Hey guys, so I have a Megan oil pressure gauge and a Megan oil temperature gauge that I wanna install on my redtop SR. Yes, yes, I know they may not be the most accurate gauges but I bought them when I first got my car and figure I’d might as well run em now until I have money to get some decent gauges. I didn’t want to drill into the oil pan for the oil temp sensor so I went out and bought a 1/8 female pipe tee. and a 1/8 hex nipple.
The instructions that came with the gauges is specifies:
“Do not use teflon thread sealer tape on the sending unit. This will cause a ground problem and the gauge will read inaccurately. It is highly advisable to ground the gauge at the engine close to the oil sender.”
Now… my question is, to those of you who have installed oil pressure/temp gauges, whether it be Megan or any other brand…
did the instruction included specify the same?
And if so or if not, is there any kind of thread sealant that I could use that won’t cause a grounding problem?
I had STRi gauge a while back, and yes it stated the same, but without the tape the fitting just leaked, so I did use tape, and it still worked fine. You should definately use it for oil applications, as running low on oil is a horrible idea.
There are two problems here, one that makes the second worse actually.
You do not want to thread this entire assembly directly into the stock oil pressure sensor location because it will hit the oil filter, if you use a 90 than it will hit the engine mount, and if you do make it fit, it will be extremely difficult to tighten it in the perfect position you want it in. And then when your driving, your motor rotates along the axis of the car, which might cause the assembly to push up against something and break off. As well as the weight involved on those small threads.
What you could do is have a ss line going from the stock oil filter location to a part on the chassis, with enough slack to give motor play, but you can only use the OIL PRESSURE that way. If you were to put the oil temperature sensor there as well, it would read lower than your actual engine oil temperature because the oil is not circulating but staying in that end line which means it will be colder. Its ok for oil pressure though because hydraulic pressure stays equal across the entire system.
So ideally, you would want to put your oil temperature sensor somewhere like at the end of an oil cooler loop where the oil would re-enter the motor, which would be the true reading of what temperature oil your motor is using. And if you had that you could easily put the oil pressure sensor there too and keep your stock warning light sensor in its location. I wouldnt put it on the oil pan either, In case you run off or bottom out in a fucked up way or even a tree branch you might accidentally run over will break off the sender and cause you to run dry.
I was told that because the fittings are brass, that the threads will form to each other and that will seal. But if that’s not true, then I actually got some permatex high heat thread sealant that I could use.
I decided this route because of a DIY thread on nico that I read…
From this picture it looks like the sendor won’t hit the oil filter. If I thread in the T first and then thread the sendor into the T, it should be fine shouldn’t it?
I dunno if I would trust the tee and the large sender on it like that :o
A lot of people warned me against the tee idea saying it will snap off (plus the oem sensor is just a dummy light - by the time it comes on its probablly too late).
yea gonad… that looks like a much better setup… where did you have the line from? I may do something like that, but I also need a place to install the oil temp sensor… and where did you end up getting the BSPT to NPT fittings from?
since you ditched the stock pressure sensor, is your oil light constantly on?
i got the bspt male to npt female adapter from performance improvements, cant remember how much but they do carry them. i have a similar setup like Gonad has except i used a grease gun hose from princess auto. it already has 1/8 male npt on both ends. i also ditched the oem sensor
when u get better gauges the sender is smaller and u can just use a sandwich plate. or if you get an oil filter relocation kit they also have nice easy to reach ports for you to install oil temp and pressure senders
If you do it like this for the pressure, could you tee off the oil feed line for the turbo for the oil temp? If not, where would be the best place for the oil temp?
thanks gonad! i think I’ll do a setup similar to the one you have. I’ll go check out performance improvements, from what I remember they should have all that stuff… so oil pressure is covered…
as for oil temp, any ideas? any one have a oil temp setup they’d like to share?
ahhh ok… shoot… i don’t have either… lol… how about logik’s idea about T’ing the oil feed line. Or maybe for the time being i should just run the line to a T with the pressure and temp sensor… even though i won’t get an accurate reading…
which performance improvements did you go to for the bspt male to npt female adapter? i went to the one on the queensway and they didn’t have it. i got all the other things i need including the line, i’m just missing the bspt male to npt female adapter now.
You can actually go to Canadian Tire (or Parts Source) and ask them to look up the part # 2269 in the Keystone catalog (that number might be for something else as well so make sure you say that its an Autometer part).
Ok, so I just called up part source and they found the adapter for me. They said if ordered today it’d be in on wed and the part costs $12.63 taxes in. I’ve also called adapt all as well as multitech fluid power both fittings stores but they said 1 week wait. Anyone know a place where they would have this in stock?
sr20 - which performance improvements store did you go to? and did they have to order it or did they carry them in stock?
Adaptall is great - infact I got all my fittings from there when I originally setup my oil pressure gauge. And I know CISCO orders through them but on some occasions you’ll find Adaptall won’t take single unit orders
yup… they said they sell to dealers or something… lol so they sent me to multitech fluid power which i guess is a dealer so i call them and they tell me they have to order it from adapt all and it’ll be a week wait.
gonad did you go to an adapt all store? if so which one? right now my best bet seems like part source if ordered today get here wednesday. but i would really prefer a place that has them in stock NOOOOOW… lol
