oil pressure and temp gauges

If the mods want ot move this feel free, but I did not see this subject addressed in either FAQ, Competition or Cayman modifications so here goes. Has anyone installed or even seen a gauge kit for the Cayman (S) to monitor oil pressure and oil temp. Gauges will warn you of impending issues, warning lights will only tell you..... "it has happened, get your checkbook out"

Interested to know as well, how do you guys track your cars with no oil temp levels? Free bump!

I have never seen anyone with an aftermarket gauge solution for oil temp/pressure. Oil and Coolant Temp apparently can be read thru the OBDII (e.g. w/ Durametric), so that data is at least theoretically available. Oil pressure on the other hand, might require a sensor installation. There was a post a while back that mentioned there is a CEL code for low oil pressure, so there may be some kind of pressure sensor present, however it might not measure actual pressures, but rather be a simple fail-safe sensor. I checked into using the iPhone app Rev which allows you to link a wired or wireless OBDII transmitter to your iPhone, and monitor various metrics, including coolant temperature. However, they don't specifically mention whether it will measure oil temperature, so I'm not sure if that would work or not.

I know my friends at AutoFarm have done a Kit that uses analogue gauges that change colour at pre defined pressure/temperature, I'll point Robin to the thread and see if he will post the results here.

View attachment 11550 Do you mean these ones Allan? They mount on the R/H (UK drivers side) A-pillar. Not sure if that would be a particularly useful position for them in the States, but can worry about that later. We made these for our test car for track purposes. They were rather expensive, which is why i havent priced them up for public consumption. The guages change colour at set points and also flash. Fully programmable. We set them up to go solid red as they reached either a too high temp, or too low pressure, and then flash when they were at a dangerous level. Very useful on track because you can see the colours out of the corner of your eye at all times, so no need to break concentration and read the guages fully. Oil temp sensor was mounted in the sump (requiring a deep sump kit) and the oil pressure sender was mounted in the cylinder head in the same position as the factory sensor, but on the opposite head. Will get some figures together for you. Robin

Looks very interesting - if it has a clean/integrated appearance, and the install isn't too complicated, I can imagine there might be a good demand for those over here, but of course, they would have to mount on the left side. Do you have a wider angle picture to show how it looks in relation to the dash?

+1 on that and of course the LHD mounting. Could we assume the price might come down if there was some volume to the production?

Here's some more pictures taken this morning for you. Note the dimmer switch we fitted also. These things were rather bright when driving at night. Robin

Those seems to be a good option for the gauges. I personally have installed Defi gauges on the dash, but it just looks like they're totally out of the place. I'm also looking at alternative solution.

Many years ago [1975?] I had a nice VDO oil pressure gauge mounted in a pod on top of the dash in a VW. It came as a kit with sender & wires. I can't seem to find any thing about VDO these days. Are they still in business?

Apparently so . . . VDO Gauges from egauges.com

Robin: Do you suppose it would be possible to get the gauge dials in white to match the stock dials?

Nice concept but boy are they ugly and look out of place. It might work on my cummins for EGT and boost gauges but just not seeing it on the cayman .........

As Robin has not come back yet, I'll try and answer on his behalf. The stack gauges where chosen because of their programmability, and at about £300 each they are not the cheapest option, but the whole idea of when they hit their programmed upper and lower limits, the colour change acts as a brilliant warning system. White VDO type plain gauges are available at less than a third of the cost. Rumor also has it that the standard gauges in Porsche cars are not the most accurate things on the planet (we’ve all heard the stories of the water temperature gauge hardly moving between 95C and 110C. i.e. around the critical boiling point area) Robin also told me that the oil temperature in their car very quickly got to 130C and therefore they also quickly fitted a bigger cooler which brought the temp back down to a more acceptable 100-110C. But for looks it’s got to be horses for courses. The ideal is a full Stack type system as used in the Interseries Cars, but that ‘s not always practical for “Road Cars”. I’m sure Robin will come back over the weekend to answer any further questions.

Allan, I had thought about using a Spa dual oil temp/oil pressure gauge in place of the high dollar stopwatch on the dash. The size is fairly close. One could possibly use a switch to go from water temp to oil temp using the same gauge with individual sensors. Attached is a photo of a brake bias gauge. All of their gauges follow this pattern.

This Digital Gauge looks interesting ... - apparently it can display water and oil temp and may be able to display oil pressure IFF available from the DME; From what has been reported elsewhere, the porsche water temp gauge has been dumbed-down to only move when there's a significant change, instead of accurately reflecting water temp -- comparisons w/ durametric displaying the water temp and the stock guage confirm this. The ScanGauge's form factor means it would likely fit on top of the steering column - OK for a quick look but not great for an on-track in-your-face gauge.

I have one of these sitting in a box on the shelf: PLX Devices Inc. - Multi Gauges, Single Gauges, Sensor Modules, Wideband Air Fuel Ratio, Data Logging, Fuel Saving / Scan Tools The display is completely end user programmable/configurable, simply plugs into the OBDII port, and it's got a nice screen and pretty neat graphics. You can display virtually anything that you can get out of the OBDII port. The only reason I haven't installed it yet is because I simply can't find a good place to mount it!

I agree having a decent looking set of mounts with a standard size gauge cutout would open the possibilties. I'd looked at the PLX hardware but passed on that account. The other issue is that oil pressure isn't on the OBD bus.

