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Oil Pressure Gauge how to guide.

76K views 42 replies 22 participants last post by  jmkcc 
#1 · (Edited)
Since I found it extremely difficult to find this information posted anywhere I writing this up.

This will apply to the b204/b234 engine blocks. I believe this write up will hold true for the b205/b235 blocks as well with the only difference being the oil pressure sensor located more behind the starter. The gauge used in this write up is the Autometer Ultra-Lite mechanical oil pressure gauge full sweep reading 0 to 100 psi.

Tools needed.
1. Leatherman multi tool or any of the sort
2. 1/2 ratchet, 6 inch extension, 15/16th socket or 24mm socket
3. 3/8 ratchet, 6 inch extension, 19mm socket, and 7/16th
4. 3/8th wrench
5. 13 mm wrench
6. Gloves (personal preference for certain tasks)
7. Hydraulic Jack and stands.
8. Philips head screw driver and 10mm socket (part of this is optional I'll get to why)
9. Empty bic mechanical pencil
10. Torx head (think its t15)
11. M14x1.5 adpater for oil pressure sensor (I'll explain)

Procedure
1. Remove drivers lower kick panel has a 8 torx screws if I remember correctly and one 10mm bolt by the door.
2. Get the gauge mounted in the car by whatever means you chose to.
3. Wire it up as you'll only need a power source and ground.
4. In the engine bay remove the fuse panel box by the firewall. There is one 10mm plastic bolt holding it down hiding below and off to the right of the hood sensor switch. Will also need a flat blade screwdriver to help pry off metal clip under weather stripping running length of car. The fuse box won't move out of the way much but it'll move enough to be helpful.
5. Locate rubber gromet with wiring loom going through it. Remove electrical tape and cut zip tie with leatherman tool.
6. Take bic pencil and disassemble. Pull front tip off but don't discard. Use plier end of leatherman to make the hole where the insides of the bic pencil go through. Reinstall cap of bic pencil onto the pencil itself. Now insert at the very bottom of the looms grommet and push through.
7. Back under the dash and above the clutch to the left you'll see the wiring loom your going through. If pencil has been pushed through enough you'll see the tip. Take leatherman pliers and pull on tip gently not pulling the pencil through anymore but to get the cap off.
8. Run nylon tube through grommet into engine bay via the pencil tube.
9. Go back into the engine and remove pencil tube after pulling all the nylon line through. Make sure you do not kink this nylon line or you'll be SOL.
10. Disconnect battery. First time I attempted this and learned I needed some other tools I hit the positive cable with the adjustable wrench on the starter. Thank god I had gloves on at the time cause I got a shower of sparks.
11. Jack up the car. Now depending on where your jacking from and placing your jackstands will determine what I'm about to say. I have a very short lifting jack so I had to remove the lower air shield to place my jack stands. There are a hand full of phillips head screws and one 10mm bolt. Otherwise you can put your stands under the pinch welds.
13. Get under the car and disconnect wire to oil pressure sensor and use leatherman to break the quick connect tab and junk off. If you have a deep 15/16th or 24mm socket then not a neccessary step. I however had to and enjoyed it lol.
13. Slide on the 15/16th or 24mm socket with 6 inch extension and 1/2 inch ratchet onto the sensor and remove it. It will set off to an angle because of the dip stick tube so be careful.
14. Thread in now the M14x1.5 adapter and make sure the sealing ring it came with is on there. This is used so you can use the NPT fittings that come with the gauge. You can order the adapter from any autometer gauge dealer. This is where you'll use the 19 mm socket with 6 inch extension and 3/8 ratchet; get it good and tight.
15. Now the next smaller size, sorry that I can't remember it however I think its close to 7/16th, is for the first compression fitting in the gauge install kit. Get it nice and tight.
16. Run nylon tube down to back of the block. Run it through the center of the last compression fitting, put the ferrule on so that the tapered end is pointing toward the block. Start it by hand on the compression fitting in the adapter. Take your 3/8th wrench and get it above and behind the oil dipstick tube and tighten it down good and tight. Make sure as your doing this that the nylon line doesn't slip out. Once its good and tight the ferrule will make the final seal and the nylon line won't budge.
17. Drop car back down, re-attach lower air shield if you removed it, re-attach battery cable, re-install relay box, re-install kicker panel and start her up. The gauge will climb up in pressure to about 40 psi then back to 0. This is normal as the line fills with oil and the air passes out. Should come right back up no problem.

