Re: Oil Pressure Gauge Kit

[Henry Frye <thefryes@domain.elided>]

At 02:10 PM 2/12/99 -0500, Mike Wattam wrote:

>I would advise against fitting an oil pressure guage.  

Mike's excellent defense of NOT running an oil pressure gauge snipped

Mike,

You make several good points. What exactly is the gauge telling you that
you really need to know?

Well, the only real defense I have in wanting one is I feel better knowing
what my oil pressure is, as opposed to knowing that, if the oil pressure
light if off, I PROBABLY have enough pressure. 

Tracking the oil pressure is just another way of knowing what is happening
under the hood. Would I rebuild my engine that didn't knock if it had 30psi
under load? Of course not. But, if I catch a trend, either up or down, I
will know to take all precautions. 

An interesting sidebar is the fact that Mercedes Benz cars, at least the
older ones I am familiar with, have oil pressure gauges that go up to I
believe 15psi. At speed, the unknowing Benz driver sees the OP gauge pegged
at the gauge, showing an excess of 15psi. When the engine is hot, and at
idle, the Benz OP gauge might come off the pin, but usually will not fall
even close to half scale. So the Benz engineers feel as long as you have
more than 15psi, who cares.

I agree that we should all get out there and drive and enjoy, and not fret
over minor fluctuations of oil pressure. This will all be moot if Larry
Glenn Merrell's clock instructions work for me. I would much rather have
the original clock.  (Sorry Glenn!)

Thanks for your insight, Mike.