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This was more about using a motorsports grade sensor than the boost level itself. As far as boost level alone, a 4 BAR is plenty for nearly any VQ build we’ve seen. I think that the OMNI sensor has and does work well for a lot of people, but that there is a place for a next tier solution once moving to more demanding conditions, possibly even more so when using an aluminum manifold that doesn’t insulate the MAP sensor quite as well as the stock plastic manifold will.

I feel like I need to explain exactly how I ended up on this so that it makes sense.

What kicked this project off was having recently killed 2 of the aftermarket OEM form factor MAP sensors in my GTR in a short time, and the second failure creating a very unsafe condition for the engine. The first failure disabled the car, which was merely inconvenient. The replacement unit, after a few thousand miles, started reading a few psi low. It happened while a trusted friend had borrowed the car to take someone else on a 20 min joy ride with it. I noticed when I went to leave later that the car was starting rough and hesitating at roll out during normal driving. So I logged into ECUTEK to find that the car was running extremely lean due to misreported MAP. Who knows how early in that joy ride it started, while someone who doesn’t drive the car regularly may not realize that something is off. It could have cost me the engine.

So I decided I wanted a new solution. My GTR is nothing crazy in the engine bay, it’s a maxed out stock engine roughly 850whp. So I started asking around the GTR tuning community and found that these style sensors have a poor reputation amongst them, which was interesting to learn since they don’t carry that reputation in the VQ world (not that I have heard of at least). One well known tuner told me that he used to always make sure to carry a spare in the glovebox, and that was all I needed to hear.

So we can look at what separates the conditions for the 2 applications, and that is going to be that the average everyday tuned/bolt-on VR38 is going to be running higher boost than our average boosted VQs, on average put through more abuse with heat and race conditions, and the VR38 has an aluminum intake that is going to have increased thermal and NVH transmission to the sensor. So just harsher conditions all around, comparing typical usage scenarios.

Spoolers Z is recreating every bit of those harsher conditions, and more, than it took for my bolt-on GTR to kill 2 of the sensors in short time. So while addressing this issue for my GTR, I used my Z (my Z never had an upgraded MAP sensor, I stopped at 670whp still MAF tuned) to make a kit to offer to my Z customers. I figured the timing felt just right as we are seeing engine programs keep the headgaskets together lately and we’re going to be seeing the VQ put through harsher conditions as things progress.

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