Oil sandwich plate for oil temp gauge

[nsa]

I'm about to buy one of these to install a 1/8 NPT oil temp sender. The alternative is to use an adapter for the sump plug, but this seems a neater way to do it. I'm happy working on the car but am especially wary on anything to do with oil because if I spring a leak on the road I and the car could be FUBAR.

There's lots of these on ebay for £10-20. Demon Tweeks etc seems to sell them for £50+. I was going to get something cheap, from a UK seller and preferably where I can see good feedback for the item.

Is there anything I should be wary of? I assume something like this can't really be screwed up in manufacture. My only concern is the quality of the seal, but I can always use one from a spare K&N filter I have in the garage.

Also, I need an adapter that is as slim as possible. I only need to accommodate the 1/8 NPT sender. If anybody has bought and installed one and can remember the details it would be a big help.



Thanks

[stevieturbo]

What engine ? Surely there is already somewhere to install a sensor ?

[nsa]

It's a Porsche 968 engine. This is an oil temperature gauge I want to install. I don't think the 968 had one as standard. I'd love to be proven wrong though because it will make the job a lot easier.

[CrutyRammers]

I've used a Mocal take off plate for a remote filter - a similar thing but I don't think it cost 50 quid, was probably from Merlin Motorsport or somewhere. As you say, a pretty basic thing so I'm sure a cheap one will be fine.
Another option is an adaptor which screws into the pressure switch port and gives you a t piece to screw an extra sensor in - they can be just the t-piece or on a long hose so you can mount it elsewhere.

[nsa]

Great idea on joining it to the oil pressure switch, thanks. I'll investigate that.

[stevieturbo]

Scoobyclinic now offer a dual sensor. Pressure and temperature in a single unit

http://bbs.22b.com/forums/showthread.php?32152-Pre...

[nsa]

The dual sender looks great but I don't fancy recalibrating my existing gauges. The T-piece looks the best solution so far.

[turbonutter]

nsa said:

The dual sender looks great but I don't fancy recalibrating my existing gauges. The T-piece looks the best solution so far.

T-piece - to get a decent temperature reading you need to have flow past the temp sensor, which you most probably wont have with a Tee...

I have an ebay special http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Oil-Filter-Sandwich-Adap...
on my engine, for over a year - no issues with the sealing, but IIRC its about 22mm thick. Not 100% sure as I am away at work at the present & cant check

Edited by turbonutter on Saturday 21st September 05:43

[Pumaracing]

CrutyRammers said:

Another option is an adaptor which screws into the pressure switch port and gives you a t piece to screw an extra sensor in - they can be just the t-piece or on a long hose so you can mount it elsewhere.

Wouldn't work. The pressure switch is a dead end with no oil flow going past it. All you'd ever measure would be the temperature of the block and that's controlled by the coolant not the oil.

[Pumaracing]

nsa said:

It's a Porsche 968 engine. This is an oil temperature gauge I want to install. I don't think the 968 had one as standard. I'd love to be proven wrong though because it will make the job a lot easier.

If there's an oil cooler in your setup it would be very easy to fit something in the oil line going to that.

[shoehorn]

What about one of these,It is Even calibrated for VDO stuff,which is Porsche oem anyway.
http://en.hoffmann-speedster.com/bus/bus-t2/electr...

[nsa]

Thanks everybody for the suggestions. I bought a T-piece but in the end I'm going to use the sump plug adapter I originally bought. I wasn't thrilled about having it sticking out of the underside of the car, and the cable will be closer to the exhaust than I'd like, but overall it's still the easiest and best solution given that I would rather not cut up the oil hoses to put a gauge in there. I'll post a picture when its done.

[nsa]

Thanks again for the advice. To close this off and hopefully this will help somebody in future:



The entire thing turned from a Saturday morning project into a bit of a mission. I ended up drilling into the sump plug and using a 1/8 NPT tap to create a hole to put the sensor into. It looks tight in the photo but there's about 3mm either side of the sensor hole on the M20 bolt head. The sump plug is hollow where the plug threads are, so the sensor tip has about 2mm either side for oil to flow around it.

Problems I encountered on a Porsche 968:

1. Oil filter fouls cambelt cover if sandwich plate is used
2. Standard M20 / 1/8NPT sump plug adapter available on ebay has 27mm nut, which fouls sump
3. SPA sensor into T-piece adapter isn't ideal location for oil flow, and it looks like the pressure sensor will wobble about with the T-piece attached.

I didn't attempt to go into the oil lines or use a remote filter housing.