Adding an oil temp/pressure gauge....so, needed a sandwich adapter, and went with the GReddy. The adapter had 2 1/8 ports and the sensors for the gauge both have 1/8 threads. Easy enough, right? So, I read this is pretty straight forward and almost easy to do and assuming everything will fit, I drain the oil.....that's when I attempted to attach Innovate's sensors to the GReddy adapter. THEY DONT ****ING FIT! The sensors state they have 1/8 threads and the adapter says the ports are 1/8. WTF?!?! Now I have to wait until Monday to talk to either company and If I put oil back in my car, I'll have to drain it again!

 

It's probably tapped for 1/8 NPT and I think those sensors need 1/8 BPT. Check the paperwork on both. They make adapters to go from NPT to BPT and vice verse, this is a fairly common issue.


or if you need to go the other way


I have a bunch of them at the shop because it seems like you never end up with the thread type that you need. Fortunately they're cheap so I would just order up both.

 

That makes sense. Unfortunately Greddy's install instructions are in Japanese!!! I found an English example on the net and you're right. THANKS!

Nothing is ever easy!

 

Protip, if you have an android smartphone install the app GOOGLE TRANSLATE, you can put it in camera mode and literally just point your phone at text in another language and it turns it to english on the screen. It's f'ing magic.

 

So, the pressure sensor fit after using your suggested adaptor, but not the temp sensor. It's about an inch and a half long, so the adaptor would need a larger hole at the male end.. I was looking at different places online, but none of the adaptors shown show the opening at the male end.

Almost

 

Sorry I missed the part about adding TWO sensors, you will probably have to get creative with a 90 degree fitting, maybe a 45. Are you able to clock the sandwich plate to a better angle or is it already pretty tight?

 

I actually took one of those adaptors that worked for the pressure sensor, took it to a machine shop, and had them drill out the hole in the end, from about the size of the tip of a pen to large enough for the sensor element to fit through.
But the gauge still doesn't get a reading. My guess is the sensor doesn't extend deep enough into the sandwich plate. Because of the adaptors, it only reaches about 1/2 inch into sandwich plate, where normally it would reach about 2 inches.

Does that make sense?

 

Did you verify the sandwich plate was actually COMPLETELY drilled through? It's not uncommon for them to be "prepped" for gauges but you actually have to take a drill and finish removing the last little bit of metal so oil will actually flow into it.

The easy way to check would be to unscrew the fitting and see if oil comes out.

 

Yea, all the "holes" are completely drill through.

Spoke to the manager of "Nissan Race Shop" which is the parts dept at the Fontana, Calif Nissan dealer, who I bought the Greddy sandwich plate from. He said a specific adapter would work (Greddy oil adapter # 16400720). The hole was big enough for the sensor, so, for the 3rd time in the last 5 weeks I drained my oil (@almost $50 each time!!). And it was too big to fit the holes in the sandwich plate!!! This is stupid!

Got the gauge installed in the dash, and wired up.it looks great, but doesn't work. I was thinking of taking it to a shop and asking them to do it, because I just done with it. Or should I 86 the Greddy sandeich adapter for a different sandwich adapter?

 

For the future, you can drain and reuse oil, just make sure it's going into a clean drain pan.

Call an actual shop, not a dealership, someone like Z1 Motorsports who has literally built hundreds of Z/G cars and ask what they think is the issue and how to fix it.

Are you sure the gauge is actually working and not broken? You should be getting SOME kind of reading even if it wasn't completely accurate. Is this one of the MTX gauges? Pressure/temp all in the same gauge?

Where did you ground the gauge harness? Did you verify there IS power and that you grounded ALL THREE wires on the harness to the same ground point yes?

 

As far as the actual gauge, yes, it's the MTX pressure/temp gauge. It lights up and does what it should at startup, up then everything drops to zero. It's all about the damn sensors and sandwich plate. As far as using a shop, if it wasn't too much, I was going to just let them finish the install. Wires are already run and everything installed. They'd just need to install the sensors...somehow.

Didn't know that reusing the oil was a thing. I'll do that next time for sure. it was only 10 days old, so reusing seems like a no brainer. Thanks for that!

Installed the gauge using an Ortiz Custom pods. Looks factory! Replaces ring around shifter and ash tray section of dash and has two spots for gauges, so I'll probably put a volts meter in other hole. Only $190! It's pouring rain right now, so a little later I'll take a pic of it.

Again, thanks for your time.

 

Here's what's making me think that it's a wiring issue, usually pressure sensors have a range from ZERO to like 150-200psi, even if it wasn't plumbed into an idea location that was accurately picking up both pressure and temp it should still be reading something if the sensor is hooked up.

The pressure sensor is the one that would be ok to relocate to basically WHEREVER it will fit, the output side will be a static pressure regardless, up to any point where oil is actually consumed by the engine. The temp sensor is the one that you would want as close as you can get to the sandwich adapter.

But you aren't getting the gauge to work with EITHER sensor, does it need to be programmed for the range the temp is displaying?

Heck the pressure sensor you can literally blow air into the end of them with your mouth to get like 1-2 psi on the gauge, that's usually how I initially test them anyways, just wrap your hand around it and blow into your hand or use an air compressor and regulate it down to.

 

OHH WAIT! Did you accidentally get a sandwich adapter with a built-in thermostat blockoff? Those things don't actually open up the cooler lines until it hits the high temp limit of it's internal thermostat. It will say things like "thermostatic" or "cooling plate" or "block cooling" when you look up the part number.

Or just by visually looking at them there are usually these extra "bolts" on the outside of it that are retaining in the thermostats.

 

When the ignition is turned on, the face of the gauge runs through it's system check....basically all the LEDs blink on and off, then everything rolls off to zero. Right now only the pressure sensor is connected to the sandwich plate via an adaptor, but it reads zero. Also, it's not a thermostatic plate
spoke to the owner of a local performance shop (performance shop = Dyno and ability to tune) After explaining the situation, he said I either need the correct adaptor (No ****?) or a sandwich plate that uses BPT threads. He suggested I check out glow shift. Of course their threads are NPT, as are Mishimotos.I just sent an email, but will also call Innovate in AM and ask, "How would they suggest I attach their sensors for their gauge to an engine." Do they have a preferred oil sandwich plate, or should I just duct tape the sensors to the engine block?!?"

And again, thanks for taking the time to try and help me figure this out.

 

Switched from the GReddy Sandwich Plate to a Glowshift one. And the treads match and the sensors fit!

I get a temp reading, but not a pressure reading. It reads 0!!

So frustrating. Tech at Innovate suggested removing the sensor and blowing compressed air at the working end to see if I get a signal.

Guess I'll give that a try.......