Im pissed!.......I was going to go ahead and change my oil pressure switch cause that the problem IVe been having with no oil pressure...WELL!!!....I took the HSR plenum off...reached down there with a wrench and went to turn the switch and SNAP!!!!!...the freakin pipe fitting stud that I had going into the block to hold the switch SNAP'D flush with the block....NOW WHAT!

WHat would you guys do? Im at a loss and completely pissed!.....why me? alls I wanted to do was change the switch.

is there anything I can thread in there? With the HSR its kinda cluttered back there and hard to get to.


heres some pictures..

the stud


the way it was


snapped stud


block

 

dont you guys love it!......I know your getting a laugh at all my problems.....but hey better me that you huh?...

anyways, if I try an easyout and THAT doesnt work.......then I was thinking about drilling it out....now!? my question is how much metal will go down there and where does that lead to? and how much metal is to much? I know I dont want ANY down there but..... I know that I can put like bearing grease on the bit and that will help keep some of it out but not all.....

Im just throwing up some ideas that Im thinking about...

I got til Friday at about 3 to get this done..I was planning a trip to the beach to crash the Mustang week party there....but doesnt look like thats gonna happen.

 

I wouldn't even bother trying the easy out, and just go right for drilling. That passage goes straight down through the block towards the oil filter and is intersected by the passage that feeds the mains.. Any debris that falls down there will get circulated to the mains and the cam. If you're going to drill, the whole engine should be taken apart first, and cleaned out before reassembly.

If you didn't want to take it all apart, I'd probably just braze it over and leave it alone for now.

 

Thankfully that broke because... its thin brass. Its not corroded, too new. Use a square fluted easy out, a good quality one because you do not want that to break. It shouldnt, but stranger things have happened. It should come out of there pretty easily once you're at that point. Been there... done that.

 

Just read the other reply, I wouldnt go near that thing with a drill at this point. Its just going to make a mess and IMO totally unneccessary. New build. Either you overtorqued it, poor quality fitting, or you bent it slightly (like I did).
As for the easy out (its never easy lol), it really should just unthread with ease. Anything beyond force applied by a 1/4" ratchet you should step back and rethink. And stay the hell away from those twisty style easy outs, those break entirely too easily.

 

What do you mean dont try easyout? why? I AM NOT PULLING THIS ENGINE BACK OUT!....jesuse christ..I just put it back in..

what do you mean by BRAZE it over? what does that mean?..

I want to simplest fix for this....Im headed to the store (automotive Fastesners) to go get another brass stud and ask them for ideas... I guess I'll get the easyout..and try that...

 

I've never once had an easy out do anything useful. If something is in tight enough that it breaks, its generally in tight enough that the easy out is only going to make shavings and/or break off. It might be worth a try, though.

Brazing is like soldering using a torch with a brass filler.

 

an that means to do what? come on man?...plain english here please.

I still need to get the fitting in there to hold the switch....how?

 

It means to fill in the hole in the fitting to plug it solid so that it won't bleed oil everywhere. Then you'd move the switch down to the port above the oil filter instead.

 

Go to Sears and get one of the SQUARE screw extractors, that looks sort of like a square punch. Should pop it right out of there.

 

You must not be using them right? I use them on aircraft damn near once a week. Never had a problem.

I use Snap On ones though, perhaps you used generic?

 

I use the spiral ez-outs and Nelapse is right. They are not all created equal.
If a set costs $10, pass on it. Good ones are 8-10 bucks apiece like Snap-on, Matco etc. They are never black in color and have U.S.A. stamped in them. A broken off ez-out is much worse to deal with than a broken bolt or fitting. Don't play around with it. Here is the important tip that most non-professionals don't know:
Never use an adjustable wrench, an open end wrench, or a tap handle with these or taps for that matter. Ever seen 8 point sockets and never knew what they were for? This is it. Set it up with an extension and pull handle just like you are going to torque a bolt. This puts pure rotational torque on the bit instead of side loading it like pushing a tree over. This is what breaks taps and ez-outs. That broken off fitting would take me 10 minutes tops to get out.
Edit: The good ez-outs can be found in bolt stores such as Fastenal next to the $10 drill bits that will drill a grade-8 bolt like mild steel.

 

Well, I had a simler problem and drilled it out and used a shop-vac to gather up the chips. There is another oil pressure fitting on the drivers side down by the oil filter if you plug the broken fitting.

