One of the reasons I haven't done it yet (conflicting information) :icon17:

At a 1/8th size the two are so close to each other that it is really difficult to tell the difference. Interested to see what you find out.

My car ended up being BSPT, and I've posted up the writeup on the sensor part of it here: http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...ml#post1391436. Just part numbers and pics and tips, not a full DIY, since there's already a good one here :)

Pressure Gauge Install
 

First of all - thanks for all the DIY write-ups on this forum- I wanted to add my 2 cents on where i installed my Oil Pressure Gauge.


I wanted to keep my cubby door so i decided to install the gauge on the door.
The door consist of 2 parts, the backing and a leather wrapped peice which can be removed by unscrewing a few small screws.


http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...z/IMAG0557.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...z/IMAG0553.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t...z/IMAG0554.jpg

The car's oil pressure port is 1/8" BSP. The majority of aftermarket gauges are 1/8" NPT. So you need an adapter that is 1/8" BSP male with a 1/8" BSP female and a 1/8" NPT female (to screw in the stock and aftermarket sensors). I know all this because due to some bad adapters, I had to temporarily use 1/8" NPT in the car's port...and it leaked.

Yeah my own install I ended up deciding mine was BSPT, or at least BSPT was a better match than NPT was. There was someone else, I forget who, who measured theirs and claimed theirs was definitely NPT, though. It may vary :(

I don't think it would vary, just that they look so similar to the untrained eye and mostly fits (especially in this particular size) so NPT would work, just not ideal and could certainly leak depending on what was used for sealant.

hypothetically if you were in a dire situation, like your wife just broke her water and you need to get to the hospital 5 miles away ASAP, and cold start the motor and drive the absolute **** out of the car banging every gear to redline, how much damage will that do? and since you said you never saw above 100-105 psi due to a release valve, does that mean it won't go past that even while the motor is still cold?

There's a pressure relief, yes. Don't ask me if it's possible to still get significantly higher effective pressure by redlining a cold engine. Maybe you can completely overwhelm whatever the bypass passage is, heh. With just 1-2 minutes of warmup the pressure drops pretty significantly. I'd still *prefer* to wait longer, but you could drive it and keep the revs down if you had to.

There might be situations where I'd nail the car all out from dead cold, but I don't think any of them are situations where I would even remotely care whether the engine was damaged afterwards. In other words, it'd really have to be life-or-death or something close to it. I don't think a pregnant wife ferry to a hospital 5 miles away is one of them. It's a 5 minute drive, you can afford a 1-minute warmup, and then staying at low revs and obeying the speed limit. She doesn't need the extra danger-factor from you driving all-out at that point anyways. I'd expect with a baby on the way you'd have a baby-compatible car to use to boot. mom+pop+carseat != fits in 370Z.

So what about this pressure relief valve? As I'm sure you know I have this same gauge/ setup. But my pressure sensor is located on a sandwich plate instead.

On cold start ups for myself my is always starts at 125psi while its idling high. Then decreases slightly as it idles down then slowly starts to drop off as oil warms. But when cold I have had it shoot to 130psi. It's very easy to do even with very low revs and cold oil. But there's never been issues, even with my cooler. That's always worried me being not sure of what the cooler line fittings canhandle. Not that this happens much at all for i always try to warm the car right and keep the revs down til.......

^
I'm impressed your pressures get that high. From the service manual, I learned about the relief valve located in the oil pump. I'm not sure how your sandwich plate would raise the max pressure if you have a stock oil pump.

That's what I was wondering if the plate setup does this at first. Once it warms it's normal. At idle it's low 30's and under hard acceleration never over 95.

Another way to solve the problem s a data logger that hooks into the canbus via OBDII port.

I use on of these:

MoTeC > *NEW* CDL3 > Overview

with a whole bunch of alarms set that I can page thru - but then again, I am a dedicated track junkie and historic racer and one of the engineers who has done work on my race car is an accredited Motec dealer who supplies V8Suercar teams with wiring looms etc.

Complete overkill in respect of cost, BUT this is absolutely the ducks-guts for anyone serious about tracking their car as it is transportable between cars - just unplug from OBDII and the power source and move to the next car - I switch between my race car and the Z34 for track days. I have two files on my laptop reset the CDL3 between vehicles.

I don't trust the instruments in the panel and I like to see EXACTLY what the ECU is seeing

RB

^^ballin'! :)

When using the Add-A-Circuit, can I tap it to ANY fuse? I'm gonna be doing this DIY along with a few other sensors and wanted to add seperate circuits and fuses for each one. Do I just pull out any fuse and use the add-a-circuit in its place?

If they are all gauges, you could splice them all into a single add a fuse. Just pick a high amp fuse like a cigarette lighter. Otherwise, yes. You can pretty much choose any fuse.

