I cant get these great looking , great price and great suppliers gauges to read correct water and oil temps. the oil pressure gauge works fine.
This discussed on other thread.

? is IS ANYONE OUT THERE GETTING CORRECT READINGS FROM THESE WATER AND OIL TEMPS GAUGES?

If your water temp is not showing 175-180 or higher during easy driving then it is not right. The thermostat does not even open until around 173, not fully open until over 200. I cannot get my water temp gauge to go over 160-170 during normal interstate driving on an 80F day. Normal temps for me are 180-190.
Hot water test on the gauge showed correct readings--but in the car they are low.
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olddragger

 

for ***** and giggles, do the readings change at all when the car is running vs when the engine is off and ignition on??? Maybe they get wonky when supplied 13-14V from the alternator??

that would be extremely strange though

 

My car had the same problem. I took off the sensors ground and made sure it was good and put it back. Now reads 175 to 180 when warmed up and driving. My question is should the oil temp be around 150ish? Also my oil press reads 25 at idle and 72 at throttle regardless at pratial or full. Correct? Thanks for any answers and help.

 

i will try again to switch my grounds around--who knows?
oil temps should NOT be at 150F when warmed up. they should be at 180-over 200 depending on how hard you are driving the car. 150F is totally wrong for oil temps when at normal operating temp.
with a 5w/30 oil --oil pressures should be at about 10 at idle when fully warmed and at about 52 at 3K and not accelerating.
olddragger

 

I have been running the performance gauges not the premium peak/warning ones for a few weeks now. I think they are working correctly.

Up here in Cananda I don't see the really high temps you do down south, but I have been seeing my coolant and oil temps get up into the 200's - 210's when driving in the city, and both around 180 when cruising on the highway for a while.

I am going to borrow a hand held scan tool from my shop tonight and compare the PCM readings to the gauge readings. I can only get coolant temp on the scanner, but if its accurate I'll assume the oil is too because they are usually quite close.

If you would like I can get some pics of my install and ground locations.

Brian

 

yeah OD i'm still wondering about my ProSports.........I see 180 oil temp during normal driving- my peak is 205 or so during a sprint on a 112 degree day. My H2O temps are still pathetic at 165-185 degrees....even on 100 degree days! I have done nothing to my cooling system except a GReddy 1.3bar radiator cap which wouldn't make that big of a difference. I've re-grounded my sending units three times and I always get the same results. I am considering relocating the water temp sender placement to the main radiator hose with a BLITZ hose

My oil press is good and my oil temp seems okay, but my water temps are pissing me off.

 

OD,
Are you using the RB water temp adapter and a extra fitting to get the adapter in? I have the same setup (not installed yet) and was looking at it last night. Could it be that the sensor is not sticking far enough in to get an accurate temp reading?

I dunno about your oil temp problems as it looks like it should be right in the flow path and be able to get a good reading there.

 

Hey od I read your post and went for a drive. Here it is, water temps held 180-190 on freeway at 65mph. Oil at idle is about 150 but after 5 to 10 mins of drive it ris3es to 180. Oil pressure is at 20 on idle and 60 at 3k no accel. I checked all the grounding. Are these correct now? Oh yeah I'm not using 5w-30 I'm using 5w-20 full synthetic mobil1. I'm using prosport mechanical gauges. Right now my oil press is on the right and sensors on the left for the rb adaptor. Thanks od.

 

what was the ambient temperature outside? 180 water temp is still on the low side.

I wonder about that too, Labdad. With the reducer required to fit the prosport sender in the RB adaptor it *may* not stick up enough, but still doubtfull.

 

I don't know exact ambient temp due to broken stereo that I still need to get fixed. I'm guessing 85 cause that's what it is in my dads ford 350 cause I knew I needed to post it here. Just did another test. water rose to 190 and oil 175 before I got on the freeway. Cruised on free way and oil rose to 182 and water dropped to 182 also. Oil temp held at 60 to 70 the whole time. After I got off the freeway I gunned first and second. First gear oil read 90, quick shifted to second and then oil press maxed out the gauge. Is this bad? Should I switch to 5w 30 oil? Also I think I got my sensors set up right don't I? Oil press sensor right and temp sensor left on rb adaptor?

