Banks Turbo / Oil Pressure Guage Reading

[Tyee II]

I recently installed a new to me 7.3 with the Banks Sidewinder turbo. The oil pressure sending unit connects to the turbo oiling block. using the stock sender in the turbo oil block I am reading in the middle of the factory guage without any real variation between idle and operating rpm. It seems that having the sending unit in this location may not allow the true pressure to read due to the release into the turbo bearing and the gravity feed into the drain tube. In a normal sender application the oil is dead headed into the sender ? Does anyone have any experience with this. The pressure seems to be ok, the engine is running good, I am just curious as to what I should expect to see on the factory guage. I have toyed with connecting a mechanical guage to this connection and seeing how it responds.What is acceptable oil PSI in these engines ? Thanks in advance fro your replies.

 

[DaveBen]

What year is your truck?

Dave

 

[1995voyagerES]

The factory gauge is just a dummy - it only indicates you have above I think 7psi. If it shows more or less sometimes then it's just because it has a bad or good day, or it rains / the sun shines
The location on the turbo is ok. If you want, you can tap into a oil gallery where the oil filter sits. There are little plugs just above the oil pan (I think with a square head). Thats where I tapped mine in (mechanical gauge).

Normal oil pressure for these engines is warm idle about 10-15 psi, warm driving around 40-50 psi.
These are high flow not high pressure oil pumps !

 

[Tyee II]

Thanks
So gauge is an idiot light with a needle. I was wondering if that might not be the case.

 

[Shawn MacAnanny]

I've been chasing some oil pressure issues and that switch is definitely lower than 7 psi, i'd say 4 psi. I see my oil pressure at the turbo block drop as low as 5psi hot and my gauge will still read in the middle of normal. At first was using a glow shift gauge but it would drop to 2 or 0 psi at times. I invested in an Autometer 6927 and the accuracy is much better. Usually 7-8psi hot idle and 29-31psi cruising for me anyway.

 

[icanfixall]

It is as already posted. The factory dash gauge is not worthy of watching. Sad part is thats what engineers felt was a "good idea".. Tell someone any reading in the letters NORMAL is just that... Normal... So most have relied on this lack of technology for many years. Problem comes when you are asked... What temp or what pressure are you seeing??/ Your only answer can be... Its near the R in normal...