If I run out of options, and I'm left with something like headlights for example, an item which isn't turned on all the time, will the gauges only work when the headlights are turned on?

There's plenty of ignition-switched 12V sources in the dash area once you start digging around. Steal power from the +12V side of the wiring to one of the cigarette lighters for example.

Thanks, wstar. I'll take a look. Worst case, I'll just bundle a few of the PLX sensor module power cords together and change the fuse from 5 amp to 10 amp.

oil pressure/oil temp combo gauge
 

Autometer custom shop has a combination oil pressure/oil temp gauge to fit the center cousole gauge cluster. It can be customized to match.

Interesting update. Haven't changed anything but now my oil pressures are running lower. When fully warmed up I'm idling at about 8psi, hit about 30-35psi at 2k RPM, and get to a max of about 60-75psi under WOT. Not sure what made the change. Thoughts? Some sort of blockage before the pressure sensor (not sure how that would happen). If there was blockage in the oil cooler, I'd guess the pressures would register higher, not lower.

Same oil used as before?

Pressures below 3k rpms are about half of what you had before. Anyone know if the design of the oil pump would be such that it can partially fail and reduce oil pressure without a complete failure?

I get 85 to 90 psi under wot. And when cold starts. Only time I get down to 35psi is at idle.

Yeah, my pressures have been cut in half fairly suddenly. This afternoon I'm going to change the oil and filter to make sure the filter isn't clogged and in bypass. Not particularly interested in pulling the oil pan off. If the pressures aren't better, I'll drop her off at Nissan and let them sort it out given I still should be covered under the 5yr/60k mile powertrain warranty.

I've been using the same Redline oil as usual. No idea why things have changed abruptly. Top reasons for low oil pressure I've read are 1) oil filter in bypass, 2) clogged strainer in the oil pan pickup, 3) frothing due to air getting picked up with overfilled oil pan, 4) oil pump seals worn, and 5) the ominous bearing problems.

what a great sharing,,,detail

Dropped the car off a Nissan for a few days. They checked the oil pressures with their equipment and said all is fine. Looks like the AEM gauge transducer is starting to crap out.

That sucks, but better than a failing oil pump!

This is my installation:

https://imageshack.com/scaled/medium/5/r41l.jpg

https://imageshack.com/scaled/medium/703/1ec3.jpg

Instrument Used:
GlowShift | Elite Oil Pressure Gauge with Electronic Pressure Sensor

Adapter for pressure sender Used:
Oil Pressure Gauge T Piece,1/8 BSPT Male to 1/8 NPT Female Japanese Cars (057) | eBay

A little update about Glowshift Gauge:

1) good thing, I discovered that it's possible to setup an audible warning in conjunction with the warning lamp!
2) bad thing, the two pushbuttons moves without a guide, so I must add a rubber adhesive under it to avoid Rattle in the instrument...

too hard for me to do so...awesome

Sub'd

You're saying the vibration causes the buttons to be depressed and go into programming modes on the gauge?

No, no.....
The vibrations cause rattle during driving.
Placing a little piece of soft rubber under the buttons stops the rattle.

Oh! Understood :tup:

Im putting together the fittings needed to mount the oem sensor and aftermarket sensor im alittle undecided on what fittings work. The link below is a oil pressure T fitting was wondering is this all i need as in fittings.
Will this work????

Adapter for pressure sender Used:
Oil Pressure Gauge T Piece,1/8 BSPT Male to 1/8 NPT Female Japanese Cars (057) | eBay

It sure will. I used this one:

OIL GAUGE FITTING T-PIECE 1/8BSPT FIT HONDA / TOYOTA | eBay

and it works perfectly.

Data dump
 

These are my stock pressures before the oil cooler install. Using Red Line 5W30 and Mobil 1 filter #110.

http://www.the370z.com/members/mandi...5-oilpress.jpg

As mentioned previously, I never see oil pressures above 105 psi likely due to the relief valve.

I'll update after installing a 34-row Z1 kit.

What is an example of a switched circuit? I put mine to the cig lighter one however the pressure gauge wont light up. Not sure if its because the pressure sensor is not hooked up yet or what but i was testing the pwr connection before i installed everything and cant get the gauge to light up.

So to update. Hooked up the oil Pressure part, still not working. Ive tried swapping the add a circuit double checked connections just about every single circuit point...IDK.

http://www.the370z.com/members/mozen...-160026281.jpg

http://www.the370z.com/members/mozen...-170417952.jpg

I would avoid cutting the grommet to lead the wire into the cabin. Seriously avoid it like the plague unless you want water leaking into the cabin.

I did however i stop drilled the small cut i made on both ends to keep it from growing and then filled the cut after i ran the wires with liquid gasket RTV.