Plumbed my oil gauge today...

[e-tek]

Today, I plumbed an OIL GAUGE into the Chally and installed it in the dash. About 4 hours of back & knee-breaking labour!!!   

At first I thought I might use this rack, but it didn't fit the level of this build. So I extracted just the oil gauge and chucked the rest!



First was to drill a hole through the firewall, which I needed both for the oil gauge and to run a wire for a Tach (you can just see it to the right) I have.



Here it is from the engine side, with the oil tube and tach to coil wire threaded through.



Then, disassemble the dash - what a PIA it is to work on dashes and such, being just outside the door, hanging over the sill and seat...OUCH!







Then I removed the blank gauge panel...





First, I drilled a pilot, then used a hole saw to cut it out to close to the finished size. 


As I didn't have exactly the right size hole-saw,  I used a smaller one and cut several times coming close to the edge each time.



Filed it out to the final size, leaving it snug so I didn't need to secure it otherwise.





Wired up the lights to a dash circiut (12V ACC switched) and ran the oil tube to the gauge:





Putting it back together...



Wala! :bounce: Now I can monitor the most important engine function and not have to think "what if"...





Thanks for looking!! Tomorrow I wire up the radio!

[BruteForce]

It's a great sequence of pics! Nice job. But when I, long ago, ran a nylon oil pressure tube through a hole in the firewall, the sharp edge of the hole wore a hole in the tube, and oil sprayed everywhere! It can also wear through wire insulation, causing a short. The solution is to use a rubber grommet.

[e-tek]

Thanks for that - I've been thinking about it and not only will I use a grommet (I did use shrink-tube), I'm going to switch the nylon hose for a SS braided or copper tube....last thing I need is an oil shower!!!

[hooD]

When I installed my oil psi gauge back around 1974 it came with copper tubing and it's never given me a problem.  Nice job on the gauge installation!

[Super Blue 72]

It's a great sequence of pics! Nice job. But when I, long ago, ran a nylon oil pressure tube through a hole in the firewall, the sharp edge of the hole wore a hole in the tube, and oil sprayed everywhere! It can also wear through wire insulation, causing a short. The solution is to use a rubber grommet.

  Good tips!  You always hear those horror stories! 

Nice install! 

[BruteForce]

You always hear those horror stories!

Yeah, the "hot oil treatment" wasn't all it was cracked up to be! 

[e-tek]

So, because I like to do things twice....I bought a lengh of copper tube - and a larger, black-faced oil gauge...next weekends project, hopefully it'll only take half the time...

[Super Blue 72]

Yeah, the "hot oil treatment" wasn't all it was cracked up to be! 

Yeah, but it makes the skin on your feet oh so silky smooth.... 


Oh, yeah, regarding nylon vs copper tubing, don't forget this as the water supply on your fridge.  I knew someone that woke up to a pond in thier kitchen!!! 

[hooD]

So, because I like to do things twice....I bought a lengh of copper tube - and a larger, black-faced oil gauge...next weekends project, hopefully it'll only take half the time...

Took a quick picture of the copper tubing coming from the engine.  It has never given me a problem.

[shadango]

I found a piece of hose (same hard plastic stuff the oil lin was made of) that had a bigger I.D. and thicker walls and ran the oil line through it.

[73EStroker]

....... if you use copper tubing you need to prevent it from annealing and breaking. Best way to do this is flare the end near the engine with the brass fitting then wrap the copper around something like a closet dowel or similar for 2 or 3 wraps. It will sorta look like a spring. This will be near the engine connection. Then run the rest of the line in a normal fashion. This absorbs the engine vibrations.