[zipper778]

I was thinking the other day, can we tap the oil pressure sensor with an electric oil pressure gauge? That would be a lot easier I think than installing a regular oil gauge and running an oil line inside the car.

[ComradeRedXv2]

zipper778, on 11 March 2010 - 10:27 AM, said:

I was thinking the other day, can we tap the oil pressure sensor with an electric oil pressure gauge? That would be a lot easier I think than installing a regular oil gauge and running an oil line inside the car.

thats how i did it on my 72 super beetle, but that was 1938 technology, and thusly not very like our cars, but you'd think it would work

[bumpin96monte]

No, the factory oil pressure sender is just an on/off switch- either the pressure is too low (light on) or its ok.

Also, no one uses mechanical gauges anymore, especially for oil or fuel- all you have to do is buy an electric oil pressure gauge that comes with a sender. You unscrew your factory oil pressure sender (unplug the wires and zip tie them out of the way- the light will always stay off)- screw in the new sender (my autometer threaded right in)- and run you wiring into the cabin for the gauge. Its really 95% as easy as you were planning to do anyways.

This post has been edited by bumpin96monte: 11 March 2010 - 04:23 PM

[jaybaum96]

waiting for mrclean to butt inn, as i know he did it...

[HeavyChevy3800]

I used an Autometer Oil pressure gauge with an electric sender. I used a write-up I found on ClubGP to get the right thread sizes. I bought a T fitting, removed the factory sender, installed the T-fitting, reinstalled the factory sender and new autometer sender. Then ran a single wire from the new sender to the gauge. It was about $60 for the short sweep electric gauge w/ sender.

[mrclean]

i used an electric. super easy. dont mess with a mechanical one. basicly did the same thing as heavychevy

[zipper778]

Thanks guys. I didn't realize it was just an on/off switch deal. That's pretty much what I needed to know.

[bumpin96monte]

HeavyChevy3800, on 11 March 2010 - 10:58 PM, said:

I used an Autometer Oil pressure gauge with an electric sender. I used a write-up I found on ClubGP to get the right thread sizes. I bought a T fitting, removed the factory sender, installed the T-fitting, reinstalled the factory sender and new autometer sender. Then ran a single wire from the new sender to the gauge. It was about $60 for the short sweep electric gauge w/ sender.

I didn't bother with reinstalling the factory unit because I figured if I have a gauge telling me what the pressure is, then I don't really need a light too. Its up to you which way you go.

[mrclean]

same here. i didnt get a t fitting, but i did get a thread adapter.

[zipper778]

I just installed the gauge and it's working great. My only problem is that the oil light is on. Why is that when it didn't happen to anyone else?

[bumpin96monte]

You keep the stock sender w/ a T or did you delete it? If you deleted it, you didn't plug it in and let it dangle there right?

[jaybaum96]

Weird, erics is just dangling and he has no oil lamp on. He only has his change oil soon light on because he's procrastinating on an oil change

[mrclean]

well the plug is dangling, not the stock sender. and i dont have the change oil light, i have the change oil light AND low oil light hahahah gotta change that this weekend.

[HeavyChevy3800]

I don't remember if the oil light turns on for low oil pressure and low oil level or are they two different lights? Did you have the light on before? You have the oil return for the blower through the oil level sensor correct? Do you no longer have an oil level sensor? Just speculation. I would just get a T fitting and put the sensor back in to turn the light off if you had it off before. Or just pull the bulb.

[zipper778]

Yeah, my blower goes to where the oil level sensor use to be and we just left the oil pressure sensor dangling. The oil level sensor light is a seperate light and that does come on, not worried about that because I'm going to be dealing with that soon. It was the oil can light that turned on. I might just pull the bulb but was curious if there was something else.

Also, what does everyone usually see for oil pressure? I was driving around today and when I'm stopped and at an idle the oil pressure goes down to dead center between 25-50psi (~38psi) but it goes up to 60-75psi when I get back on the gas. Is this normal?

[zipper778]

I forgot to mention too that I did check the oil and it didn't need anymore oil at all, plus it looked spotless.

[bumpin96monte]

Quote

Yeah, my blower goes to where the oil level sensor use to be and we just left the oil pressure sensor dangling.

Have you tried unplugging the sensor and just letting the empty plug dangle there?

[zipper778]

Not a bad idea Bumpin, I'll give that a shot soon.

Also, do my oil pressures look okay?

[bumpin96monte]

I haven't driven my monte in probably 6 months (between winter and moving), so I can't remember exact psi #'s (plus I had the ZZP oil kit). From what I remember, a cold start in the summer gave me about 50 psi, that would slowly drop down to 35ish- I don't remember what it would get up to when getting on it, but 75 sounds good to me. I've always heard you're supposed to have 10 psi for every 1000 rpm you're running.

I'll be honest, I never payed much attention to it after the first few times- as long as it wasn't 0 (or anything crazy low), and the needle was about in the middle of the gauge when driving, I quit looking after I figured the initial numbers looked ok.



On a side note, I did recently buy the Intense oil filter relocation kit that has the adjustable screw for pressure adjustment.

[bumpin96monte]

Came across the pic of my sender from my engine build, and thought I'd post it up in case some searches for this:



Obviously the blue thing is the aftermarket sender- I put it in place of the smaller stock unit that was in the same hole.

[Devin]

zipper778, on 21 March 2010 - 12:09 AM, said:

Not a bad idea Bumpin, I'll give that a shot soon.

Also, do my oil pressures look okay?

cold idle i run about 42, warm idle i run about 39, 4000rpm i run about 60-65

your sounds good

[zipper778]

Thanks for your help guys. Everything sounds good then.