Auggie

 

ok..I got the stuff..I just got home....if I cant get it out..Im going to plug it like said above.....why do I have to switches? the one by the filter already has a switch on it.....if I wanted to move it there..what would I do with the one already there?

 

If you do have to tap it use some vasaline and go slow, it will keep most of the shavings out of your motor. Personaly i would throw in some JB weld and call it a day.

 

right!>.I understand that but where then would I put the switch? THe one above the filter already has some kind of oil pressure switch...what wold I do replace it with the one that came from the back of the intake? why do we have 2?

 

The one at the top of the block is the gauge sender, the one above the filter is the fuel pump switch. In later years they were combined into a single unit.

 

One for the gauge, one for the fuel pump.

If worse comes to worst, you could take the FP one out from its place above the oil filter, and T the gauge one into that hole. But I doubt it will come to that.

You shouldn't really have too much trouble getting that little brass thing out though, those aren't too hard to deal with at all. The reason it breaks like that is because of the way the threads are cut in it, they concentrate the stress right at the topmost thread. That's pretty common actually. Super says 10 minutes; I think he's being seriously pessimistic. That's about right if you stop twice for cold ones during the job, and you savor both of them lovingly. It's about 2 minutes counting finding the tools, doing the job, cleaning them up, and putting them away.

When you put your new one in, use plenty of the high-temp thread sealer with Teflon. A Loctite product. Comes in a little tube on a card at VatoZone and Advance and such, as well as "real" parts stores.

 

you got to be kidding me!!!!.......I fixin to blow my head off!!!...LOL
DOne!...I was able to get the MF'in fitting out and put everything back in as normal and as it was....that was a pain in the *** and a whole lotta trouble...but I got it done....now I go to fire up and look at my gauge and its at ZERO before I even turn the key....GREAT!>....I turn the key and the gauge still stays at ZERO ...good again....I fire the car up and the gauge still stays at ZERO!..NOW WHAT!!!!..........if its not one thing its another!!!....HOLY ****!!!....Ive checked everything ....what could it be now?

who wants this car!!!!!

 

bad gauge?

 

Probably something needs tightened, because it isn't making a good connection to the block. One of the fittings isn't quite touching another. Especially if you used Teflon tape.

You can check for which one with your multimeter.

 

no way....the gauge worked Sunday...and Im thinking if the guage was bad..then it wouldnt even go to ZERO....another thing...when I unplug the switch...the gauge stays at ZERO.....isnt it suppose to max itself out like it was which is what led me to change it in the first place? and dont say bad switch...cause if it was bad then it would max itself out..right?

what do you mean good connection to the block?..how?....hell they are all screwed in to one another just like before...even the same was when on my 305

 

Try touching the wire to the block. The gauge should respond.

 

you might have it shorted out make sure your connection isnt groundin anywhere. A DVOM will save you alotta hassle too get one and ohm the sender.

 

the wire that would go to the sender? touch it to the block?

how do I ohm the sender? Im stupid when it come to stuff like this....you guys are gonna have to work with me.....say it all the simplest way you can..sorry!!!

 

Ya.

The oil pressure gauge is just a giant variable resistor that varies the resistance to ground.


If you have a question of whether or not the gauge works, touch the sender wire to the block. It should respond.

 

to ohm the sender all you need is a basic DVOM, put it on ohm mode and touch the red lead to the sending unit prong (where you'd normally have the gauge wire) and touch the other side to the battery negative

 

yah, if you do it with a multimeter, you should see the number change with the engine RPM.


Better yet, use an analog one. You can see the changes a lot clearly on a gauge!

 

lol my friends father has an old analog meter.... its like 1970's

 

Ok I figured out whats going on..everything works. THe sensor did have to be replaced cause the contact broke off...but I found out why it was not moving....I have a heated O2 and for keyed power I had the hot wire for my O2 tapped into the oil pressure wire so I clipped the O2 hotwire off and the oil pressure gauge works fine....why would it do that? That was also the problem I had with my Temp gauge pegged..I had the O2 wired into that wire too and clipped it off and moved it to another keyd hot but didnt know it was my pressure wiire.

I went and got an new replacment O2 thinking it was bad but it does the same thing. and yes I have the heated wired right...I already did a search and checked on that. I cant find a KEYD HOT that I can tap my O2 in....

should I start another thread? ..if I dont run the hotwire for the O2 what will happen?

 

no, you need to find another source to tap into.


By tapping into the wire you add another path to ground for the gauge. This seriously impacts the resistance because you now have two resistances in parallel.


