You still have the dash top and overhead mount locations.

 

not much of a dash top mount fan and the overhead is full!! switches and cooling mist controller!

 

Move your cd player under the seat, remote mount the face to your sun-visor and put three more gauges there. And do a steering wheel mount.

 

IMHO it is old school thinking to not trust the factory electronic gauge.
But I will admit the 02 sender gives better info than previous yrs, so maybe this comment falls on deaf ears?
No, they don't give accurate, real time readings.
No they aren't as good as a manual pressure gauge with numbered hash marks.
But they do give an OK, not OK reading! They do give too high, or too low readings!
And on the Cummins, with almost no oil pump problems, is anything else really needed??

Adding a mechanical oil gauge to a CTD is like having a fuel pressure gauge, after adding a FASS..... overkill redundancy!
JMO

RJ

 

Agreed for the most part... I dont want another gauge, I am however going to install a temporary gauge and watch the oil pressure when the factory gauge acts up to make sure it is a sender/ECM issue...

And I wouldn't call a FP gauge redundant... It's still an electric pump that has failed before (not on my truck), Still a gauge I pay attention to!

 

Agree.
Did not clearly say what I was thinking. Should have added.... "With the FASS, I'd be very comfortable with a low pressure warning light"

RJ

 

Works for me! Hey I have one of those too!

 

I'm definitely old-school when it comes to mechanical gauges, and since oil is the life-blood of the engine - that's always been the most important dial to watch... an engine can generally lose a lot of things it needs, such as fuel, air, spark, coolant, etc. without mechanical mayhem, but without sufficient oil pressure to form a hydrodynamic film between metal surfaces - carnage can follow in short order.

 

If people have not recently read the FSM pages related to the instrument cluster, I highly recommend it. Very enlightening reading indeed.
As a matter of fact, the operation of the oil pressure gauge on the instrument cluster turns out to be far more complicated than I would have ever imagined in my pathetic ignorance. The gauge in fact puts out "adjusted" or "expected" values, as opposed to measured. If the pressure is too high, it will stay two needles below max. If it is low but not zero, it will stay too needles above the minimum, or something along those lines. The point is, the typical users should not be allowed to experience an undue concern regarding their oil pressure being to high or too low. The gauge will stay within the "expected" limits for you, conveniently shielding you from worrying about the engine being hurt.
Once I read all that, I have extremely luke-warm feeling about that gauge. It "may" choose to tell you something if the pressure drops; but it may also decide you are too stressed out already, so why bother
This is the source of my sarcasm about the instrument cluster pressure gauge.
-P

 

I reread the fsm this morning actually... the oil pressure gauge is not as 'idiot' as most think... like said above it is very complex... many parameters, contrary to popular belief the gauge is supposed to accurately represent the correct oil pressure from 10-80psi (or something like that, don't have the book in front of me).... it is not just a glorified dummy light

 

Many don't like just because it isn't a 'direct drive' instrument. What I recall from the Service Manual... it's very accurate where it needs to be.
But if you interview most racers over 40, they will still tell you you need 10 psi oil pressure for every 1,000 rpm. This too is an out dated concept, IMO, but some new ideas are harder to accept than others.

RJ

 

OK. Thanks for explaining that to me. Now i understand the concern AND sarcasm!
After reading the entire thread i'm not conviced i need to install an oil pressure gauge. Unless i can integrate it with the commander. If Dodge had more oil pump failures i would.

 

Installed my temp oil pressure gauge today. Cleared the codes and went for a drive... Onyl went about 15miles and never got my CEL to come back... Oil pressure was fine on the temp gauge and the factory. Will be doing some towing tomorrow.. Will post back...

 

Well I have about 200miles with my temp oil pressure gauge on. Never got my codes and weird gauge readings to return... I did have my fuel heater and WIF plugs unplugged (oops), may have got water in there or something and messed with the 5V supply from the ECM.

Going to probably pull my temp line off here soon and call the issue fixed!

I will say though after having my temp gauge on I trust the factory much less... Actual Pressures rarely correlate with the dash readings, especially in the morning when the oil is cold and thick... My gauge would read near 60psi at 2000RPM and the factory would read just around 40. At idle when hot the temp gauge would read under 20 and the factory gauge would read 40 as well...

 

Were youseeing around 80 psi on a cold startup?

That's what I have seen on some with mechanical gauges added. Usually, from what I was told, NEVER under 40 psi on the road??

RJ