I also installed the AutoMeter "Cobalt" Boost and Pyro gauges this weekend....
Did this AND my MBRP install last Sunday...
The Cobalt are some really nice looking gauges and are awesome at night...

Anyway, here is some info that I hope you guys find helpful.. Good luck..

Wiring:
1) The boost gauge did not come with any wiring and I did not have any just laying around, so I used the + strand of some decent gauge speaker wire for both the + and - attachment. I also used some connectors that just slide onto the prongs on the back of the boost guage. (I don't know what those are called) I happened to have some laying around and those came in handy for the wire attachment to the gauge. Get some of those that fit the prongs on the back of the gauge if you don't have them
2) Attach the Red wire from ONLY the pyro gauge to the white wire with light blue tracer in your truck. I found this wire loosely attached to a bundle of wires that was under my dash plastic, right in the center of the cab (to the right of the area where the pedals are). That is a FUSED power wire for customer added accessories- such as this this electrical gauge.
3) The Boost gauge is a mechanical gauge (powered by ONLY the air pressure from the turbo), so this one is only wired to the illumination wire of your truck for the lighting. Hook the + wire from your boost gauge together with the White wire from your Pyro gauge (this is the lighting wire for the pyro gauge), and tap both those wires into your illumination wire under the steering wheel. It is the top, middle wire that is 1 of 6 wires sticking out of a grey plug that is in the same compartment as your fuses are, but about 8 inches to the right of the fuse box. My wire was yellow.
4) Black wire of the pyro gauge and the - wire from the turbo gauge screw to a good ground. I drilled a new hole in the front bottom metal edge of this compartment under the steering wheel, and attached to a screw.

Tapping into the MAP Line for turbo pressure line:
1) AUTOMETER DID NOT SEND ME ANY T ADAPTERS TO TAP INTO THIS LINE!! (Yes, I am bi*&ing about it again!!).
I had ot buy a plastic T adapter from Home Depot. My '04 F250 used one that was 1/4" on all sides. Point is that the inside diameter of the MAP line is 1/4" (to answer my own question from last week-before I did this install).
2) Upon heavy boost pressures, the nylon tubing that AutoMeter sent me kept popping out of the black rubber boot that the tubing goes into at the bottom of the T. I fixed this problem by TIGHTLY attaching a zip-tie to the outside of the rubber boot where the nylon tubing goes into it, thus squeezing the nylon tubing in place. It has worked great.
3) By the way, I have not had any problems with gauge flutter/ noise/ etc that is sometimes associated with tapping into the MAP line, and this seems MUCH, MUCH easier than removing, drilling, and tapping the Turbo elbow..

Drilling and tapping my exhaust manifold:
1) GOOD LUCK finding the 1/8" NTP (or NPT) tap! Home Depot and Lowes all looked at me funny when I asked them for it. I had to go to a specialtly tool store. You are not insane... Keep looking for a 1/8" NTP (or NPT) tap till you find one...
2) IMPORTANT: I drilled the hole straight up... If you think about it (I obviously did not), the manifold goes at an angle... If I could have done it over again, I would have drilled the hole at the same angle that the manifold goes at, so the probe is at the same angle when inserted. Currently, my probe is probably only about 1/2 inch inside the manifold to keep it from hitting the top wall of the manifold... I don't think this has given any adverse affects, but now your hole will be better than mine....
3) I used a shop vac to vacuum the shavings out of the manifold- that's all. I could hear the shavings being sucked out, and I am confident that this worked well. If you don't have a shop vac, buy or borrow one to get any metal shavings out of the manifold after you drill, and again after you tap the hole.

A-Frame Pillar Pod:
WARNING: ProParts pillars and AutoMeter gauges do not like each other!!
The ProParts pods were both too narrow and too short for the Autometer gauges...I could only use one of the knurled nuts to hold the mounting bracket for each gauge in place because the pod was too narrow to allow for a nut on each side, and the screws for those nuts hit up against the end of the actual pods when the gauges were fully inserted so my gauges did not go ALL the way in!! They are only sticking out about 1/16th of an inch but it pissed me off..
You might want to test that the gauges fit inside your pods okay before you proceed with the install...

That's it! I hope this helps at least one person. Tell me what you think, or feel free to add any other input for other crazy people that decide to do this project themselves...

Also, this link was a really good one. It is a WAY more detailed (with sometimes less detail) resource that i used for my install:
http://www.itpdiesel.com/other/6.0L%20Gauge%20Kit%20Ins...nstructions.pdf

 

Very nice post about your gauge install!

 

I just wanted to bring this post to the top- in case anyone was planning on doing a gauge install this weekend...
Happy Independence Day!

 

Great post....

 

Another tip:

When drilling into the manifold, put grease on the drill bit and it will help hold onto the metal shavings and keep them out of the manifold. Same goes for the tap.

 

I did not use grease because I thought that that would kinda hold any shavings in place inside the manifold, so they could not be sucked out by the vacuum, but once the grease heats up from the running engine later, the shavings will come loose and KA-BLOOEY!!! Well maybe not that bad , but that was my thoughts about that idea before I drilled mine.
I KNOW the shop vac got all of the shavings out dry...I could hear them being vacuumed out..

 

As much as I'd like to claim the grease idea as mine, it was actually in the instructions from Edge on installing the EGT and my mechanic friend told me to do that also. Damn, didn't want to say it wasn't my idea. lol It did work on mine. All the shavings were in the grease on the bit.

 

i finished installing my guages last night and let me say what a pita that egt probe tapping was. the only thing i could find was taps made in china and the tap holder kept slipping and my knuckles are bloody now.and the tap holder is stripped, did you guys find this a problem? maybe i had a cheap tap. i could only get it a 1/4 of the way through and about 4 turns into the manifold with the egt probe holder. im going to try to find a better tap and finish the remaining couple turns later but it held last night on the test drive with no leaks. i found it easier to remove and tap the elbow as it literally took me 5mins total to remove it and tap it and put it back on. the only pain is getting the elbow back into the plastic intercooler tube i had to climb into the engine to hold it to push the elbow back on.


and i will have to add teflon to the trans temp sender as it is leaking slightly from the high pressure test port on the trans but other than that they look and work great.maybe i'll post some pics later on

 

you can also jave the engine idling and it will blow all shavings out the hole you drilled. Make sure use use the very next size to step it up as the shavings are very small.

 

You need a quality tap to make this an easy job. The grease trick works well, just done use a bunch of it. I wouldn't do it with the engine running. Drill it, shop vac it, tap it, shop vac it. We drill without grease, but always tap with a little in the side grooves. The autometer gauges dont fit the autometer pods anybetter. If your trying to use the plastic backing brace with an A pillar pod good luck. Mine are just slid in snug.

Good post!

 

yeah they just slide into the opening i never secure them i don't think they are meant to be. as they won't fall out. the only bad thing is i could not find a way to secure the a-piller itself i marked out the stock holes from the factory one and reused the screws to secure the new one although its a little squeezed you can't tell by looking at it

 

Ask Larry, I didn't want the usually for mine either. I took 6 SS allen head screws (very tiny) and drilled holes in not so noticable places. Its very secure! Now you can pull on the whole thing and it pops off from the factory clips.

 

The way patrick did his is about the nicest that I have ever seen. His stainless steel allan head bolts are very tiny, yet they sparkle and catch your eye. The pod is pulled down and mounted very tight and very secure. It does not move at all, does not make any noise, and looks very "trick". He should take a pic for you all and post it in his garage.......go ahead and get on him about it!

 

Let me pencil that in with 500 other things I have to do today..lol

 

chixdigit - Thanks for the write-up. This was a very helpful reference for my install.