Sorry I don't have pictures to show as I did this install over an extended period and I don't own a camera. As to those that will complain that I used no sealant. I'm a cheap **** in college and got it good and plenty tight. However I am watching the line, fittings, and my oil level very closely and if I have to will go out and pick up some loctite or something equivalent and get back into it to seal it that way.
 
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#2 ·
Could an admin or moderator this please be stickied so I don't have to look for it every time I'm asked about how to do this. Thank you.
 
#4 ·
Rogozhin said:
How about some pictures of your setup and some of the installation? Great write up N! :cheesy:


Thanks!

Rogo
No pictures of installation as I have no camera but if you follow the write up you'll see everything clear as daylight and won't need pictures.

Pics of setup (there on the board here and there but I'll get them here too.)



 
#7 ·
TheSwede221 said:
quick q ? where the hell is your headlight switch ? that is a kick *** mod
Yeah its just chilling inside the dash turned full on.

The kick *** mod is the JSP stage 3 ecu+viggen turbo+spec flywheel+viggen pp+viggen disc+GS engine mounts+GS suspension bushings+GS downpipe+saabsport+viggen intercooler+GS CAI+Forge atmospheric dump+heavy right foot=watching gauges climb high as my smile increases exponentially.

Oh and 9-3sleeper, if I'm ever up at Purdue either A.) Visiting my sister who is on the dance team there or B.) picking her up to bring her home I'll shoot you a PM.
 
#11 ·
No you don't have to reconnect the wire. Its just used to complete the circut to give the light in the dash its ground.

Secure it away from anything it could ground out on and then finish your gauge install.
 
#13 ·
I have a 1995 saab se 900 turbo 2.0 I was wandering if someone could give me some advice on hooking up an air/fuel gauge. It's electric made by Sunpro, Faze series. Where I should tap into, and any other information I should know. I hooked up a boost and oil pressure gauge. This is the last one. I would appreciate any advice. Thanks
 
#14 ·
Hey guys, I came across this thread searching for info to install an oil pressure gauge, and it was very helpful to me. I made sure to take some pictures of it so hope it helps. I used most likely the same gauge pod and exact same gauges as the OP.

Jegs sent me the wrong adapter, so I had to make my own, which turned out like this:


My engine was out due to a spun bearing so I was able to get some good pics of the adapter and such installed


Just like the OP said, remove the fuse box, and pierce the wire loom boot and feed the oil pressure and in my case the vac supply lines through...looks something like this:



I crimped the two white and black leads from gauges together, then ran 1 power and 1 ground to the two of them. I always use aircraft grade butt end connectors and ring terminals since my dad was an aircraft mechanic and I have tons laying around, and always heatshrink them afterwords. I dont think it'd be absolutely necessary, but I like how they look.



*NOTE* make sure you route all your wires and oil supply hoses through the black plastic retainer ring, and through the gauge hole in the pod before you connect everything..may sound like a stupid note, but I forgot and ended up having to disconnect a bunch of stuff and feed them through again.

I crimped on a ring terminal and ran the ground down to a common grounding post right below the fuse box. The new ground is the black wire with the heatshrink on it.



I didnt want to go with just wiring my power supply up to any power, I wanted it tied into my headlight switch so the lights would come on when my headlights were on, and off when my headlights were off. after consulting the schematics, I found a good wire to tap into was off the #4 terminal on the headlight switch. To get access to the headlight switch wires, just gently pull outward on your headlight switch and it'll pop out. I ran the power supply wire for the gauges up through the opening for the headlight switch. I ended up using a peice of safety wire as a helper..Ran it through the headlight switch hole first, then down to there the power supply line came from the gauges, tied them together, then pulled the wire up and out the hole with the safety wire.

