Hello All,

I guess I seem to be full of question lately. I know we've all seen the extra guages that some of us put in our cars. I was thinking of putting a oil pressure guage, when I started to think what is the true purpose of putting this in out car? Natrually to monitor the oil pressure, but why do we need to monitor our oil pressure on a daily bassis? Assuming all is well with our car no oils leaks, then the guage would seem useless, but the guage is used in many cars so it must serve a purpose. The same question could be applied to Fuel Pressure Guage.

This is for the cars that are still Naturally aspired.

All inputs welcome.

Thanks.

 

There are other things too consider than just an oil leak. Some oil leaks just “seep” over a period of time and probably have no major affect on the oil pressure.

The wearing of internal components can cause a loss in oil pressure. The mains wearing giving more clearance around the crank can cause a better flow of the oil…but less pressure. Also an older oil pump may also not work like it used too, causing a decrease in oil pressure.

So for an older car, getting an oil pressure gauge may not be a bad idea ( so you don't have to wait for the "check oil" light to tell you that something has already gone wrong.

 

I have air/fuel, oil and gas pressure gauges. The oil light is not a good thing when it turns on.

 

Well you know the worst things happen when you least expect it. It would suck to be accelerating on the onramp to the highway (about 4500 rpm and going up) and you so happen to have a sludge build up on the oil pan and it slowly clugs the oil pump pick up. Boom, oil pressure drops and the top of the engine starts getting starved of oil. Valves start sticking and friction builds up. Depending on how bad the damage is, you might have just killed your engine. It could have been prevented if you'd have seen the drop in pressure on the gauge and pulled over right away.
Also for example, oil pressure should be high on start up to keep everything lubricated, but once the engine gets to its operating temperature it drops. This is the normal behavior of most oil pumps. If it's not doing that, then it's a sign that something is wrong with the oil pump or that something might be blocking the oil passages, but you would never know until it's too late, unless you had that oil presure gauge. God forbid this from happening to anyone, but hey $*** happens. It's cheap insurance.
Fuel pressure gauge, hmm, I can see it being a most for people boosting, but not for NA motors. I guess to keep an eye on the pressure in the system, it's important but at least to me, not as important as oil pressure. Just my 2 cents.

 

The thickness of the oil deals with this also. On startup (after the car has been shut off for a while) the oil is cool and thick. Once the oil warms up it isn't as thick so the oil pressure drops. The weight or "viscosity?" of the oil affecsts this.

I've never known oil pumps to be variable in their pumping...but this is a possibility. I know of "high volume" oil pumps which pump significantly more oil, but these oil pumps usually do not slow down after the car warms.