Have any of you guys installed the a-pillar pod? I've managed to get the original trim piece off and intend to make the new pod part of the existing so I can utilize the clips. However, it was very difficult to get off and even more difficult to get back into place. My question is, will the two dash pieces come off? This will make re-attaching the pillar trim a piece of cake. It was much simpler on my 04 F-150 but I'm having a hell of a time this time around. if the dash comes apart, is it more trouble than it's worth or fairly easy and how do you do it?

Thanks for any advise
Scott

 

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You're going to WAY the hell more work than its worth.

 

Thanks for that link powerstroke. I finally got it in today. I just muscled it into place and all is well. I was afraid to scratch the hell out of the dash and the pod which I paid $80.00 to have dyed to match the interior, but luckily no damage to either.

Thanks again
Scott

 

It is a tight fit, but it can easily be done. You paid $80 to have the thing painted? Heck I paid maybe $50 for my triple pod pillar and went out and bought a can of Krylon Fusion factory match paint for $5. Should anything happen I can easily touch it up and its guaranteed to match the pilar.

 

I did that with my 04 F-150 but it always scratched and looked like crap after awhile. I'm sure I could have found someone to dye it for less, but most of the places I found had at least a 70.00 minimum. As someone who has his own business, this does not bother me too much. I was more interested in a lasting finish that matches perfectly.
Did you install your own gauges? If so may I pick your brain when I'm ready to install mine? I've run string lines through the pod so I can easily fish the wires and senders when ready. Honestly I'd rather pay to have it done but I was not happy with the way it was done the first time around and ended up making many adjustments after the fact. Maybe I'm picky but I just like things to look like they were always that way and not added on. I know little about wiring but how hard can it be?

Happy New Year to you
Scott

 

I installed mine myself. I couldn't see paying someone 200-300 to do it when it only takes a couple hours. If you haven't gotten gauges yet you might want to take a look at Isspro gauges from Dieselmanor.com I bought from Dave who has had great customer service so far. When he makes a kit he does a few extra things to make it easy. He makes a wire harness for the lights to make the thing a little less painful. Basically with your wiring it'll depend on the gauges. Isspro uses control boxes for the trans and pyro. They're pretty straight forward. You've got a signal wire, then a power and ground to it. You've also got power and ground leads to be used for the lights. The power needs to be on a 12V key on source. The lights need to be a light on source. I tied all the grounds together into one connection. Really you'll have to use a multimeter to check wires till you can find one with what you need. For my lights I used a lead directly behind the light switch itself. The power I ended up getting from the power lead to the APCM.

 

Yeah, I paid 200.00 to have them installed in the 150 and then proceeded to take it all apart and make adjustments to the pillar pod as they did not bother to trim the pod for a perfect fit and used a galvanized lag screw to attach it which was ugly as hell.
I like the Speedhut gauges because they can be customized and I can get green backlit numbers to match the Ford lighting in the IP. I will go with Trans Temp, Pyrometer and maybe Water Temp. www.speedhut.com
I might need help determining what wire is what and proper way to attach the new wires to the existing. That will be a few weeks out.

Thanks again for your help
Scott

 

Ummm........you have a turbo on your engine, you kind of need to monitor that too , and the gauge in your dash doesn't count. Its a glorified idiot light and not accurate. You need pyro (mounted preturbo), boost, and trans.

 

Yeah get a boost gauge instead of a water temp.

Adrianspeeder

 

I looked a little bit at the speedhut gauges, and they're nice. Very nice in fact, but man talk about sticker shock. $167 for a pyro, $110 for a boost gauge, and $110 for a trans temp. With a pillar thats over $130 more than I paid for mine. For that money I'd probably end up going with the Nexus gauges since you can change the backlight color and have a high/low record feature too.

 

what is wrong with the boost gauge in the dash, just out of curiosity? I will take your advice though and ditch the water temp. It seems to be accurate to me. Does that that mean that the tach is not accurate as well? I'm not being a wise *** but they seem to work together as the engine accelerates and up shifts.

Scott

 

The boost gauge in the dash is not as accurate as an add in gauge is going to be. The reason is that in stock form the gauge does not have to be accurate and thus it isn't, so its cheaper for Ford to build. Most times after installing an aftermarket gauge people have found that the in dash gauge does not read the same as the correctly calibrated gauge. The tach and speedo are a different matter. Once you start adding any power adders its more important to keep an eye on the boost and you need something you know for sure it accurate.

 

So my final question to you is, should I get a boost gauge or a boost vac gauge?

Nexus gauges are sweet but the last time I looked at those they were 200.00 each and you have to spend another 200.00 on the converter to make them work. 800.00 in gauges was definately too rich for my blood.

Scott
Thanks again for your help

 

You want a boost gauge. Your truck is not a gasser, so there is not going to be any vacuum to measure. You're going to want either a 30 or 40psi guage. If you chip it I'd suggest the 40, as a 30psi can be maxed out. On a 7.3L a 30 is fine because the stock turbo makes much less boost.

 

I'm ready to do my gauge install, and the link you sent me will be very helpful. However my gauge wiring is a little different, red = +12 volts keyed ignition, black = ground, white = +12 volts dash lighting, and grey which is the sender. With all of that I also have an inverter with two wires red +12volts dash lighting and black = ground. The wiring is the same on all three gauges (trans temp, Pyro, and boost) I noticed that in your link you show no wiring for the boost gauge so my question is, is there a tap that I can wire all the wires to at once or do I need more than one tap (per keyed ignition and dash lighting) and is there a certain size wire tap that I am looking for. The easiest part aside from attaching the sendor will be the ground wires so that only leaves two wires per gauge plus the inverter. I'm sure I can figure this out with a little help. The only thing I'm completely in the dark on is how to use a multi meter as I've never done this before but I did alot of work on my 04 F-150 including swapping out the cluster for an FX4 cluster so I think I can do it. Does it matter what multi-meter I buy and can I get the wire taps needed at my local automotive store?
Oh, Speedhut gauges are really nice too, for any of you thinking of doing the gauge mod. I would look at speedhut before making your decision on gauges.
I'll post some pics once I get it finished.

Thanks again
Scott