Oil pressure gauge install

I prefer mechanical gauges simply because they tend to have 270 degree faces as opposed to electrical gauges which often only have 90 degree faces, making the mechanical ones easier to read at a glance. The mechanical gauges also appeal to my "keep it simple, stupid" philosophy of things automotive. I would probably use the nylon tubing, just tie it up securely and wherever it goes through the firewall make sure there is a grommet to keep it from chafing. If you use copper there's a small chance it may fatigue from movement of the engine... I know that on my older cars that were factory equipped with oil pressure gauges, they were equipped with copper tubing, but there was a shor (6" or so) section of rubber hose between the copper and the point of connection at the cylinder head (and that rubber hose is a common failure item, but that's another issue entirely.)

You will probably want to use a tee-fitting so that you can retain your stock idiot light sender, ask whoever you're buying the gauge and tubing from about this... alternately if you use an electrical gauge, at least the VDO ones offer a dual sender to drive both the gauge and the idiot light.

good luck,

nate

I have a Jeep CJ7 that gets twisted up and off roaded hard on a regular basis and has been rubber side up on two occasions in the Canadian winter cold off roading. It has the nylon or plastic tube for the oil pressure gauge which has never given any troubles in spite of all the vibrations and flexing in -25F temps and colder even.

I have flexed it a couple times so much the body interfered with putting the shifter in reverse, so that line has seen lots of movement and vibration in the real cold.

I would have worries about copper because of the engine movement if nothing else. My old Volvo 240's could torque that engine pretty good... The mounts get soft with age and the engines tended to get floppy. Pretty sure one GLT at least had the nylon tube.

With the number of old 240's around, I would be real tempted just to go to the auto wrecker and get a set of stock Volvo gauges with the senders and tube. The wiring harness very likely has the connections for the lights tucked in there somewhere too.

Mike

I haven't seen any 240s with full gauges in the local yard. 'round here, people are *smart* and tend to keep them and fix any issues rather than junking them. Despite new engine/tranny mounts, the engine still moves quite a bit. I think Volvo designed them to be soft so they'll shear in a crash and allow the front end to "crumple."

So I think that I'll go with either a good nylon kit or a VDO electric gauge with sender. The gauge is like $25, and the sender is $25 for the one without a warning light contact, $33 for the one with. Voltmeter is another $25. I think I also need a sender bushing since my engine is threaded for 14mm x 1.5 rather than 1/8NPT and the 14mm sender is like $65.

-Andrew

People keep them here too, but they do get wrecked occasionally. I've seen lots of oil/volt guages at the local yards around here, never bothered to pick any up since my 240 already has them.

I found a 240 series Volvo in a junkyard with an original oil pressure gauge. It is electric. I took it and the sending unit. Now I have to check to see if my wife's 240 GL has the factory wiring sitting in back of the dash. If not, then I have some wiring additions to do. The unit seems to be a VDO.

Ken Canada

If you don't like the nylon hose idea, you can pick up a -3 braided hose kit from the speed shop that sells you the gauge. It's teflon lines racing brake line, inside of a stainless steel braided outer, basically impervium. That's what I use on race cars. Copper is bad, use steel brake line tubing if you want hard lines. Probably the nylon line is perfectly fine, though.

Brian