That is very cool! Unfortunately, the form factor is a problem without a decent mount. I notice they sell a multigauge unit called the DM-150, which looks like a GPS device that might be easier to mount on the dash or console, but there aren't any specs on it. Do you know anything about it? The other problem, as indicated by Greywolf, is that you apparently can only get Oil Temp off the OBD, not oil pressures.

Has anyone thought about using the LN Engineering oil filter mount? It appears they have one with 2 ports for a remote cooler. I would imagine those ports could be used for oil temp and pressure sensors. You would still have to to route wires to the final destination.

I don't know about the LN Engineering piece but sometimes filter mounts with ports for a cooler have a thermostat built in. Might make for some squirrely results. As Robin (Autofarm) indicated there's a port in the opposite head identical to the one used by Porsche 's low oil pressure switch. Perfect for installing a sender. Of course this wouldn't be available for use on an OBD monitor. IIRC, water and oil temp are already available to the DME . I don't know if they are standard OBD II parameters though. I wonder if the center weighted water temp gauge is reprogramable or if that function is built into the gauge? That would leave space for other useful info and make the stock gauge more useful at the same time. Scott? A while back I seen an article on Renntech (I think) about someone fitting the panel from a 996 or maybe a 997 to an early Boxster . Wonder if this is viable for a Cayman ?

I am very glad to see this thread. I was thinking of starting one myself on this topic because the ScanGauge caught my eye, but while it offers a lot of data and can easily be mounted in various places it still lacks readouts for oil temp and pressure. I e-mailed them and they thought that at some time or another the engineers might get to developing an add-on XGauge with those capabilities for the Porsche , but it looks like I'd have to wait for some time-- Porsche is a pretty small niche. So I was going to solicit other ideas. Glad someone else thought of it first. ThomT

From what I saw there was no thermostat.

Gee, I don't know why this is a problem for you. According to the " Porsche Cars North America - United States Order Guide - 2010 Model Year," the Boxster (and presumably the Cayman ) comes with the following standard Electrical Equipment: "Gauges for RPM’s, speed, oil pressure, oil temperature, coolant temp and fuel level." Moral of the story: don't believe everything you read from Porsche .

My apologies for the delay in response. We specifically chose these guages because they changed colour. We installed them for monitoring the engine whilst the car was in use on track (I was getting a little car sick whilst trying to read the PIWIS round Silverstone - Born driver not a co-driver ). The colours were because we didnt want to read the small guages whilst driving (and we drive hard!), you can catch a flashing light out of the corner of your eye. There are many different guages available, but these suited our purposes perfectly. Very glad we did, because as Allan stated, whilst running over 370bhp we got very warm with temps in excess of 130 deg C. Temperatures that exceed most oil companies recommendations, the oil starts to break down. We used LN Engineerings oil filter pickup to fit a front mounted oil cooler. We instaleld a thermostat in part way down the system so it wasn't permanantly open, allowing the system to warm-up. On road this doesnt really open at all. We also installed the IPD plenum kit, which in turn allowed us to fit the larger 997 style oil/water heat exchanger on top of the engine because the factory induction pipe was no longer in the way. Then to finish things off we got a little local engineering firm up the road called Prodrive to ceramic coat the exterior of our exhaust manifolds. All in the aim of keeping heat out of our engine bay (although i freely admit this was going a bit over kill). These additions allowed us to get to a reasonable and steady 110 deg C approx whilst on track. Using specific guages, with specific probes makes for a very accurate system. I would estimate a future fitting time for us of 8-10 hours for the guages and sensors (and a deep sump kit if necessary for the oil temp probe), all wired in correctly, no loose cables in the engine bay or running through the cabin, all hidden behind trim etc. We did look into taking info out of the ECU directly, but it seemed a very difficult method. For UK customers (i'm sorry, but i dont know either the exchange rate or possible shipping costs for US purposes, although you wont have to pay UK VAT) 2x guages, guage pod, sensors, wiring and all connectors - £750 + VAT As above, but with deep sump kit - £1100 + VAT Both options fitted - £1250 + VAT & £1600 + VAT As i said previously, very expensive, but it does work. Please note that we did have to cut holes in the door pillar trim for the wiring. Robin PS - Will try and respond quicker next time!!

Thanks for the follow-up information. Can you tell us where you sourced the A-pillar gauge pods and if they were designed specifically for the Porsche ? Do you know if they (the gauge pods) would be available for the left side, and perhaps just in a single pod? TIA

We made it ourselves. I purchased a cheap universal double pod from a local boy racer supplier and cut it to fit the Cayman . Then got it made out of glassfibre in the colour (black) we wanted. Fits perfectly.

Why is it that my wife's 2009 Boxster S does not have oil temp and oil pressure gauges yet my 2009 911 C4S does? I think this is a serious oversight by Porsche and we should all complain to PCNA so hopefully they will correct it for future model years.

Just remembered another possible solution: QUESTIONS I had one of these in my EVO doing boost/EGT/AFR and it was really great. It was velcro'd on top of the steering column and connected via RJ-45 cabling. You could pull it out and disconnect it in literally 5 seconds. Not sure of plumbing the system on the CS but it was extremely reliable on the EVO.

Bump! How about firing this thread up again?

+1 :gossip:

If there is a PID in OBD for oil temp in the 987 I would love to know it. Anybody?