Date: Tue, 19 May 2020 12:42:14 -0400
Reply-To: Richard Koller <brvkoller@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Richard Koller <brvkoller@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: oil pressure gauge and temp gauge
In-Reply-To: <A8E8700E-0969-4E1F-8C96-8C231DAA7F3C@shaw.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
I'm guessing I have approx 150K miles on my engine and I want to make sure
the oil pressure is up to snuff. No thrown rods thank you. I've already
experienced the dreaded snapped head stud in my '91 carat and that was
after religiously changing coolant every couple years.
Rick
On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 11:51 AM Alistair Bell <albell@shaw.ca> wrote:
> I hear ya dan, but...
>
> It’s 2020. The vans are a lot older now. Maybe you rebuild or pop in a new
> engine every ten years , even so I’d have gauges installed to monitor that
> :-)
>
> I really appreciate having oil pressure and temp gauges in my van. I can
> decide to stop and rest the van a while when on summer trips on logging
> roads. If I know I have a steepish and slow big hill ahead I find a place
> to stop for a while, have a bite to eat, look around, let the van cook a
> wee bit, before stressing it on the climb.
>
> I suppose I’m fully in the gauge camp. I’ll stake my claim that oil
> pressure and temp gauges are essential.
>
> As Luther sort of said: here i stand, I can go no further.
> Well, maybe that’s not the right quote to bring up with old vans :-)
>
> Alistair
> > On May 19, 2020, at 8:22 AM, Dan N <dn92610@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > well... my thinking (and I may be wrong)... on vanagon the more
> information
> > the driver has (oil temp/oil pressure/coolant temp/voltage etc..) the
> > worrier he is...
> >
> > when I had a 1978 air cooled barn door, and later a 1985 1.9 wbx... I
> know
> > nothing except oil/filter/spark plugs change... and I was not worried...
> > and now I am worrier than before because of those infos...
> >
> >> On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 5:30 AM kenneth wilford (Van-Again) <
> >> kenwilfy@comcast.net> wrote:
> >>
> >> Here is my take on the oil pressure gauge situation. You are driving
> down
> >> the road. You have an oil pressure gauge installed. Every so often you
> >> take a look at your gauge to see what your oil pressure is doing. It
> has a
> >> "normal" range when at cold idle, hot idle, 65 mph down the interstate.
> >> You figure out what this "normal" range is, and then file that away in
> your
> >> brain. One day you look down and something is not right. Oil pressure
> is
> >> much lower than it normally is and you react by pulling over and
> checking
> >> things out. Or over time you start seeing a trend where the oil
> >> pressure isn't the same at start up, or takes longer to register at
> start
> >> up, etc. In effect you establish a "normal" and then when things are no
> >> longer the way they should be, you can intervene in some way (pull over,
> >> add oil, replace oil, replace filter, etc).
> >> Accuracy, really has very little to do with it if we are being honest.
> >> That is why in Ford pickup trucks and Jeeps, they have an oil pressure
> >> gauge that is essentially a dummy light. If your oil pressure is above
> a
> >> certain value, the oil pressure "gauge" goes to the middle and
> everything
> >> looks fine. When oil pressure goes below a certain range, the oil
> pressure
> >> gauge goes to zero to scare you so you will pull over and investigate.
> 99%
> >> of the people out there this is what they are actually looking for even
> if
> >> they don't realize it. The folks that call me wanting to buy our oil
> >> pressure gauge kit, want to be able to disable that pesky oil buzzer
> system
> >> in the cluster. Or if they don't, that when that buzzer is going off,
> they
> >> can look at the gauge to see if it is a false alarm or not instead of
> >> having to pull over and unload everything over the engine while on a
> trip.
> >> They aren't really looking for accuracy. They aren't engine builders,
> or
> >> engine testers, they are drivers and sometimes simple is better.
> >>
> >> Our kit is simple. You remove your oil filter, you install the adapter,
> >> reinstall the oil filter, you run a premade length of wire to the front
> >> and plug it into the gauge that you mount on the dash. You still have
> to
> >> wire the lighting and the power and ground but that is it. Very simple
> and
> >> easy. Is there a "better" place in the system to look for oil pressure
> for
> >> accuracy? Possibly. But is that what you really need? Most likely
> not.
> >> You just want to be able to drive, enjoy your van, and not panic if the
> oil
> >> light starts to flicker for no reason or the buzzer starts to go off
> due to
> >> a flaky dash cluster, or bad wire. Or you want to see trends over time.
> >> Either way you can do that just as well with my kit.
> >>
> >> The kit is reasonably priced for what it is, and how it takes most of
> the
> >> work and complexity out of doing this, so more people can do it and feel
> >> confident in getting it done. You don't have to be an amazing mechanic
> to
> >> install this, just competent.
> >>
> >> So if you need accuracy for the sake of accuracy then you might, maybe
> get
> >> more accuracy out of a VDO sensor and gauge but you are going to pay a
> lot
> >> more for it. And then you are still going to have to rig up an oil
> line,
> >> and stuff and things that will look like a rig up at the end of the day
> not
> >> matter how good of a job you do.
> >>
> >> Just my two cents.
> >>
> >> Ken
> >>
> >>
>
| 
