Quite simply, I'm worried about how tight to go with this thing. It's not the oil pressure sensor itself, it's the fitting it mounts into. It will start to get fairly tight when the hole for the sensor is up. Now that means I have to go 3/4 of a turn more to get it to the position it needs to be in.....that will be extremely tight. So tight I worry about stripping the threads. If I back it off from where it gets tight(1/4 turn), then the thing seems to loose. Will the thread sealant be enough to hold the pipe fitting in place if I leave it like that?
Or should I torque the heck out of it and hope for the best? One thing is for sure, I don't want to strip that thing out. Advice?

 

I've handled this problem a few times. One option is to put more thread sealant on and try it again and hope you get lucky. You can also try to figure out if you can mount the sending pointing another direction so you can get the fitting tight as is, which isn't likely. The only other option you have is to keep tightening the fitting, but as you know you ned to be very careful. You'd be surprised how loose you can leave it and it'll still seal. If it's starting to get tight where you have it now then leave it there and attach the sensor then check for leaks. It'll probably be fine, and I highly doubt it'll ever back out. Good luck!

 

Thx for the advice. That will help me out. I got to looking through my silly GM F-body service manual. It does not even have the oil pressure sensor listed in the index! However, in the fastner specs, the fittings(plus alignment) and oil pressure sensor is speced at 106 lb-in. That should translate to 8.8 lb-ft. Well at least now I have a spec for it.