Vauxhall XE - Oil temperature guage

[Paul McKenzie]

Has anybody fitted an oil temperature sender to a wet-sump Vaux 2.0 XE and wired it into the water temp. guage? - if so can you please post details.

Thanks,

Paul

 

[John]

I've heard of this being done by taking the sender wire for the oil temp gauge and joining it to the water temp sender wire via switch on the dash. You can then flick the switch to change between water and oil temp on the same gauge assuming the same company made the gauge as the oil sender.

 

John

[ian balson]

Paul,

 

I asked a similar question a while ago . . .

 

here

 

Not really great news.

 

Ian

 

ian.balson@yahoo.co.uk

[Paul McKenzie]

Thanks, guys.

Looks like the answer is put an oil cooler on, then a temperature sender to see whether you need an oil cooler. Chicken & Egg.

Paul

 

 

 

[DaveK]

Hi Paul

 

You will need a two position on/on switch and a water temp sender from caterham.

 

You will then need to remove the sump and have a boss welded on to the side and tapped to match the sensor thread.

 

Take a wire from the sensor to the switch which has 3 terminals and wire to one side .

 

Take the original sensor wire and attach to the other side and take signal wire from the gauge to middle terminal , so all you are doing is interupting the signal with the switch.

 

Flicking the switch from on/on position will then give you oil/water temp and the oil temp is being read from the main body of oil ie the sump so this shows the temp of oil the engine is receiving

 

E-mail me @ dt if you need any more info

 

Dave

[stevefoster]

Wet sump is best sensed with a tapped sump plug. Roger King will do the tapping

(1/4" taper thread if I remember correctly). return post for around a fiver.

 

A dry sump should really have an ali boss welded on, correctly threaded. Why do they not do this for all dry sumps at birth I do not know.

I could not be bothered with sending the tank away or finding someone local so I made a threaded block of ali for the sender and strapped it to the dry sump tank. I then insulated it to remore the air flow cooling factor.

 

I have my water temp gauge sharing the oil and water temps with a switch.

 

I got upto around 105 degrees with the wet sump on track. Don't know with the dry sump on track yet, only just fitted the sender. Hard road use indicates a similar reading on the dry and wet sump installation....

 

Steve

My racing pics here

Hants (North) and Berkshire area club site

here

 

[Paul McKenzie]

Thanks guys, good info.

 

What's the max. oil temp. you would want to see before fitting an oil cooler?

 

Paul

 

[stevefoster]

I think 120 degs is the max the oil would be happy at for periods.

Above 100 and I would start to worry and think about a cooler.

Coolers aren't normally needed on XE's. High ambient temps and very hard use = long races would

necessitate though I think.

 

If you get a cooler and you intend Road / Track get a thermostat one so that it doesn't come into play until you need it...

 

forgot to say that the senders can be had from Think Automotive return post. They have a website

search for Think Automotive...

 

I have no connection with any commercial 7 or automotive retailers or suppliers.

 

 

Steve

My racing pics here

Hants (North) and Berkshire area club site

here

 

 

Edited by - stevefoster on 31 Jul 2002 17:29:04