Lancia Motor Club

Does any have any experience of using an oil pressure test gauge on an S2/3? I’ve just bought one and don’t know which adapter to use and whether it’s a tapered fitting.

The most difficult part seems to be taking the sender unit off and connecting the unit in its place. Can I avoid removing the oil filter for access? Otherwise it could get very messy!

Probablyneed the filter out of the way.

I use the Lancia extender piece (remove the pressure transducer) and took to a hysdraulics shop and they found the adapter and c 30cm  flexible pipe to the guage.  I assume you have asuitable guage 0-200 psi or 0-10bar?

Goes to about 140 bar.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074DWXFC9?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Obviously an inexpensive one, but it will probably give good enough accuracy

I’m wondering if it’s easier to test the sender. I know from Huib’s posts that they can go faulty. Removing the filter is very messy and my engine is all lovely and spotless at the moment.

The car’s oil pressure gauge is unlikely to be faulty, from what I understand it’s purely a voltmeter. It’s a Veglia (S3 car) marked at 35 halfway up the gauge and 70 maximum. I’m guessing this is PSI but it doesn’t say on it.

You could try the temperature sender port (blanked off in your  case) which is near/below the carb support on the oil filter mount.

Thanks that sounds interesting. Do you know for certain that that port is connected to oil under full pressure (i.e. the same as the sender gets)?

Ok thanks that’s going to work. The very helpful guy at Pieces Fulvia tells me that the fittings are 10 mm for the pressure sensor and 14 mm for the temperature and that I can use the temperature port. That way I’ll be able to get 2 readings simultaneously to compare.

All sorted.

Managed to fit the test gauge (90 degree adapter essential) after removing the plug port for the oil temperature sender which was extremely tight. Good test of the quality of the tool, and don't be tempted to use an L shaped allen wrench!

The oil pressure as shown on the car's gauge was way out, probably only showing 50% at best of the true reading and virtually nil at low tick-over, so that's excellent news. Ok, the gauge I bought was a relatively cheap one on Amazon, but I know which one I believe, particularly as they are simple units and no electronics are involved.

I should add that the engine has only just been rebuilt with new big end and main bearings etc. so I would have been very disappointed if the pressure wasn't excellent. The gauge wasn't showing good oil pressure before but it must have been pretty good in reality.

Out of interest what does the mech gauge  show when engine really hot at 4500rpm? Have you looked to see what transducer is fitted as there are varios with different scaling. 

Still running the engine in, so don’t want to rev it that high yet. It’s not possible to get the oil really hot (15/40 GTX) because it’s not driveable when the measuring kit is installed.

I did try to find markings on the sensor unit but couldn’t see anything helpful. From what I understand, it is a simple potentiometer type device with the movement across a coil derived from the oil pressure.

I know that they can be problematic and that the original ones with 300 ohm (I think) resistance that give the expected results are no longer available.

At just under 1,000 rpm the dash gauge shows the needle very slightly over the 0 marker, but the test gauge shows bang on 40 psi.

I have attached a photo of the positioning of the gauge take-off for anyone thinking of doing the same procedure.