Cascade Crew

[Xophertony]

sooooo... my oil pressure has been dropping to zero when i make hard corners and other force inducing maneuvers on the GTA. i was going to remove, clean, and replace my oil pressure sending unit and see if that was the problem.

i attempted to remove it today. the two pressed together halves rotated against one another and the top/front part (the part with the hex head) spun on the base (the part actually threaded in to the car). brilliant. there is a hex head on the base as well, but i need to remove my distributor cap to get to it and the whole thing is pissing me off so i packed it in for the day. upon thinking hard i seem to remember this happening last time as well, and i have come to the conclusion that i HATE the stock oil pressure sending unit. i hate it. i want it gone. this brings me to my question.

Paul mentioned something once about using the 89+ style, that is located somewhere else (by the oil filter yes?). i was wondering if anyone who has done this could explain the steps, do i just buy the 89 style and lengthen my brown OPSU wire to go down there and plug er' in? or do i need to go to a junkyard and snag a connector off of an 89 car and splice that in?

also, once i have successfully removed the evil device that is my OPSU from under my distributor could i then use that same hole for my Autometer Oil Pressure Sending unit for my gauge or does that need to go somewhere else?

thanks for the help guys.

[Twilightoptics]

You'll get two different readings in the top ridge vs oil filter area. I'm running my autometer off where the oilfilter area is. You really don't need two gauges. The other problem I had is to clear the HSR I had to clearance the part that threads into the block to make it fit around the manifold. I think it caused the sender to be in too far and give an inaccurate reading.

Anyways you need an '89 GTA oil pressure sending unit and to go to the JY and grab the 3 prong connector.

You have a pressure unit down there now that is used for the fuel pump relay. Two wires.

They should all be the same color if not on the same pin. If you get it wrong, the fuel pump wont stay running LOL.

Run your brown OPS wire down to the other sender and attach it to the remaining wire.

[BigDaddyVu]

if its a 2.8L start thinking about putting in a new oil pump and rering and bearing. every body have those proplems with there 2.8L

[Twilightoptics]

[quote="Xophertony"]the GTA.[quote]

No 2.8L.



Also Tony, make sure to check your oil level and make sure the wire isn't shorting out. Either of which could make it rear weird.

[iansane]

[Twilightoptics]

No. If you take both those wires and bridge them, the pump will run.

Thus lack of oil pressure makes the pump not run. Given certain circumstances in starting.

[jakemk8706]

who need oil pressure anyways. my car runs on hopes and dreams...

[iansane]

I think the sending unit is meant as a secondary power source for the fuel pump. So if your fuel pump relay goes bad, your car will crank until there is oil pressure and then power the pump on automagically.

At least, that's how my 91 is wired. My fuel pump relay was bad when I bought the car and whenever it had sat for awhile it took a good 30 seconds of cranking before it would fire. As soon as I swapped the FP relay out it cranked and fired within a couple revs.

[Twilightoptics]

Sounds about right.

[iansane]

But if there is no oil pressure, mine doesn't shut the pump off.

[chevymad]

They're supposed to share the load. Also supplies a backup for either. Would have made more sense to be an oil pressure shut off to me. But whatever.

[Xophertony]

cool thanks Paul and others. the only reason i would use two gauges is that my digital dash would look silly if the oil pressure gauge on it was blank. (it goes dark when there is no reading)

so i would install the 89 style for the stock unit and the autometer sending unit in the 88s stock location for the autometer.