Oil Pressure Gauge-Never again

[Bakrauf]

.After spending roughly 4 hours under the car in my gravel driveway I have come to the conclusion that I will never ever attempt to hook up my Oil pressure gauge again. I will in sometime in the future pay someone to do it for me.

I bought the E-bay oil filter adapter, hook up my 42 Draft extension and thought I was set. Drained the oil took off the filter and was thinking man this is going to take 20 mins. I already had the wires from the back of the gauge run through the firewall. Tighten a few things down and be on my way right?

Wrong.

The E-bay adapter part that you screw the thing to the engine was to long. After fiddling with it for 20 mins or so I knew it was never going to be tight. SO I got the bright idea to put a washer between the nut and the adapter. After fighting with it another 20 mins to get tight I screwed on the new filter. What I was to stupid to realize is that washer made the filter stick out to far and not tighten down on the adapter. Needless to say I was pissed and it took me another hour to take everything back apart. That space is only big enough for one arm and you really need two.. I got fed up and called it a day.. I did add my 3.5 quarts of mobile one and replaced the oil plug and filter. While cussing at that guage. I will have a non-op Temp gauge for quite some time.

I need some beers!

 

[rdmello]

Damn. Sorry to hear that because I have an oil pressure gauge waiting to be hooked up.

Since it didn't work out, what if you resort to disconnecting the stock sensor and connecting the gauge sensor. I think all you need is the BPNT adapter.

 

[Bakrauf]

I wasn't about to disconnect anything else. Like i said I dont have a lift and working on gravel kinda puts a rock in your ass..lol.. It was a major pain in the ass..I am gonna wait till a few of you all install yours and let me know how it went then and only then wil I attempt it again.. Make that 3000 miles or so from now.

 

[livelyjay]

If you would have done some research I wrote up a pretty good how-to with pictures and a list of parts explaining what to do. If you buy things from eBay, you run a huge risk.

If you still want to hook it up along with the stock sending unit, it will cost you about $15 bucks if you want to hook the sending unit directly to the engine block, and $40 if you want to hook it up to a remote location (the suggested solution). Check out this thread for some helpful info.

 

[jmv]

its a PITA.

I got all the parts i needed to keep the stock unit (livelyjay was a big help), but when i got it all hooked up, it only read 25 pounds and leaked out of the block. Then trying to fix the leak, the hose to remote mount the sender broke. So i got a new BSPT fitting and ordered a new OEM style oil line that just got in today, so i'll be attempting again this weekend.

As far as the low reading, i tried hooking the sender straight into the block, and although i still had some leakage around the BSPT adapter, it read a nice 50 pounds. So maybe my hose was jacked or something.

big PITA, but i'm gonna get it done eventually.

Good luck bakrauf, and thanks again livelyjay.


EDIT: i've got some metal ramp things that let you drive the car up onto some platforms and remove the ramps so they're out of the way, if you have access to anything like that it can be a big help, since its so tight under there.

 

[Ryoga28]

In my case the brass fitting/adapter broke flush against the block and started squirting oil...Paid my mechanic about $400 to fix it because he had to remove tons of stuff to get to it.

 

[cthomp21]

I used the ebay block adapter, but I had to cut off about 3/4" worth of threads coming off the post on the engine block. Dremel to the rescue.

 

[JCell]

weird, i spend about 3 bucks at home depot for the pipe and y adaptor, then installed it in under 10 minutes, i did the oil change at the same time since i had to remove the oil filter to get to it

 

[cthomp21]

weird, i spend about 3 bucks at home depot for the pipe and y adaptor, then installed it in under 10 minutes, i did the oil change at the same time since i had to remove the oil filter to get to it

Many people have had that type of setup break off due to the immense weight of the oil pressure sender.

A block adapter is a whole different type of setup.

 

[Bakrauf]

I used the ebay block adapter, but I had to cut off about 3/4" worth of threads coming off the post on the engine block. Dremel to the rescue.

How did you not mess up the threads??? I am too scared to Fux something up then I would be screwed. Did you remove the post to cut it? or while it was on the car? I have a dremel but hesitate to even try it.

 

[AFaceInTheCrowd]

uhm i thought that the greddy oil sandwich adapter worked on our cars...

 

[traitorhound]

i dunno ive had mine on for over year with the aftermarket sender in the stock location. but i removed the stock sender and only have the gauge hooked up. the dummy light is useless and there is no real need for a light to turn on if you have a gauge to look at too. IMO that way works fine and you only have to buy like a 2 dolla adapter at autozone to fit the sender into the block

 

[livelyjay]

Many people have had that type of setup break off due to the immense weight of the oil pressure sender.

A block adapter is a whole different type of setup.

Exactly, which is why I recommend remote mounting the sending unit and attach it to the fittings via a stainless steel oil line. It's really simple. I did this on my Lancer and it worked like a charm.

 

[cthomp21]

How did you not mess up the threads??? I am too scared to Fux something up then I would be screwed. Did you remove the post to cut it? or while it was on the car? I have a dremel but hesitate to even try it.

I cut the post while it was on the car. It's a pretty tight fit, but it's doable. It took the better part of an hour and 10 heavy duty cut-disks which tend to self-destruct if not exactly at 90 degrees to the surface being cut. If I were to do it again, I'd probably pull it off the car and cut it on the bench.