 

I used a scan tool and a laser thermometer to check my gauges. I found that the PCM reads higher than the gauge but the gauge is actually accurate.

I took some pics while the car was running in the driveway

The coolant temp gauge:



The scanner:



Laser thermometer (sorry little blurry):



The gauge seems to be pretty close to the thermometer, I think the RB adapter is a little cooler than where the engine coolant sensor is.

The oil temp gauge:



Laser thermometer:



Seems a little lower, but not too bad.

 

Some install pics...

Oil temp and pressure ground:



Coolant temp ground (right inner fender):



RB coolant adapter:



Oil filter sandwich adapter:

 

i wasn't aware people are doing this, but this could contribute to some inaccuracy if the sensor is an effectively dead cavity (and why the pressure guages would seem to be perfect)

 

I cut the nut for the water temp adaptor short for the sensor to go all the way through. I had one question, would the weight of my oil drastically change the pressure value? Also I'm not using the same elbow adaptor that rb shows in the picture for the oil press. Its sort of different. Wouldn't make a difference would it?

 

Posted in the older thread but I'll summarize my results here.

My setup is exactly like BrianGT. Performance line (not the premium) and wired almost identically.

Freeway

Oil Temp 160-170 depending on outside temp. 160 ish during night driving in 60 degree weather and 170 during day time day time driving in 80 degree weather.

Water temp 180 freeway during day time driving.

Street

Oil 190-200, seems to stabilize at around 200.

Water temp is 190 to alittle over 200.

Oil temp takes longer then water to heat up during warm up and when I get off the freeway.

Oil Pressure range from 15 PSI at idle to 80 PSI at full throttle.

 

The pic of the RB coolant adapter that Brian posted above shows how far back the sensor sits. Mine is a little worse as I cannot thread my brass adapter in that far so it sticks out more. I haven't installed anything yet so I don't know if my gauges will read accurate or not. I might do what imrtommy did and have a machine shop cut down the adapter so that the temp sensor sits deeper in there.

 

I think I know why my water temp won't pass 180. Well it does but I think the reason is because my reflash fan turns on and keeps cooling it to 180. Still clueless on my oil press and temp though.

 

thanks guys---great info.
brian i am hooked up just like you are.
your temps seem to be correct.
cant get my coolant or oil to even go to 180F! Even with a little hard driving.
wonder if i got the oil and the water senders mixed up on install. they look identical--- i will swap them around and see.
sensor expose response. i put the oil temp one in the little hole on the rb adaptor---3/4 of sensor was exposed---made no difference.
i have swapped grounds 3 times, power x 2(checked with voltometer)--no difference.
oil pressure gauge is spot on--normal reads idle @ 15 and @ 3k cruising -- 52-55 with true oil temp at around 200F and 5w/30 oil.
still trying as i really like the gauges.
Brian thanks for the pics.
olddragger

 

Haha most of us here including myself can only get 1 of 3 gauges to work. Anyway my oil press sensor is leaking oil. Does anyone know if the oil temp HAS to be sitting upward? Or can we do what brian does and sit it sitways? Also when I was reving up the engine to jumpstart my cousin porsche my oil temp reached 190 max and water was about 185. My oil press still reads 20 at idle and anywhere from 70 to 110 at full throttle. -_- I think I'm going to try 5w-30 to see how that goes.

 

i have never seen a rx 8 with 110 oil pressure. I would suspect that. if you are running 5w/20 oil then I know that is too high.
sensors shouldnt leak --they can be mounted in any position--but shouldnt leak. check tightness and use a little sealant on the threats
olddragger

 

My water temp gets over 200F when in traffic now that it is 90F down here. Oil temps are around 190 or so. But they come down to around 180 when just cruising. I still use 5w20 oil.

OD, have you been to the track to see what your temps will read with the new gauges installed yet?

 

havent been to the track with these. No point really--i know mine are wrong---or i have the coolest running rx8 i know off!
I havent given up on them yet.
I am going to swap the sensors around this w/e.
olddragger

 

you wish!!!!!!

beers

 

Od

 

well i cant get these temp gauges to work right. may sell them---what should i ask for them?
olddragger