Oil Pressure Gauge installation and oil maintenance?

So after seeing too many scary threads about oil pump issues with the driver's side valve-train I decided to move up one of my mods to... right now, haha. A mechanical oil pressure gauge.

So my questions are...

• What is the best location to read the pressure from? Specifically if I want to try to ensure the driver's side valve-train is good to go. Is there any closer location I can pull the pressure from? I saw one that bolts onto where the filter goes, is this method good?
• In general, what are some good maintenance things I can do to ensure all oil galleys and such are nice clean and open? Sea foam? Flush? Other ideas?
• I was thinking about pulling the oil pan and checking the strainer, I believe there is a mesh strainer in the oil pan correct? Can this be cleaned or should it be replaced?
• Has anyone here done this before and if so... suggestions or warnings?
• Do we have a guide on the pressure levels? Like what is good, bad, super good, super bad?

Thanks all.

 

I have pressure and temp from a sandwich plate. There may be a place to get pressure from the oil galley but I don't know where.

Good maintenance would be keeping up with your changes. If you do that, everything internal should be pretty clean. Not quite a similar parallel, but my dad has a John Deere riding mower that is 20 years old, he keeps up with changes using good oil. We took the valve covers off to adjust the valves and expected sludge. It was clean as a whistle.

When you get a real pressure gauge, be aware it fluctuates with RPM and as temp comes up, pressure will drop. You'll also see the pressure jump a little depending on what you're doing. This is due to the cam phasors operating and some due to taking up slack in the system.

With a cold start I see pressures in the 60-80 psi range depending on temp, but I've seen more if it's super cold. Your oil will matter a lot here, I pegged the gauge when I ran 5W30 synthetic when temp would get in the single digits. I run 0W30 synthetic now and when it was -22F here once the starting pressure was 90 psi.

When it's warm, you'll see around 20+ psi per 1000 rpm. A classic rule of thumb has always been at least 10 psi per 1000 rpm.

Oil temps are around 180F-230F depending on what you're doing. It is very dependent on RPM. You'll find that if you're taking it easy going down the road that water temp comes up much faster than oil temp. The thermostat will cycle multiple times before oil reaches 180F.

 

Oh wow this is awesome! If you don't mind, could you link to the sandwich plate and gauges you have? Does the sandwich thing come with sensors or do you buy them separate?
Well, I can only hope the previous owners kept up with the oil. I presume they did because the truck runs great and I keep up with mine very well.

Also, 0w-30? Is that alright to use?

 

Where in Virginia are you getting -22f? I would think even in the mountains that would be an extreme?

Not calling you a liar, just wondering...btw that is a nice setup you have gauge wise and for the sandwich plate....any write ups on it?

 

The plate is by glowshift. I have 3 in service now, one on a Polaris Ranger, one on the Tacoma and another on a Kubota tractor. All to add gauges.
You can find the plates from many places but Glowshift has always been cheapest. For a piece of dumb aluminium Glowshift does fine. Just make sure you get the correct thread adapter. The plate will have 4 I believe 1/8” NPT ports. Your gauges go there.

The gauges are Autometer custom. I had their custom shop make them so they’d match the Tacoma gauges as close as I could. I picked these because the backlight is a completely separate circuit, very important on the Tacoma or about any Toyota or Subaru as the dimmer is a PWM unit and varies ground voltage in relation to positive. You have to splice both pos and neg to the lighting circuit and you must use LEDs. Many gauges have the lighting negative shared with the gauge negative and you’ll not be able to use the factory dimmer for control.
Autometer has my info on file on these I’d have to find the order number for you.

Sensors come with the gauges.

0W30 will be fine. The starting viscosity is a little lower than 5W, but both end up at 30. Neither lubricate very well until warmed up, the 0W gets there a little faster and flows better when cold. Note only my pressure when cold changed between 0W30 and 5W30. Hot pressures are the same because both end up as 30 weight when warm.