The wire you want to tap into is the orange/green wire, but be careful, there are two orange/green wires on that terminal block. Just look closely at the block, and each terminal is numbered, and you want the wire comming from terminal 4. I didnt want to use the radio shack splice things, so I decided to cut the Org/Grn wire, crimp on two ring terminals, crimp one on the power wire comming from my gauges, and put them all together on a single bolt/nut to connect them all.


Then you of course put your headlight switch back in, and tidy up your lose wires as such....the only reason the red wire is not tucked away is I hadn't fed it up to the headlight switch yet.


When you're done, it should look like this...hopefully


I wouldn't advise permanantly attaching your gauge pod until you fire up your car, so you can check for leaks at the gauge itself, since there is actual oil running up to it. I used teflon tape to wrap all the threads on the whole system, and no leaks for me.
 
#16 ·
Good work and nice matching of my setup ;).

However the other day I discovered a better and much easier location to getting any wiring/tubing through.

I'll be undertaking the instillation of 7 prosport guages that were purchased during a group buy effort with a rather nice discount.

Basically instead of having to fight with the fuse box and punching through that grommet what you can do instead is pull back the bellow behind the brake booster and just run what you need to through there. Nothing is opposing you as it's mostly open space through that location save the brake pedal piston rod.

100x easier to go that route.

Note for Maserati Mike here. Your install is very well done here. However you could have avoided the wiring being seen and attempting to hide it behind the door frame seal if you had popped off the dash speaker cover and gone right in through there. Just letting you know that way if you choose to re-route it later for some reason that you know you can go that route.
 
#18 ·
appreciated, but...

I appreciate you asking the moderator to make this post a sticky but it is a MECHANICAL oil press. gauge install. I was looking for info on an ELECTRIC gauge install. I got some info on my orig. post but nothing regarding the actual wiring of the gauge, so if anyone who reads this has any wiring info/insight it would be greatly appreciated.
 
#19 ·
I appreciate you asking the moderator to make this post a sticky but it is a MECHANICAL oil press. gauge install. I was looking for info on an ELECTRIC gauge install. I got some info on my orig. post but nothing regarding the actual wiring of the gauge, so if anyone who reads this has any wiring info/insight it would be greatly appreciated.
Hey there is no difference in the end except for minute details between mechanical and electrical.

For tapping a source for the pressure signal. You can either go off the back of the block or use an oil sandwich plate to add an extra port. From there you either end up running a nylon line into the cabin or an electrical line from a sender to your gauge.

As for wiring up the lighting. Read the instructions that came with your gauge. If you want you can tap any live 12v feed to never have to worry about turning the lighting on or you can use the stock headlight switch and after doing some homework be able to tap the proper 12v feed so that when your headlights are switched on you get power to your lighting source.

Again all you have to do is read the instructions for your gauge and go from there.

In my case the prosport gauges need a live power feed for memory purpose. I have them being fed by the main 12v feed to the headlight switch and a rocker switch to change between night and day lighting selection because my headlight switch is behind my dash.
 
#21 ·
Did you tap into constant or switched for your gauges? My gauge calls for tapping a constant and switched to keep color choice in memory. That being said I was going to tap the green/white in the dash dimmer for switched power, and well I have not figured out what constant I am going to pull.
 
#22 ·
i have a sunpro sport series 0-100 psi oil gauge, electric. how do i install it? i didnt get instructions with it, im rather good with electrical work. ive done alot of interior lighting and whatnot, so getting it to light up wont be a problem. but how do i find a signal for it to work? im petty sure this has been answered, but i didnt see it. so just incase im asking again.

PMme. i also need to figure out where to get a gauge pod. i cant find a saab 900 gauge pod ANYWHERE online. and im not getting a crappy autozone pod because i dont have a heatgun or the time to try to mold something.
 
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