Oil pressure gauge

[The_Hammer]

Is there a way to make the stock oil pressure gauge show the actual oil pressure instead of being a dummy gauge? Truck in question is a 96'.

[bjytech]

Not sure if its possible to make the gauge in the dash work that way or not, but if I remember right the oil pressure sender on the engine is just a pressure switch so it is unable to give a real pressure reading.

[The_Hammer]

I wonder if there is a sender that will at least give me some kind of movement indicating low pressure. 

[Nekkedbob]

My gauge tracks as a pressure gauge ( pressure is at the top of the operating range when cold ,drops as it warms up and goes up and down in its range with the RPM although it doesn't have any graduations that are usable other then operating range) My last dodge v10 did what yours does except mine would drop to the bottom of the operating range when going down the road for no reason. I installed a tee at the oil pressure sender and put a mechanical gauge on it .I was pleasantly surprised it had 60 psi when cold and 35 when hot at 250k miles. I had changed the sender twice with no change. I never did change the dash and it was still doing it when I sold it 7 years later with the oil pressure gauge in the A pillar   

[Vais01]

3rd generation trucks have the dummy gauge. I've yet to see a second gen gauge not move up or down with changes in RPM. 

 

What is yours doing?

[CSM]

29 minutes ago, Vais01 said:

3rd generation trucks have the dummy gauge. I've yet to see a second gen gauge not move up or down with changes in RPM. 

 

What is yours doing?

Using the high idle kit, I can switch the coolant temp and watch the oil pressure go up and down with that temp... Kinda makes me lose all faith in the gauge.  

[Vais01]

3 minutes ago, CSM said:

Using the high idle kit, I can switch the coolant temp and watch the oil pressure go up and down with that temp... Kinda makes me lose all faith in the gauge.  

Odd...I wonder if they use a common ground and if one could back feed the next. What's your low idle oil pressure?

Edited December 5, 2015 by Vais01

[CSM]

3 minutes ago, Vais01 said:

Odd...I wonder if they use a common ground and if one could back feed the next. What's your low idle oil pressure?

From our very own... Mine does the exact same.

https://youtu.be/bUYO-lJe36w

Edited December 5, 2015 by CSM

[dripley]

Mine has always worked. Higher pressure when cold and gradually dropping as the oil warms up. Lower at idle than at speed. Works pretty typical to any I have had. Reading the actual pressure is a little difficult beings the gauge is graduated a little weird.

[CSM]

5 minutes ago, dripley said:

Mine has always worked. Higher pressure when cold and gradually dropping as the oil warms up. Lower at idle than at speed. Works pretty typical to any I have had. Reading the actual pressure is a little difficult beings the gauge is graduated a little weird.

I bet you a dollar it acts like the video I linked.

[Vais01]

Well maybe I'm odd. My oil pressure is much closer to 20 PSI at idle.

[dripley]

10 minutes ago, CSM said:

I bet you a dollar it acts like the video I linked.

I will take the bet. i have no fooler on my truck. Warmed up at idle my gauge reads just about right where Mikes does. Upon acceleration it will climb up past the 40# mark a little further than it sits below it at idle. On cold start up it goes near the next to last mark depending on how cold it is. It will slowly lower as the coolant temp rises. Never seen it doing anything different that that.

[The_Hammer]

Mine sits on 40 or just below all the time, cold, hot, idling or WOT doesn't matter. I'll probably end up installing a mechanical oil pressure gauge later if there is no fix for the stock unit. 

[CSM]

Frankly, I don't care what it is.   

It's a old school cummins, not a rare race engine.  I just keep it full and run it. 

[The_Hammer]

Just now, CSM said:

Frankly, I don't care what it is.   

It's a old school cummins, not a rare race engine.  I just keep it full and run it. 

It rubs against the grain with me. My dad taught me to keep an eye on my gauges, especially oil pressure. 

[TFaoro]

Guys, it's a dummy gauge. Proven fact from Mike's video. There is nothing to dispute about that.

The gauge is not 100% controlled through the sensor. Yes the gauge goes up when you rev it up, and yes the gauge reads higher when it's cold but all of that is programmed into the truck. There was a long discussion about this over on CF and many agree it was likely done to prevent people from thinking they have low oil pressure just because the gauge is on the lower side of the pressure sweep.

[dripley]

I am not disputing whether the gauge is real or not. I just wanted to get a dollar to help pay for my clutch. Thanks CSM.

[The_Hammer]

I know it's a dummy gauge, I was wondering if there was a way to make it function like normal gauge is all.

[Vais01]

Well maybe I need to find out why mine reads so low then?

[Nekkedbob]

It is not a dummy gauge but the dash assy. is not high quality gauge set. What you see in mopar1973mans video is the voltage regulator on the back of the dash assy that has gone bad or a high resistance ground to the dash. The biggest problem with our dash is it takes a analog signal from the sensor and converts it to digital in the ECM and or PCM and then decodes it back to a analog value for the gauge set and if  tolerances are not kept very small (meaning more expensive ) you get just what we see. This is the biggest reason for the aftermarket gauge industry is that mfgs. put gauges that barely qualify as a useful gauge. Why do you think that you cannot find any accuracy specs for there stuff and they don't put but very few markings other "operating range". Many years ago I found the accuracy spec for speedometers ( I wish I could remember where ) from the D.O.T. and they only need to be within +or - 10 percent.