External prv & pressure sensor queries

[3gress]

A rainy day is a perfect excuse to be holed up in the garage on the tools.
Having already installed a Peterson external pressure relief valve and associated plumbing i now find myself trying to neatly install a decent oil pressure gauge and low oil pressure warning light.
I have an Autometer cobalt oil pressure gauge and sensor and same brand low oil pressure warning light sensor to be installed on the engine. The engine is a 1.8 though i saved the oil pressure sensor from the NA6 block to connect up to my Revlimiter awesome-ified (NA6)dash gauges. However i am keen to run the autometer gauge and sensor initially for a more accurate means of dialling in the external pressure relief valve.
Would it be acceptable to set the oil pressure first using the Autometer gauge and then swap to the NA6 sensor so the OEM dash oil pressure gauge will function or is it best to leave the Autometer gauge connected and forever be annoyed at the non functioning dash cluster gauge?
I am not interested in plumbing in two pressure sensors along with the low oil pressure sensor. It starts to look like a dogs breaky under hood.
What do you fellas reckon?

[cookie]

A rainy day is a perfect excuse to be holed up in the garage on the tools.
Having already installed a Peterson external pressure relief valve and associated plumbing i now find myself trying to neatly install a decent oil pressure gauge and low oil pressure warning light.
I have an Autometer cobalt oil pressure gauge and sensor and same brand low oil pressure warning light sensor to be installed on the engine. The engine is a 1.8 though i saved the oil pressure sensor from the NA6 block to connect up to my Revlimiter awesome-ified (NA6)dash gauges. However i am keen to run the autometer gauge and sensor initially for a more accurate means of dialling in the external pressure relief valve.
Would it be acceptable to set the oil pressure first using the Autometer gauge and then swap to the NA6 sensor so the OEM dash oil pressure gauge will function or is it best to leave the Autometer gauge connected and forever be annoyed at the non functioning dash cluster gauge?
I am not interested in plumbing in two pressure sensors along with the low oil pressure sensor. It starts to look like a dogs breaky under hood.
What do you fellas reckon?

I've ended up with two braided lines off my filter relocation for the factory oil pressure as well as an aftermarket. Like you I didnt want a dead needle right in my face! I then mounted the oil temp sensor into the stock na6 sensor position. Many bad reports of stiff suspension plus big heavy senders on all makes of cars have caused massive messes to all out failure. The large senders will be hidden under the intake manifold somehow. Only elegant solution I could come up with was stainless steel cable tie and a bit of rubber through the runners.


See photo of space required to fit the sends dirextly, regardless of whether ts a bad idea or not! Sorry no pics of braided lines.

[madjak]

Since you have the Peterson valve you can use the inline 10AN male female adapters with a 1/8npt sensor port. If you need two sensors just use two. You can pick them up for around $12 or so on ebay or $20 for a 'proper' one.

Personally I like as little as possible hooked up to the engine. First off it gives better access to everything. Second its easier to pull out the engine and finally anything attached to my engine shakes itself to bits so its better to mount things to the chassis.

I also don't particularly like the extension lines. They always get in the way and they can trap air bubbles in them.

Btw I run a longachre accutech gauge. They have 3 warning levels with the lowest flashing the entire gauge and both Led lights. You can't miss it.

I also run a 100 psi ebay sensor to my haltech for engine protection.

[3gress]

I've set it up so the dash oil pressure sensor is remote mounted up between the firewall and fuse box for now with an inline pressure gauge to help with dialling in the external prv. I wasn't too keen on direct mounting to pressure port on side of block as I'm expecting a decent increase in NVH levels. Air bubbles in the the remote feed line is a concern as you pointed out madjack however I've had previous engines arranged similarly with no noticable issues or false gauge indications.
I have a low oil pressure sensor mounted on the sandwich plate post prv and cooler that connects to a modified engine watchdog module, this unit also monitors engine block heat with a thermocouple to give an extra few seconds warning of immenent wallet punishing carnage.

You can see the sensor and gauge tucked up in top left corner behind fuse box.

