oil temp sender in the taco plate

[hippydog]

Taco plate is drilled and tapped with a nut on the back side of sender, should be secure enough. should gasgacinch or aviation sealant be used on the threads. worried about oil seepage
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hippydog

[El_Güero]

Oil temp messured there means squat!!!, you want the oil temp of the internals (oil friction in the pressure circuit) not the sump temp.

[babysnakes]

1st off, not the answer to the question. OP may not have the opportunity to switch location. I would use pematex aviation. I know someone in the desert that may argue the location as correct or not. I have mine in the T-3 filler tube port.(universal case)

[babysnakes]

1st off, not the answer to the question. OP may not have the opportunity to switch location. I would use pematex aviation. I know someone in the desert that may argue the location as correct or not. I have mine in the T-3 filler tube port.(universal case)

[Desertbusman]

[Randy in Maine]

Locktite Red for me on the threads. No leakage. That is the place you want it.

[nathansnathan]

Loctite red is the high strength, supposed to be non removable? Wouldn't blue be better?

I've used teflon, but mine has pipe thread.

[Randy in Maine]

Blue, red or teflon all work. No issues.

[El_Güero]

[Desertbusman]

The total quantity of oil circulates every few seconds at road speed. It's not as if oil is cold at one end of the puddle and a few inches away it is hot. Granted, comming out of the cooler it is a bit cooler. But the bottom line concern is what the overall temperature of the engine is as it is being lubricated and cooled by the oil. Like mentioned before the concern and goal is being able to trend the engine temp. Any issues with cooling, engine performance, ambient conditions or driving manners shows up. That's our only concern. No problem with the sump plate location.
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71 Superbug
71 Westy

[WhirledTraveller]

Another thing to consider, is that 99% of people with Type 4s and oil temp gauges mount their sender in that same location. If you mount it somewhere else then you can't compare your numbers with other people to tell if your numbers are unusual or not.

It's true that there is some air cooling of the case going on there. I have seen, for example, that in a long highway run I might see, say, 210 degrees while moving. Then I pull off to the side and the temp will go up to 220 pretty quickly. That's no doubt because the oil was already that hot but the sender was being cooled by the airflow when I was moving. Anyway you just take that into consideration and look at the big picture. I think the temps will be within +/- 10 degrees of "true" anyway since the conduction oil --> sender is much greater than the conduction sender --> air.
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1977 Westy, Automatic. Big Valve heads, CS Cam.

[busdaddy]

Yep, location does make a difference but trending and being able to compare to others is really all that matters, it was good enough for Porsche.

I've been experimenting with sender locations on my 71 (1600) a couple of years now and the sump plate shows 30 degrees lower than the pickup tube while on the road and 20 lower sitting in traffic, airflow and oil flow both play a part. There's not a huge amount of movement under the screen in a type 1 and likely not that much more in the bottom of the breather tower/cam gear area on a type 4 (taco plate area) so you'll get a reading that's skewed lower and lags behind actual temps due to airflow over the plate and lack of circulation but whatta ya do without some major machine work to the case?
Everyones in the same boat.
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[chimneyfish]

One of my winter 'to do' jobs is fitting a VDO oil pressure gauge, voltmeter and tach, all 52mm in size, in a mounting plate for 3 gauges. I decided against fitting oil temp, basically as the hotter the oil gets, the lower the pressure and vice versa, so a suitbale pressure gauge can tell you a lot about your engine.

However, I did research the oil temp gauge when deciding what aftermarket instrumentation I was going to go for (keeping it minimal at 3 gauges), and if I was going to fit one, I would follow what Ratwell has written here:

http://www.ratwell.com/technical/VDOGauges.html#ot

That's including sourcing the relevant 914 parts, including the air deflector to help stop external air cooling the taco plate and leading to your sender transmitting erroneous readings to the gauge.
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1965 Type 1 Deluxe (1200cc)
1976 Type 2 T2b Microbus L (1800cc Type 4)
Previously...
1972 T2 Camper (Devon), 1988 Golf, 1972 Type 1, 1984 Polo, 1972 T2 Camper (Danbury)

[hippydog]

Thanks guys
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hippydog

[504]

Quick question about the taco plate location - I drilled in a taco plate and installed the sender, took my plate off and when I went to install the one with the temp sender, the nut hit the lip. I put the nut as close as possible to the center bump in the plate while still allowing sealing.
I can reverse the plate 180 degrees, but there is an oil passage towards the front of the engine that the nut would be in front of (its a big nut, the only one I found locally was quite big).
Should I grind down the nut so I can install it on the rearmost side of the engine?
Will having a big nut in front of that oil passage on the front side cause problems? It won't block it entirely (obviously) but I don't want to mount it there if it will restrict something that shouldn't be restricted.

[SGKent]

I bought mine from Scott already done and it worked well, and used a little teflon sealant (not tape) on it.
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"Most people don't know what they're doing, and a lot of them are really good at it." - George Carlin

[504]

SG - Do you have the sender installed closer to the front of the engine or closer to the rear?

[SGKent]

[504]

Thanks. That answers my question. I was just hesitant when I took my plate off and saw that the nut I was putting up there was going to be right in front of that oil passage. I guess it does not matter here.

[greenbus pilot]

Back in The Day, I , also, mounted my sender in that exact location. It worked well. I believe it will cool a bit while driving, but for trending purposes it works well and is an easy install.
The oil sump must be a common location for temp senders, as I have installed one in place of the drain plug on my BMW. The make a sender to replace said drain plug,- someone must think that is a good location, and, yes, the Bimmer runs kind of high if I watch while driving vs. sitting in traffic.
Probably not a good motoring addition for anal retentive type A drivers as you never keep your eyes on the road.....
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