able to start the truck and watch the pyro spring to life instantly then hit the road and wind it out to about 2 grand in 3rd gear and watch your boost shoot to 15 psi when the turbo starts to scream! And to know you did it your own bad self!
Good luck and let me know if I can help.