gauge question

[smokestack]

How hard would it be to install a fuel pressure and oil pressure gauge? i was thinking of getting one of those pods that go on the a piller. But not sure what all would be needed to install the actual gauges. I dont have much faith in the stock oil pressure gauge.

 

[John Robinson]

How hard would it be to install a fuel pressure and oil pressure gauge? i was thinking of getting one of those pods that go on the a piller. But not sure what all would be needed to install the actual gauges. I dont have much faith in the stock oil pressure gauge.

What kind of oil pressure are you seeing on the gauge?

I would be willing to guess that none of your other vehicles have an oil gauge. Most cars do not have anything but an idiot light for oil pressure, coolant temp. volts. There is a reason for that beyond saving the cost of installing them in the cars at the factory. The engineers recognized that the normal accepted readings for such things had changed so much that the general public would be in a panic if they saw the temp or oil pressure or the volts in the modern car. So I believe they followed the theory what you don't know won't hurt you. Now when it comes to high performance cars. They also knew that those customers were most likely knowledgeable enough to use the gauges to tell them the condition of the car. If I were thrashing my car in 100+ heat and the oil got so hot that the oil pressure dropped to 10# I would be able to shut it down and save the engine but most cars would never be pushed hard enough for that to become a problem. You can put black electrical tape over the gauges and forget about them.

 

[smokestack]

Now since i changed the sending unit it shows maybe 15lbs at idle once all warmed up. I changed the oil and filter today with the same results. When i open the oil fill cap on the valve cover i see plenty of flow. So i just figured the gauge is reading low. Both my other cars have oil pressure gauges and neither one has ever dropped below 40 at idle.
My old sending unit was leaking oil so i changed it. It never dropped at idle like it does now. So im not sure if its the sending unit or what. Thats why i figure i can get a gauge and then i will know for sure?

 

[John Robinson]

With my oil to full temp at idle I get around 15 # and at road speed it runs about 38# If I get the rpms above 2000 it goes over 40. I know this because I drove a couple of hundred miles yesterday here in Indiana I am running Castrol 5w 20 Synthetic oil. I think what you are seeing is normal but it would be interesting to hear from others on what there oil pressure is. I think we will find out that ours are normal.

If you changed the sending unit then you have changed everything. You feel that the gauge may be bad because of what you are seeing for oil pressure. The flip side of that is the sending unit you took out may have been hanging up and not giving a true reading. Now the new unit is actually working correctly and it is possible for the oil pressure to be what it actually is. So again I ask others to tell us what oil pressure they are seeing under what conditions. If the majority fall in the range of you car and mine then you will know the gauge is probably right. And we all will have learned something valuable.

 

[smokestack]

I feel alot better since you see the same numbers as i do I was worried it was too low.

 

[93Rubie]

I agree with John. My 93 has similar readings. Rule of thumb is 10psi for every 1000RPM. So 15 at idle is plenty.
Many factory gauges are programmed to read near 40 even when they are not, that is so people don't freak out.

 

[Robertwav1]

Numbers around the same here......