You could always tap into the fuel pump relay so that the o2 is heated whenever the fuelpump is on

 

yeah when I did a search I came up with that too.....but wont it do the same when tapped into the fuel pump relay?

and I dont know where the fuel pump relay is...I know or think its on the firewall drivers side...but which one?

also, I have the O2 grounded on the back of the block on the passenger head where where there are other wires grounded too.

what wire? when I look at the diagram for the relay..

 

Oilpressure sendingunit "output" is 0 to 90ohm.

 

What you did when you spliced that O2 heater wire to your OPSU wire was, you added an extra "sensor" that had about 1 ohm resistance, that didn't change according to oil pressure. Your gauge responds to that resistance: 0 ohms = zero oil pressure, 100 ohms or so = max oil pressure.

At the same time, the gauge resistance is over 100 ohms; so the MAX amount of power available from that wire is only a tiny trickle of current. Probably wasn't enough to heat the O2 sensor more than a degree or 2. Certainly not enough to make it work right. So NOT ONLY does the place you have it hooked up disable the gauge, BUT ALSO it won't do what you intend it to do.

The place to get power from is the tan/white wire off the FP relay or off of the other OP switch, the one that has 2 wires (orange & tan/white).

The dark blue wire that runs the gauge (the one you tapped into) isn't even on that diagram, as it only contains things that are part of the engine control system, which doesn't include the gauges.

Giving the history always helps when you make a change like that, and get unexpected results; we out here in Internet land could have been guessing uselessly at why your gauge doesn't work for months, without the piece of info that you had changed the gauge circuit.

 

ok...yeah I had totally forgotten about the O2 wire and I didnt relize that I had it spliced into the OP wire cause I just picked a wire that was hot when the I turned my key to on...not knowing what it went to.....until it just dawned on me to clip it...sorry guys!

I will look for those color wires off the pump relay and it I cant find it then I will route the wire down to the switch above the filter and splice into whichever wire is hot when I have the key on...

 

the wire you are looking for will only be hot with the car running. One wire goiing to the FP relay will be always hot IIRC, but the one you are looking for will only be hot when the car is running.

They are both thick wires coming out of the FP relay.

 

ok!>.I found it..that kinda threw me off cause when I was looking for it I found 1 to always be hot and all the others were cold when the key was in the "on" position but I got the idea off firing up the car and just like you said, the tan/white thick wire is HOT only when the car is running so I tapped into that one....hopefully it wont throw any fuses or cause my pump to act crazy like it was doing the gauges.

let see what happens when I drive it....now my O2 should be getting hot like it should and the A/F gauge should start reading correctly...cause it was always showing WAY! LEAN and sometime wouldnt even show any bars.

 

Xanax to Wishmaster:

 

do you take off the wire that goes to the oil presusser sending or what

 

that question dosnt make any sense, what is it your asking?

 

i am asking if the oil pressure sending unit on the vechile { the wire on it } how do you take the wire off the switch itself please advise , i have a 1986 z28 5.0 engine camaro

 

the switch that I have pictured? all's you do is unplug the connection off the top of it. ITs like a connection that snaps on it.

 

let me see the picture is there any thing special i need to do before i unplug it

 

Ummm..... open the hood?

Seriously, no (besides that...). It's just a wire. Just pulls right off. No pic necessary.

Why do you want to unplug it?

 

Nope. There is a little "latch" mechanism on it though, just a tab you have to lift up for it to release.

 

i need to know if it is the wire that is casuing the oil pressure sending unit to bad ,i know one part of the wire is attach to the unit , you disconnect that ,but on the opposite end where would i find the other half at , i mean i know their is a connection somewhere before it reaches the inside of the wall were the cluster is . hpwever the other half that is still connected to the unit how do i test it before replace the oil pressure sending unit please advise thanks

 

If you unplug the wire and turn the key on, the gauge to go to off the scale.

If you touch the connector to ground with the key on, the gauge should go to 0.

The wire almost never goes bad, and the gauge rarely does. The sending unit fails OFTEN. Not only on these cars, but on cars in general.

Sending units are like $15. They go bad all the time. It's hardly worth the efort of testing, being so cheap and easy to replace. Best test is, change it out. Especially if it leaks. Not everything is like that (blind parts swap rather than troubleshoot), but in this case, it is. If you even THINK it might be bad, go ahead and replace it.

 

their is a looks like a plastic cover over the unit how does it come off and what would cause my temerputer guage to where it suppose to go but when engine is off after along time when i restart the engine the needle stays where it was last at and did not go down to cool like it is suppose to do please advise