My oil pressure gauge occasionally dropped to near 0 on the Big Sky Oil Leak due to a wonky sender so I too now have a mechanical gauge I would like to install. Is Merlin Motor Sport the best source for the T fitting even in the US? The McMaster-Carr fittings listed above are only straight through.
Thanks,
–Drew
yeh, that drives me crazy. I know the pressure isn’t zero, but it still drives me crazy. I finally installed a mech. one under the bonnet.
LLoyd
LLynn was telling me the sender was the problem and I eventually calmed down after we took a look at the cam through the oil filler, but it had never done that before. Watching the needle suddenly drop was very unsettling. Jerry found a mechanical gauge in Missoula, but the electrical gauge eventually quit the bizarre oscillations so we didn’t install. I hope to have both gauges installed once I obtain the proper T fitting. MIK has one and Jerry installed it behind the drop down dash panel.
–Drew
Drew I bought all my fittings from Merlin Motorsports in the UK. Bought them on line and they were at my door within 6 days and the price was very reasonable even the Smith’s OP gauge.
Andy
Oil Pressure OCD… I belong to Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW sites for old cars but I have never seeing so much obsession over oil pressure then on our site. Maybe it is because Smith senders sucks. I bought a new sender from Nisonger and within months it was consistently reading low…dropped from usual 38-40 to 22-24 range.
Has anyone had issues where the oil pressure reading was really 20-30 over a long period of time and caused engine failure? Is oil pump failure something that gives you a gradual decrease in pressure over time or does just quit on you?
For now I think that as long I have oil pressure…I am good to go.
Abe
An oil pump could have sudden failure if a bit of debris (from a craptastic timing chain guide for instance) worked its way into the pump. The vast majority of low pressure readings seem to be due to faulty senders or perhaps gauges, but who would want to risk an expensive and PITA engine failure?
You are: it isnt only the pressure but the flow that is important.
On a street Jag, with a real 30 psi, warm, tou are good to go.
IIRC correctly, Jaguar stated 10psi/1000 rpm. If you are twisting the sh!t out of the engine, all the time, 30’d be a wee bit on the nervous side: normal use, you are fine.
Tweety ran, warm, with 20w-50 oil, 30-40 psi, for about 190,000 miles.
Formulas Vee, with MASSIVE bearing clearances, and being revved to 7500 rpm, never hurt bearings.