[madjak]

I have a thermocouple mounted to the back of the head. It's a much better way of running engine protection vs a cts because it will work regardless of if there is a coolant leak.

Btw be careful not to fully wind out the adjustment bolt on the Peterson valve. It will make a big mess!

[NitroDann]

Pressure gauges that you watch were cutting edge when they were invented in 1850.

Get your ecu to handle it.

Dann

[NitroDann]

Pressure gauges that you watch were cutting edge when they were invented in 1850.

Get your ecu to handle it.

Dann

[3gress]

Pretty sure the wheel preceeds that but I'm not about to give them up just yet either.

[Magpie]

I would suggest not mounting sensors on the block. As suggested by Madjak the vibration of the engine can cause fatigue on sensor mountings. It is better to run a remote line to the sensor.

[NitroDann]

Pretty sure the wheel preceeds that but I'm not about to give them up just yet either.

The wheel is still the best solution for allowing an object to roll, a gauge with a human babysitter is no longer the best solution for critical data monitoring.

A gauge is not only less reliable, slower to react and more work to install and to monitor its also more expensive.


Dann

[3gress]

That is pretty.much why i had little interest in running a gauge past the original installed in dash and instead installed a low oil warning and thermocouple to give a last minute warning.
I did however need something to set the prv pressure range and had figured on a temporary install of a decent stepper motor equipped accurate gauge left over from a previous build.
In the end i just temporarily installed a gauge in the bay to help with prv adjustment.
I do want the dash gauges to function and we NA6 guys are blessed with more than an idiot light for an oil pressure gauge whether it be linear or not.
Cheers on all responses guys .

[madjak]

An ecu enabled low pressure gauge isn't actually that useful. Its great to have for engine protection but in most cases it needs to have a delay of a few seconds otherwise it will detect small blips and cut engine power. That delay means more than likely I'll detect an issue first.

I find a gauge with multiple levels of warning lights very usefull. On startup I can see oil pressure and I know what it normally sits at when idling at 2000rpm when cold. I have marked the spot on the gauge. Then whilst running on the track during first practice I actively watch the oil pressure under braking and hard cornering. My first warning level sits at 40PSI so it doesn't need to drop much to show a warning. When im running at pace I don't get a chance to watch it but its right there in my range of vision and if one of the LEDs blick on I can spot it immediately. One quick glance and I can tell if I need to back off.

Tracking the gauge pressure over multiple events I can tell of the oil needs to be changed and monitor sutble changes in the engine health just from that one gauge. If I had this gauge when I destroyed a big end bearing I think I would have picked up the oil pressure dips under brakes where the engine protection didn't.

I also run an oil temp gauge which I find it also valuable for a track car.

[3gress]

I have an oil temp gauge with sensor mounted in oil pan, i figured it be worthy enough to install to give some idea of variances between oil viscosities. That is a problem i can see with the oil pressure gauge mounted in the bay. No easy way of checking differences between different grades of oil, bearing wear and fluctuations over range of temperature.
The thermocouple and low oil temp sensor are linked to a warning light on the dash and 90db alarm so it'd be hard to miss. I built the circuit using parts from an engine watchdog module and Autometer pro comp warning light.
It may be worth looking into an accutech gauge or even adding a sensor to connect to ecu for logging data though being a (highly strung NA) street car the KISS princjple may prevail.

I do have to apologise to nitrrodan for being a bit of a smart#rse. I hope no offense was taken and do not wish to be party to souring an otherwise awesome forum community.

[NitroDann]

It's all good, I was blunt too and were both adults, well be 'right.

Regarding the leds you can do all of that with the ecu and monitor pressure with logs. But using it to gauge oil changes and when its cold is a good idea, I'll mention it to people I know who run a physical gauge or a digital dash.

Dann

[StillIC]

I would suggest not mounting sensors on the block. As suggested by Madjak the vibration of the engine can cause fatigue on sensor mountings. It is better to run a remote line to the sensor.

One risk in running a remote sensor is that it no longer senses what you want, exactly. This is especially true for temperature sensors and could be true for pressure sensors. Ask me how I know!