Mechanical Oil Pressure Gauge

[kwoolard]

I was thinking of installing a permanent mechanical oil pressure gauge to the engine, tee it in right below the oil alarm switch......1) for oil pump priming purposes before i install the engine and 2) for having another check point in case my electrical gauge fails (which happened last year).

Any thoughts on this? Most gauges i've found have a process temp range of 150 degrees max, unless i wanted to fork out a hundred bucks. I know the oil temp gets higher than that but wondering if this would be a problem.

 

[Don S]

Re: Mechanical Oil Pressure Gauge

I really don't see any need to have one mounted on the engine full time. I have one that I hook up to an engine if there is a problem or for testing oil pressure when running the engines out of the boat. It's just something else to leak or get broke.
If you have aa electric gauge along with an alarm, you should be good to go.
With that setup, if the gauge goes to zero and the alarm doesn't sound, you still have oil pressure. If the alarm sounds and the gauge stays the same, it's probably the alarm switch.
Little chance both will go off at the same time with nothing wrong.
If the gauge goes to zero and the alarm sounds, you lost oil pressure. No need for a mechanical gauge.

 

[Howard Sterndrive]

Re: Mechanical Oil Pressure Gauge

2 years ago I was pulling a skier and just happened to glance down at the gauges-
0 psi oil pressure!!!...

yanked the throttle to neutral and shut the engine down.
we putted home after waiting for an hour for anyone to tow us - but no boat traffic on my lake....putted at idle listening and watching temps...

got home and I removed the sender and found a piece of crud was blocking the tiny orifice in the transducer.....I didn't want that scare again.

so, after that episode, I bought a nice dash mounted mechanical gauge and 25 foot hydraulic test hose.... I used a Caterpillar male/female connector at the oil sender hole so I can unsnap the line and check for prime after an oil change. Also, the quick coupler allowed me to snake the hose all the way through the hole in the dash and back to the engine and snap it on.