I recently bought some autometer oil press and water temp gauges. I have been searching the forums for a while and still alittle confused on the install. Several posts say you NEED to drill and tap new holes and some say they plug right into the stock sending units. Can someone please clearify this for me. Thanks

 

are they mechanical or electric gauges?

 

Mechanical

 

do not hook them up to the stock units drill and tap a hole in the WP housing for the water temp gauge

and take a look over and fc3s.org for a new oil pedistal that already has holes in it for aftermarket pressure sender and temp sender that would be the easyest way to do the oil part of it

 

I read for the temp gauge it screws right in to the coolant drain plug, putting it there would it be acurate.

 

you could do that i guess but you would probale need some adapters and the adapters would make you readings false i wouldjust dril and tap the WP

 

read through this thread

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ing+water+pump

 

Thanks for the info

 

would there be much differance in putting the sending unit for the water temp gauge in the stock place for the electric fan and the place where you are supposed to drill and tap??? Thanks.

 

For the oil pressure gauge you can use the stock sender location. You'll need to get a fitting with a 1/8" BSPT male side to screw into the block with a female 1/8" NPT fitting for the gauge to screw into. Hydrolic stores (look in the yellow pages) will be able to get you the proper fitting. Most only serve industrial customers so they won't be happy to see you trying to buy 1 unit , but you can call around. I also went to home depot and picked up a 2" peice of 1/8" copper pipe that I screwed into the BSPT/NPT fitting so that I could extend the sender out. Also from home depot I purchased a 1/8" female to female fitting to screw into the 2" pipe. The sender then screws into that fitting. You'll notice that the stock sender extends out to clear the block. The autometer sender doesn't, so this is why you need to extend it further out. I also tried using a "T" female to female fitting at the end of the extension so that I could plug in both the stock and aftermarket oil pressure gauges. There wasn't enough room so I just use the autometer gauge. It might be possible to fit both, but you'd probably have to take further steps.

Doing it this way will cost you ~$5 and you won't have to buy a pedestal and wait for it to arrive.

 

You have to use the senders that came with the gauges. You can't use the stock ones because they're electrical not mechanical.

You shouldn't use adaptors (and definitely not tees) for temp sensors. They work best when fully exposed to the coolant flow, and adaptors space the senser further out of the flow. This affects their response time and hence accuracy.

The sender should be under the thermostat, so the S4 fan temp switch location is a not a good one. The S5 fan temp switch location is okay, but then the fan won't work properly (if you have one).

 

hey nz how much differance in temp could it have if it is only a couple inches off? I mean what is the differance in having it right before the tstat or right after it??? Would it be relatively the same? Thanks.

 

If you have the sender on the radiator side of the thermostat, and the thermostat sticks closed, the gauge will read cold while the engine overheats.

 

now the tstat wouldn't stick closed unless it was broken, right?

 

That seems pretty obvious...

 

lol, ok smartass