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Pressure

Steve @ SandS wrote:Pressure

+1

I would install a worry gauge......Oh, wait, I did a Canadian to English translation and it turns out to be an oil pressure gauge after all. Went to Portland with a friend that had an oil pressure gauge in his car and he kept disappearing in my rear view mirror. At the next rest stop I asked him what's up. He kept stopping to check his oil every time the gauge shifted a bit. This spring he was on his way home, his oil pressure was a little low around 30 to 45 psi I believe it was. About 45 miles later his temp went way up, checked his gauge and it was zero. Wrecked his Sprint engine. Didn't do him a bit of good. And this is a guy who stares at his oil pressure gauge more while driving than a teenager does texting (while driving).

Hi,

Personally have fitted a oil pressure gauge, but a alternative would be a vacuum gauge. You can tell so much about your engine tune, if you know what you are looking at with one of these and also tune your engine with one, everything from mixture to ignition timing, detect sticking / leaking valves, air leaks, blocked exhausts the list goes on.Even nowadays on modern cars they still have a use with a lot of actuators vacuum operated.

Plus I hear say that people north of where I live can be ' careful ' on money so can save you fuel too

Cheers John

john 215 wrote:
Plus I hear say that people north of where I live can be ' careful ' on money so can save you fuel too

Cheers John

I here that John ...

So if i fit a Vacuum gauge, what you are saying, you are going to spend hours tuning my car at billing this year ..

Edit:

I have just came across this video and i see what you mean John

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdlNwm8OHco

I have replaced my clock with a nice looking oil pressure gauge. Got it off the internet and it looks great. I personally would go for one of them.

Keep the clock,Steve.

A purist is one thing i am not.

It only works when it wants to anyway

The clocks are really reliable. I check the clock in my cell phone against it because the one in the cell phone isn't. They are electric so do need clean contacts where they get the electricity from (as well as every other connection in that circuit). The electronic upgrade supposedly works to but I never needed it as mine always keeps good time even sitting over the winter if I don't disconnect the battery.

I would stick with the clock, even if you change it for a working one. I fitted oil pressure and vac gauges in front of the gearstick because it seemed like a good idea at the time. I then spent time watching the oil pressure as it dropped to about 23psi when hot after a run and idling in traffic etc. I changed the oil pump which made no difference at all. That was about 5 years ago. I still watch it but it has got no worse and runs at 35-40 when driving so I think they are only a distraction causing worry. Vac gauge indicates the engine is generally in good condition and looks pretty though!

I am not a purist either,I have an oil pressure gauge and a vacuum gauge and very entertaining they are too!Steve.

For what it's worth, I do believe that Spyder's description of the thing as a worry gauge is right. I have 3 times had big end bearings run in engines I was driving, [not engines I have built I might mention] & not once did the oil pressure gauge show any drop in pressure before or even during the event.

One Cosworth Ford F2 engine lost power. I pulled into the pits as I figured it was terminal. The owners crew looked at the gauge, [showing 65 PSI at 2200 RPM idle], listened to the thing, [very hard with an open exhaust], & sent me back out. I got about a mile before the rod ventilated the block.

On strip down, the steel backing of the slipper was welded into a complete ring, & hammered down until it formed a U shape around the side of the rod. The area was black, covered in carbon from the burning oil. The oil pressure did not drop at all. Another Cosworth had welded the bearing shell into a solid ring around the crank, with both the rod & crank bright blue from the heat, but again no loss in oil pressure.

The Brabham Recpo F1 engine threw a rod out through the rather expensive magnesium alloy block, again with no loss of oil pressure. I did not see the cause of that one, as Repco had built that engine & got it back for a warranty claim. They told no one why it failed.

In fact I have never seen an engine saved by an oil pressure gauge warning of impending doom. They may tell you that an old worn out Rover V8 is fit only for the scrap merchant, by showing virtually no pressure at idle, but I've found they often run for years like that, & have quite a few other ways of telling you they are about to stop.

I don't recall ever looking at an oil pressure gauge on any of the piston engined aircraft I've flown, including the mighty Sea Fury. The one we worried about was oil temperature. We were not allowed to move one with less than 70 degrees oil temperature, & were instructed if it went over 150 degrees, to either shut the thing off, & glide to a landing if possible, or prepare to jump out of the thing.

I must admit I used to wonder how much they would worry about our oil temperature, if we were at war, & the carrier was about to be attacked, but as a callow youth, I was never game to ask. What a wimp I must have been.

Hasbeen

PS. If you have a Rover, with a gauge telling you it has virtually no oil pressure at idle, remember STP is your best friend.

Hasbeen