As for the -22F, it was a cold snap and was very real!! I started the truck before I got in the shower and saw -22F on the mirror display, I didn’t post one to Facebook that day but I can get you a ton of car thermometer pictures from friends that morning posted it. I can also get you pictures of a waterfall in Jefferson National Forest that froze solid for more than a week.

 

Maybe this is a dumb question...but how does one know which plate to get? I see different sizes and stuff.

 

Another possible dumb question... How do you keep the sanwich from coming loose?

 

The plate has to match the oil filter thread size. The thread is 3/4-16. Use this https://www.glowshiftdirect.com/oil-filter-sandwich-adapter-3-4-unf-16-thread/

The center nut on the plate required a 1-1/16" socket and had a torque of 30 ftlb. The torque value was from a plate from another manufacturer but haven't had any issues with that value. I believe I loosened it one time when removing the oil filter, but I retorqued it and never had any further issues. I keep pretty good records and I've had this on since 15000 miles, I have 64k now, for 3 years.

The one on my Ranger has been on longer than that.

The gauge mount is from Cravenspeed.

 

Ah ok I understand. Did you add any kind of seal or anything to prevent leaks? I just worry about it leaking and causing a drop of oil pressure haha.

 

Hmm I have never put different oil in my rig, just what the stealership puts in under warranty so far.

I live in the cold AF area of Ontario.

Checked to ensure my block heater only needed to be plugged in for 1 hour at -42C. -42C with no wind. It was just -42C. It was like that for 2 weeks this winter straight.

 

It has an o-ring seal on the bottom of the plate and the seal from the oil filter mates to the top of the plate. The center tube is threaded to mate with the existing tube and then also fits inside the filter. There shouldn't be any more leakage here than there was from any other factory threaded connection like this.

 

Ok good. I just don't want to be driving and shooting oil all over the place..haha.
I will look at ordering one of these soon.

 

No, you're good. It won't be doing that as long as the o-ring is intact and nothing is done to compromise it. The o-ring on the bottom is pretty tough. All of mine have been in service for a while and I've never had one leak. I have another plate on my BRZ, but it isn't Glowshift because the BRZ has a vertical filter with a cup around it. The plate is taller and sits higher than the cup to allow the sensors to fit.

The same design is used on oil coolers as well. They just send the oil out to a cooler and back via hose. The plate design is nearly identical, especially the seals.

The Glowshift one is the cheapest I found. A few other manufacturers sell them and they cost quite a bit more. From pictures I've seen of the others, the interior and exterior look exactly the same. I suspect some Chinese company makes them and other companies just charge a bunch more. Look at the Glowshift sandwich plate vs. Mishimoto. They look exactly the same except the Mishimoto one is about 2x the cost.

The plate will come with plugs to close unused ports. It's good to use thread sealant on these and your sensors. Since the plate is aluminum, if you use a liquid type dope sealant, you'll likely want to use an activator because the sealant may take a while to cure without it. If the fitting is brass you probably would be ok. I used an activator prior to application and haven't had any issues.

 

The Toyota filter isn't metric?

 

No, not metric, 3/4”-16.


Plenty of cross reference and info on Google.

 

OK, Thank you. just double checking. Thank you for the thorough intel on this mod too! This has been on my list for a while, so I'll order the plate now while it's fresh on my mind!

 

Here is where I installed mine.

 

I wondered about that too at first! I found one site that said the YZZ filter was 3/4-16 and thought it was a typo. I started checking every aftermarket filter that people use on here to cross reference and all came back to 3/4-16. Very close to another common size, not going to mention it to prevent confusion. My Ranger is that thread. The Ranger is a diesel and they shoehorned the engine in and you’re guaranteed to get your arm scratched up changing the filter. I came off the factory filter location and mounted a remote filter and converted to 3/4-16 in the process.

 

Understood. I've seen this kind of thing before. I think sometimes the auto makers just use a part that is a regular item from their suppliers, rather than create a new one.

 

I swapped a 5.0L into my Ranger, and had to run a remote oil filter to clear the frame. The setup never leaked.

I too will be installing one of these plates. I was originally going to "T" under the factory oil pressure sender, but I like this idea better.