oil pressure/temp gauge question.

[ba#97]

So I'm in the market now to do gauges for my car as they would be quite useful for the track, with actual accurate readings especially for oil/water temp. Now the traditional way to do oil temp would be to tap a hole in the oil pan for the sending unit correct? Well I found this and wanted to see if you guys have seen or heard of anyone using it before. They do make them to fit our cars oil filter connection, but I'm not sure on clearance issues.
http://prosportgauges.com/oil-filter-adaptor-plate.aspx

 

[ttocs]

I just put a T-fitting on the stock sender location and then put the stock one, and the new one in the same place.

 

[mcglsr2]

My gauges:

Not pictured is my oil temp gauge - installed in the car but the sender is not. I'm also interested in knowing if this plate adapter will work. I was planning on drilling a hole in the pan using the instructions for tapping for a supercharger/turbocharger return. The plate would be much easier.

I do think I recall reading that the best place in reading the temp was in the pan, there seemed to be concern reading it someplace like the plate where it's flowing such that it might cause inaccuracies in the reading. But I have no personal experience or first hand knowledge with this.

Edit: oh, if you are interested, the gauges are Auto Meter Sport-Comp II (the ones with the LED lighting). From left to right they are fuel level, oil pressure (with red warning light), speedo, tach, water temp (with red warning light), voltage. The oil temp not pictured also has a red warning light.

 

[ba#97]

Where did you get that setup for your cluster? I would love to do that. I'm not at home right now to check but where is the stock sending unit? You're talking about oil pressure I assume which sadly still doesn't fix temp for me. I really would like to know how accurate this adapter is and if it would have any clearance issues.

 

[ba#97]

I emailed them to ask about the accuracy of the reading. I will let you know what they say on that one. As for the rest, if it'll work on our cars...waiting to find that out too and hoping someone can help me with that. Lol. Their premium gauges are quite nice actually and I like that they can be daisy chained to power.

 

[duff daddy]

MCGLSR- nice setup clean install, looks good

as far as that plate, I would just tap the housing and use that. Plate doenst look bad but its just another spot for it to leak with 1 more fitting and the openings. I would be worried about machining and misc gaskets. Personally and useually I just tap the housing and go from there. MY current oil pan is set up for 2 extra bungs in the pan but I prob wont use them.

 

[mcglsr2]

Where did you get that setup for your cluster? I would love to do that. I'm not at home right now to check but where is the stock sending unit? You're talking about oil pressure I assume which sadly still doesn't fix temp for me. I really would like to know how accurate this adapter is and if it would have any clearance issues.

The gauge cluster is an Auto Meter part made specific for the car - you can get one from Summit or Jegs. I purchased the gauges, installed them into the cluster, and then a bunch of wire splicing into the original cluster harnesses for signals (example, the fuel level signal that the gauge reads comes from the original harness). For the oil pressure and water temp, I ran new dedicated wires into the engine bay attached to the senders that came with the gauges. Keep in mind, you'll loose your idiot lights with this cluster - I ended up making my own set of lights and moving it over to where the clock used to be.

I do have an oil pressure gauge in the cluster, but as I said in my previous post, I also have an oil temp gauge. The sender is not hooked up yet, I was in the same boat as you as to where to hook it up. I suspect I'll be taking ttocs' suggestion and just slapping on a T-fitting where I get my oil pressure from and go from there.

 

[duff daddy]

Not sure but it looks like a Florida50 piece

 

[ba#97]

MCGLSR- nice setup clean install, looks good

as far as that plate, I would just tap the housing and use that. Plate doenst look bad but its just another spot for it to leak with 1 more fitting and the openings. I would be worried about machining and misc gaskets. Personally and useually I just tap the housing and go from there. MY current oil pan is set up for 2 extra bungs in the pan but I prob wont use them.

What housing are you referring to exactly? Are you talking about temp or pressure? For the t fitting on the pressure, ttocs, you said you just installed it on the stock sensor? What all did it entail for that? Where is the best location to tap for the oil temp? Especially for simplicity? Also, just got a reply in regards to the plate and I guess he used to have a 95 himself and said it wouldn't work well sadly.

 

[duff daddy]

Oil adapter housing is what i was talking about. You just tap the housing instead of using the adapter plate

 

[ba#97]

Hm...and you said you did this? Can you take a pic of it when ever you get a chance so I can see how you did it? Do you think this gives good temp readings and is a better place than the pan itself?

 

[ttocs]

I don't have a pic but its prob $15 worth of fittings from your local autoparts store. You just need a small piece of pipe and a T-fitting. Screw the pipe into the stock location, your T into that and then you have two locations for oil. If you don't care if the stock gauges don't work you can just replace the stock sender and leave the gauge dead since it isn't worth anything anyway.

 

[ba#97]

I don't have a pic but its prob $15 worth of fittings from your local autoparts store. You just need a small piece of pipe and a T-fitting. Screw the pipe into the stock location, your T into that and then you have two locations for oil. If you don't care if the stock gauges don't work you can just replace the stock sender and leave the gauge dead since it isn't worth anything anyway.

I was just trying to see if duff had a pic of the temp sensor tapped into the oil filter housing. But yeah I will probably just do that for the pressure side. Not quite sure if I want the stock gauge still working or not.

 

[duff daddy]

Hm...and you said you did this? Can you take a pic of it when ever you get a chance so I can see how you did it? Do you think this gives good temp readings and is a better place than the pan itself?

Yea, wicked ass move, i just reazlized this was the 94-95 section.... I only did it on mod motors.

 

[ba#97]

Lol. Nice. So where should I put the temp sending unit then? Tap the oil pan? Or should i have a bung welded on? That would require me removing the pan sadly wouldn't it? The welding...not the tapping. How hard is it to tap the pan? Just trying to get all my info first before i go jumping into doing stuff that if I mess up could blow my motor.

 

[ba#97]

Ttocs...if you could get a picture that would be awesome though.

 

[mcglsr2]

Not sure but it looks like a Florida50 piece

Yah, I think the Florida50 piece was basically getting the bezel, getting the gauges, and assembling it, and maybe doing some pre-wiring. I looked at them initially, but felt that they cost too much and well, I like doing things myself, so I just got all the pieces and put it together.

If you don't care if the stock gauges don't work you can just replace the stock sender and leave the gauge dead since it isn't worth anything anyway.

Basically this. I just removed the stock senders and replaced them with the ones that came with the Auto Meter gauges and did the wiring.

 

[ttocs]

Ttocs...if you could get a picture that would be awesome though.

Car is at the shop getting the core support replaced. The stock gauges are dummy-gauges at best. Just take them out and replace them, you will no miss them I promis

 

[mcglsr2]

Car is at the shop getting the core support replaced. The stock gauges are dummy-gauges at best. Just take them out and replace them, you will no miss them I promis

When I originally bought the car, the previous owner had done this. He had an A-pillar pod with two gauges, one for oil pressure and the other for water temp. He replaced the stock senders, so the gauges in the factory cluster just didn't work anymore. Nothing wrong with that (except that in my case he did a crappy job on the replacement gauges, so they didn't work so great).

 

[ba#97]

Thats probably what I'm going to lean towards, just not using the stock oil pressure gauge anymore at least and replacing it with the new sender from the new gauges. Other than getting the cluster you have, I wonder what a good way would be to hide the unused gauges once I replace them so they aren't just sitting there like that.