I am trying to find the least hassle way of mounting my oil pressure/temp sensors. There many and varied ways and to be honest the least effort seems to be the RB Style Sandwich plate that goes between the filter neck and the Filter. I am aware of the knock on effects of this however and so was then looking more around and I am curious if there is a reason you couldn't make a sandwich plate between the engine and the filter neck instead?

 

think I may have a pair that were never installed that can be sent to you, just pm me

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-do-...-bolts-235867/

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Hmm Ill send you a PM on that. I was actually more curious why no one has done a sandwich plate there. Would it not work? Why have people done the neck/filter plates but not the engine/neck plates?

 

Did you not read the linked thread? There’s not a lot of space around the filter and on an S1 it’s already hard enough to get on/off withhout raising in on a sandwich plate. While they put the sandwich plate under the filter instead, putting one where you suggest is more or less the same thing in a different position. There’s probably less space for the sensors at the position you’re suggesting.

There are other options, such as a sandwich filter relocation kit that mounts where the filter is and has sensor ports with hoses to where the filter is related to; makes accessing the filter easier.

Or more like a racing setup that replaces the filter pedestal with a small manifold that has a hose and sensor port attachment, but then requires a remote filter/bypass assembly that also has sensor ports along with making and plumbing aftermarket hoses to do all that. You’d then also remove the Mazda t-stats from the coolers and plug the bypass holes. This is actually the best setup for proper oil flow and temperature maintenance, but is usually more cost and effort that the usual street car driver wants to make.
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For oil pressure, another alternative is to unscrew the OE pressure switch from the upper LH side of the engine, attach a tee-fitting there instead, put the OE switch on one side of the tee and the aftermarket oil pressure sensor on the other side. It’s a pretty tight area to access and reposition sensors in too though.

As usual, there are many ways to do it, just choose what serves your purpose best.

As per the PM, I’d probably put the temp sensor on the banjo bolt that attaches the cooler feed line to the lower front LH side of the engine as this is supplying hot engine oil from the sump to the cooler.

The pressure switch is probably best on the banjo bolt that attaches the return hose from the cooler to the oil pedestal because this is the lowest pressure position in the cooler circuit. It is pre-filter though, so the actual post filter pressure might be 1 or 2 psig less. It’s not any difference to worry about imo.

or you can just drill and tap your existing banjo bolts. Most sensors use a tapered thread for sealing purposes, so how far it protrudes into the banjo bolt can be controlled some by how far you continue to tap it after establishing the minimum thread depth through the drilled hole.
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Sorry yes I did read, might have missed something in amongst it all but it didn't really answer my question on that specific location.

This however...

Thank you. And thank you for the Banjo Bolt info.

 

ok, so I was working on this for you and came to a better understanding

so this is the RX8P mod and you can see how they drilled and tapped an oil cooler banjo bolt along with a brass adapter:




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However, the oil cooler banjo bolts are a bit different than the banjo bolts used where the oil cooler lines attach to the front cover and the oil filter pedestal. It has a thicker bolt hex head like a regular flanged bolt. So I’m going to try and tap it directly with the idea that the thicker head is going to provide more thread engagement, but also possibly be thick enough not to need an adapter like is being used on the other one.


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so I was able to drill and tap the thick-head flanged banjo bolt and it’s the perfect thickness as long as you don’t tap the tapered thread out too far.

This is definitely the way to go rather than using the thin head oil cooler bolt either with or without a bushing.
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