Re: oil pressure port

by crice63 Sun Jun 17, 2018 12:45 pm

I'm moving to the inside work now. What is the best wire from which to get power for my oil pressure gauge? I still have to do radio too.

Also, there are three connections in the printed circuit board for the tachometer. I thought I would run the signal wire directly from the gauge to the distributor, but should I run it from the main instrument panel connector instead? Also, should I be concerned to find some kind of tachometer filter? (this is a stock tach from a forum member).

by thatfnthing Mon Jun 18, 2018 8:51 am

For the oil gauge, you can tap into the IGN port on the fuse box. The gauge draws very little.

by Hawk03 Mon Jun 18, 2018 10:34 am

I tapped into that, I think, for all of my gauges. It was one of the open spades on the fuse block and powers all of the gauges just fine. They only receive power when the ignition is on.

I ran tach wire from the distributor and plugged it into the dash harness so the tach gets its signal through the circuit board and it works fine. I did change out my guts with a late '70's Corvette tach guts, the tach face used to be a large fuel gauge as well. I have a filter on it but I don't think it does anything for the performance of the tach.

Info thread on tachs.
http://www.g3gm.com/t8625-dead-tach-need-tach-filter

by TW Monte Wed Apr 27, 2022 6:38 pm

I know this is an old thread, but i just did the same process in my 73. I found a stainless steel fitting on Amazon (designed for turbo oilers) and used it with a 45 degree fitting in the middle outlet for the oil pressure sending unit. I also found a short acdelco oil warning light switch that will screw in to top and fits nicely next to the distributor. I’ll add photos for anyone else looking to add an electric oil pressure gauge to our cars.

by TW Monte Wed Apr 27, 2022 6:40 pm

by Joe73 Thu Apr 28, 2022 11:19 am

Very nice. Ive done it that way for years. Another option would be to check if you have the pipe plug above the oil filter. That gives a direct oil pressure reading. My block did not have the pipe plug so I drilled and tapped it. I left the stock pressure sensor next to the distributor and ran a stainless line into the side port by the oil filter. See page 11 of how I did it. https://www.g3gm.com/t8584p250-1973-chevelle-ss-350-4spd-build

by TW Monte Thu Apr 28, 2022 6:03 pm

Yeah, i have that port on my block, but my mid length headers run right by it and the pressure sender is too big to fit perpendicular. I thought about putting in a 90 elbow, but then the sender is parallel to the header exhaust. I was worried about heat frying the sensor.

Has yours worked alright in that spot?
Do you have any header interference issues?

by Joe73 Thu Apr 28, 2022 7:13 pm

Mine fits and works good down there. I dont have a sender since I have a mechanical gauge. Just a stainless braided line running up and into the car. I have long tube headers as well as a "Z" bar for the manual trans. No clearance issues.

by TW Monte Thu Apr 28, 2022 7:36 pm

Joe73 wrote:Mine fits and works good down there. I dont have a sender since I have a mechanical gauge. Just a stainless braided line running up and into the car. I have long tube headers as well as a "Z" bar for the manual trans. No clearance issues.

Ah, I see. That’s a different setup.
Mines an oem electric setup.

by fasrnur Thu Apr 28, 2022 8:58 pm

Not sure what you're doing for a fuel pump. But if you're running an electric pump, instead of a warning light, you could wire that to cut the ground to your pump. That's the way Chevy did it on Vegas. No oil pressure no start. Or it'd shut the engine down when it ran out of gas.

by zucchi Fri Apr 29, 2022 8:28 am

I did mine similarly…

I made sure to orient it so it clears the HEI distributor.

I mentioned my upgrade to gauges in another post (https://www.g3gm.com/t12792-monte-carlo-75#120090). In short, I retained the amp gauge and clock (which still works), and mounted a volt gauge and oil gauge on the A-pillar.

by relic7680 Sun May 01, 2022 11:08 pm

This is the setup I'm running with no trouble. Found an NOS 80s mini triple gauge setup and grabbed the o/p unit from it because it fits CLEANLY where the OE clock was without mods. The clamp that comes with the gauge secures it to the back of the cluster. I discarded the plastic tube that came with it and ran a copper line kit from Summit (bending in anti-siphon loops) to a home made brass tee setup out of the stock location (behind intake). I retained the stock idiot light switch as well to maintain full functionality. NO ELECTRIC SENDER NEEDED....but I did need to splice off the gray gauge illumination wire to run the light that came with the aftermarket gauge. This can be accomplished with a terminal called a "piggy back spade" that is readily available on the internet, but no so much from the auto parts store.

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