Stingraynut

1988 Auto Coupe

I have had a leak at the rear of the engine for a few years, this year it is a lot worse. There is oil coming down the LH side of the block and appears to be coming from the sensor to the LH side of the distributor.

Is that the oil pressure sensor?

I have searched the forum and there seems to be some confusion on 1,2 or 3 wires etc. I found this picture

Is this the 1988 oil pressure sensor?

If so, I'm not surprised it is leaking after so many years of vibrations, there must be some metal fatigue involved - is it likely to just snap off anytime?

What exactly leaks? could it be tightened up?

I'd be grateful if anyone can give me an online address to buy a replacement. I'm in Australia and will need to order the part online.

rodj

If you have the 2 seperate units as shown ; 1 wire unit is the gauge sensor / 2 wire is the fuel pump switch
From '89 at least ,a single unit that combined both functions was used ( 3 wires ) .Not sure when the change was made , my '87 has both

usually the units blow apart ; size of leak being dependent on by how much.
Short of taking the dizzy out impossible to determine what is actually leaking

Send me a email ,
might have something of interest to you in my spare parts dept

Stingraynut

Hi Rod, I can see an electrical connector pointing straight up and it has 2 orange wires.

I'm going to see if I can stick a small vid cam down there in the next day or so. I have one the size of a key chain remote.

Do you have any clues for locating a replacement?

vader86

If that is leaking and not the intake manifold itself, it may have somehow backed itself out of the manifold, or one of the two pieces did.

You'd have to yank it to really tell what it is, and seeing back there is almost impossible without taking the distributor out too.

cgantner5150

They are cheap - change them both. The two wire fuel pump switch almost cost me my new 385. Emptied the oil out in less than a minute. I posted a thread on it about 2 months ago.
Cheap insurance - Change them (got them at autozone).

Stingraynut

I wish there was an autozone near me!! I have international shipping on top of the unit costs.

If I could just go down to the shop I would buy the parts this instant,

First I have to identify the right part(s), then order them, wait for them to arrive- usually 12-14 days.

IDENTIFY the Parts - It's hard to get a picture but the bit I can see has wires, Red & Orange, coming from it and looks to go straight down to the block -


I tried to use the keychain vid cam but once I pushed it down there it's too close - this is the best picture I got from the video, in case it helps identify which part I need


I need to know which oil pressure sensor it is, then I can find the part number and start searching to see who has one and will ship to Australia

rodj

Email me Rob

JackDidley

I replaced the OP sender in my 87 this week. Autozone Duralast PS133. Around $20. Mine was leaking through the terminal. Very messy.

sgtskid

This has been very helpful. My vette has the exact same leak and I thought it was the gasket pushed out on the back of the intake manifold....nope just the oil pressure switch! I have a 90 with one wire coming out of the top which one would that be?

Muffin

Single wire is the pressure transducer. Two wire is the switch.

sgtskid

I replaced the single wire and voila!!! No more oil leak. Not to hi-jack but boy am I glad I read this thread.

Stingraynut

I replaced the part and no more oil leak!!

JackDidley

Cool. Cant believe it took 6 months.

Stingraynut

hahaha, no I was posting about fixing my ABS and then remembered I hadn't signed off on this one!!

Mountaineer

I was going to mention that while you had this combination oil pressure switch -oil pressure sending unit apart you can replace the bell shaped electric oil pressure sending unit with a mechanical sending unit kit + the gauge from Summit , which reads real oil pressure instead of an electrical signal. You get real-time real oil pressure at all rpm's plus one less item to leak later on ..

its hard to imagine a worse place for GM to have installed this item on the motor, one of those things where you have to wonder what the designers were thinking ... to get to it either pull the distributor or cut an access panel from inside the car ... hardly a good set of options

tunedport85inject

there are tons of things where you have to wonder what the designers were thinking... sometimes this car seems a puzzle,a rebus,a strange way to put things work toghether without thinking who has to fix it later,you have to remove fog light lenses...remove the bumper!you have to change injectors,remove the whole intake system...it's a car for retired guys...lots of time to mess with

JackDidley

Just yanking your chain a bit.

Mountaineer

yup, even the small things turn into a big project when you have to take off layers and layers of stuff to get to the item you need to fix ... for example, I thought about an adjustable fuel pressure regulator but since it is buried never mind....

nutz4c4

Just think of it as making a layer cake.....Ya never dealt with a Super Ram have ya....

Mountaineer

i tell ya I miss the days when had a '67, - open the hood and its all right there in front of you - simple, air+fuel+spark equalled go. hardly needed any special tools. then came EGR and EFI and the rest is history and lots of head-scratching ... i cant imagie what it takes to work on the 2011-2012 models...