Engine compartment to cabin - HOW THE F***
 

Ok i've searched the forums and there have been some really great threads about how to get from the engine compartment to the cabin, however I have just spent the last 4 hours trying to feed a pipe through for the boost gauge, and got no where.

First thing I wanted to do was go through one of the large grommets on the drivers side, take off the wheel, take out the wheel arch and feed it into the cabin.... Got to the point where I wanted to let the wheel arch dangle down, and its been stapled in place! So taking out the bolts made no difference what so ever!

So that basically ruled out going through that way, unless I dismantle the entire wheel arch, which i'm not confident enough to do incase it completely write it off.

Is there any easy way of getting a small tube into the cabin? Its just for my boost gauge! Was thinking about wiring in a temp gauge also, so nothingi to major.

If I ramp it up, is there any way through from underneath?

Please someone save me from this nightmare haha!

Taking the rest of the fender liner off would probably be your best bet. It is not too difficult to put back on. If you are unsure of your self then take some pictures before you completely remove it.

There is a gromet on the driver's side that is not used (assuming your car is LHD). It is just above the side vent. I have seen some poke a small hole in the steering wheel boot and use that as a place to run a hose. The middle of the car is basically enclosed except for the clearance for the shifter. I personally would not mess with the passenger side.

I ran my boost gauge tube through at the steering column. didn't have to remove anything, just need someone on the other side to help feed it through.

Car is RHD - Anyone got any pics as at the moment I am pretty unsure what to do!

Thanks for advise so far.

assuming you're RHD as you're in the UK... I ran mine through the left side wheel arch. Remove the little plastic screw things that keep the lining in place and pull off the back half of the plastic surround. The front and back half are stapled together... but that doesn't matter, it's flexible so you can just bend it about until it's out of your way!

You should then see a black rubber cover. Take it off and behind it is a plastic piece. Once you've got that off by squeezing the three clips on it you're almost there! You'll then be confronted with a load of insulation! The coat hanger method didn't work for me as it just kept finding the fuse box... I used a bamboo pole I had lying around and it was perfect.
Find a straight pole around the width of your vacuum pipe and push it through the insulation from the wheel side. You should have it come out nicely into the cabin by the fuse box, perfect! I can get some photos of the inside bit if you really need them!

Then all you have to do is drill a couple of holes through the rubber and plastic bit, thread the vac. line through, and hook it all up :) job done...

Hope that all helps!

Moneyj51 thanks for that, I want to try steer clear of drilling holes. How easy is it to thread through the steering column gromet? Ive just taken another look, and it seems the gromet is pretty much solid and there wouldn't be anyway else through. I think i'm looking at the right bit.... following the steering all the way down past the cluth, it enters the engine bay at that point, any way through there?

just use a philips screw driver and poke a hole in it...and your done.

You'll have to wherever you go. When I say drill, it's only rubber... you could just poke a spike through it. Very easy and nothing like drilling through the firewall or anything. Just poke a hole through through the rubber so you can pull the hose through and keep everything nice and watertight.

I don't think these photos will help at all really but I like the way I've done my boost gauge lol so I'll post anyway :)

You can see the red vac. line just about, thats where it comes out if you follow my way... very easy and in my opinion much better than going through the steering boot... :)

I'm not sure about going through the steering boot like that on the RHD cars... thats one of the ways I tried to start with but it seemed all very solid and I could see NO way of getting it into the cabin like that...

I may be completely wrong though!!

moneyj51 you say the left side - is that passenger / drivers? You mention the fuse box so i assume the drivers side?

Thanks.

My car is right hand drive and I just run the wires/pipes threw where the bonnet release wire goes through. It comes out in the space between the break booster and the guard, and next to the gas pedel on the inside (where the throttle cable comes through.

Got a pic by any chance? Don't completely get where you mean.

You can see where it is in the photo... pasenger side yes, on an RHD car. So left side as you sit in it facing forwards! Sorry, I was mixing things up a bit saying fuse box, there is a little one there tho! lol. You can see where it is on the pic anyways

I think that small fuse box is aftermarket.

This is the closest pic I have with me at work. Ill take some when I get home for ya.

Excuse the poor attempt to draw the missing part of the photo :hahaha: It the one on the left in that photo. The throttle cable is the other one.

Ran into a friend of mine with an RX7 at lunch so took some pics.

The Red line is the bonnet release cable, the Green is the throttle cable and the Blue is the boost gauge line.

Hope this helps.

Guys, thanks for all the help!

moneyj51 took the wheel off etc, and managed to get the fender off... checked back, and it was the other side! HAHA

O well, put it all back together and then found an audio cable which was coming from the passengers side into the engine bay! So I tied my cable to it and pulled it through! Possibly the crudest way of doing something, but hey it worked! managed to put it all in, then spent the next 3 hours trying to wire in the lights for the gauge. God thats harder than it first seems, getting wires from the centre top speaker down to the middle console was a real heartache.

Any way thanks for all the help, i will take a pic when its light and show you where I went through, not 100% sure what it is attached too!

Took it on a very quick run and it seems to be boosting to about 0.8 bar

Just been checking over the forum, and by the sounds of it 0.8 bar (about 12.1 psi) is too high for stock turbo's. any one mind saying yay or nay to that?

These turbos have been changed when the engine was rebuilt 12k miles ago, however they are just refurbished turbos.

0.8 bar is 11.6 psi and this topic has been covered hundreds of times on this board over the years.

11.6 is exactly what mines at right now... and it's too high I'm affraid... I'm certainly no expert on this, still learning!! But For my situation I need a boost controller. If you're boosting to a solid 11.6 and it's not creeping (getting higher and higher) then as far as I know a boost controller will fix the prob and stabilise it back down to 10psi.

Do a search and see what you come up with.

Is your car otherwise stock? 11.6psi is too high for the stock ecu so drive it carefully for now otherwise you're at risk of a rebuild sooner than you might hope for!! Especially with the weather getting cold... As far as my research goes a greddy profec B II is a good boost controoler to go for... but search and make your own mind up :)

p.s. my name's Jason btw...

Cheers Jason. Going to get the car on the road today and check out exactly what its doing, last night was just too wet.

Will