OIL TEMP
 

Does anyone have any experience using a oil temp gauge on an 85 DT? We always used them on road tractors and they were a good early warning device for an engine that was getting a little long in the tooth.

I am neither pro or con on the Oil tem gauge but where do you plan to tap in the temp probe and where will you mount the gauge?

OIL TEMP
 

I was wondering possibly the bottom of the oil cooler providing it is not too thin. it's not so much what the temp is, so long as it is constant. This is just thinking out loud.

I would think that the oil pan is better, as it's made of steel, and the oil cooler does not always have oil flow (it is thermostat triggered), so your gauge would only have a meaningful measurement at highway speeds or when the engine is all the way warmed up etc....

Where does the oil cooler return to? If possible I'd find a way to have the temp probe near where the oil cooler returns to, or take a reading off of the turbo oil feed line.

-Jason

I think the previously suggestion of tapping into the Oil pan is a good idea.

On the models between 1977 abd 1985; dirty oil goes through the Oil Filter and dirty Oil comes back into the Oil Filter housen where it passes throgh the Oil Filter.

I think the problem with putting the temp probe in the Oil Filter Housing is that may be too long and wide to go any where with out polking the Oil Fillter.

The Turbo Oil supply tube is long. I suppose a section of the tube could be cut and a "T" put in to install temp probe installed.

Installing the temp probe in the Oil pan would give you an idea of the temp of the Oil before it is cooled.
Some place else might give the temp after the Oil is cooled.

This makes me wonder were the probe is put on other Engines?

I think I would favor putting the temp probe in the Oil Pan as I would want to know what the highest temp the Oil was exposed to was.
A person could get short Bolt of a largenought diameter that it could be drilled through the center and threaded for the temp Probe.

The pan needs to be removed:
A hole the size of the bolt is drilled in the Oil Pan (if a 123 the small Steel Oil Pan). The Oil pan is cleaned and degreased in the area of the hole.
The Bolt head facing the pan and bolt threads are coated with JB Weld is inserted through the hole from the out side. A degreased nut the sam size as the Bolt is threaded over the bolt.

The bolt needs to be slightly longer than the Nut buy a few threads so that you can take a Center Punch and deform the Nut and Threads so thata there is no possibility of the nut loosening.

If JB Weld is not used I suppose some sort of gasket or copper washer could go under the bolt head instead.

I think that the sensor should go where the oil is potentially at its highest temp....I have an oil temp gauge for my car but I have never bothered with installing it.

Where do the sensors go on other Vehicles?

No idea....the only vehicles I've even seen with an engine oil temp sensor or trans temp sensor were large pickups....

On a VW the oil temp sensor is either on the cylinder head (1.8 / 2.0 16v) or on the oil cooler output (VR6, TDI, 2.0). The turbo on most TDIs gets it feed from the output from the oil cooler, which isn't thermostatically controlled (it's a heat exchanger that has engine coolant flowing through it).

On my car there isn't a plugged port like the older cars, so people generally install a T fitting where one of the oil pressure sensors is, put the temp sensor on the nearer port, and the pressure sensor on the further port.

There are ones that screw in place of the oil drain plug... but IMO the temp at the cylinder head / turbo feed is more important then the cooled oil in the pan.

-Jason