rmackintosh

I am looking to hook up an Autometer mechanical oil pressure guage in my road race only Camaro.

I know the temp sensor between #1 and #3 in the head is a "guage only" sensor, so I took it out and put my mechanical water temp sensor there.

My question is....is the oil pressure sender mounted behind the intake manifold connected in any way to the PCM? If so, I will have to "T" into this fitting...if NOT, and it is for the guage only, I can just remove it and replace it with a line to the mechanical guage.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Randy

DirtyDan

I don't know if this will help or not but is there a place to mount your sender right above the oil filter on the block? That is where my stock sender goes on my 93 Z28.

Dan

shoebox

Yep, that would be a good place to go with it. Lots easier to get to. There is merely a plug there on the 1994 and up cars. I think it is the one you can see in this pic, just below the "digits" tag.

rmackintosh

Thanks guys!

But is the sender behind the intake connected to the PCM? I have the intake off now, and could take care of it now....even if I go to the filter, I could take the other out out to clean up the engine bay.

Randy

shoebox

I had a feeling you would not let that go. I posted the other day that there is something mentioned in the manual that the pcm will shut fuel off if it sees low oil pressure...but...I have never found anything in the wiring that supports it's ability to do that. (Drop Top Steve and I were discussing this)
So, I don't think removing the stock sensor will have an effect on the pcm. One way to test it the theory would be to ground the gauge lead out so the gauge would read low and see if it does anything to the engine running. I would try it myself, but my car is a bit apart at the moment. (I guess yours is too)

Also, that sender is so far in the back, is it really going to "clean up" anything?

rmackintosh

....true....I may end up going the oil filter location....but that area was SO close to the guage....almost a straight shot!

I am also trying to learn as much as possible as to how all these sensors work together....after GUTTING the interior, and removing THOUSANDS of wires and replacing with about 10...I have referenced the wiring manual till I am batty!

Oh well, only way to learn is to get in there and do it! Just trying to be smart about it!

Randy

texas97z

The wires on my harness were fried that went to the oil presure unit in back of block I have disconectted them and have been fine.The PCM if it does not pick anything up will default to full pressure, ie.. my gage reads 80 lbs all the time while car is on. Works on my 97 lt1.

shoebox

You dug up a really old post. I think in susbsequent threads it had been established that the PCM is in no way connected to the oil pressure sensor. And, yes, the gauge will peg if the wire is not connected to the sensor.

BTC

When I got my car running over Christmas, the oil pressure was initially reading somewhere around 50, but subsequently fell back to about 20 and stayed there the rest of the time we were messing around with my car. It didn't run very long before the pressure fell back. I'm gonna say maybe 5-10 minutes and possibly not even that long. We speculated the sending unit may have gotten sludged up or gone bad. I'm currently planning to change it, which looks like it will be fun.

What would you guys do? What would the symptoms be if it were the oil pump?

BTC

Is it possible to relocate the sensor from the rear of the block to the location above the oil filter. I understand the design of the sensor was dependent upon its location. I'm just curios whether you could purchase the old sensor, or mount the new sensor in the old location, and wire it up.

Javier97Z28

That would be just fine.