Oil pressure sender fitting broke off.

[Mi_fiveo]

While attempting to remove my oil pressure sender to replace it, I somehow broke the elbow fitting off. The entire assembly had been painted red and it snapped instead of breaking free from the adapter. I removed the adapter from the engine and tried to remove the broken piece with an easy out but it split the adapter instead of removing the broken piece. I’ve ordered both the adapter and the elbow fitting but they won’t be here for a week or two. If I can match up the thread size, can I just put a plug or bolt in the hole for now and still run the engine? Assuming I would also need to unplug the oil pressure switch to prevent the alarm from going off. I have a fishing tournament I need my boat for and I’m hoping I can come up with a solution. It’s a Volvo Penta 4.3 gl-a. Thanks for any help.

 

[alldodge]

The small fitting should be 1/8 NPT and the bushing that its in, is a 1/4 NPT. Yes you can install plug, and unplug the sender

 

[Mi_fiveo]

Awesome that’s what I assumed but I wanted some confirmation before I did it. Need to get this boat back on the water. Appreciate the information.

 

[GeorgeDes]

That adaptor should be fairly easy to obtain locally. Try Autozone or Advanced Auto. I found some there but you need to ask at the desk. They were not on the shelf.

 

[alldodge]

As an after thought, can you use JB weld as fix for now?

Don't do that

 

[GA_Boater]

I don't know anything about your engine block. Aluminum or Steel block? Can you monitor oil pressure anywhere else in the block? I would not run an engine without monitoring oil pressure some way.

If any of the adapter remains in the hole, As a general fix, I suggest you drill out, but not all the way leaving enough of the sender to leave a good bite for an easy out that you can get at northern or harbor freight or most hardware stores to remove broken bolts. Be sure not to drill too much and don't allow debris to get into your engine block using vacuum cleaner while drilling. If the hole becomes too big for any reason, you can fix the hole with brasing rod if steel and low temp rod made by blue devil if Aluminum until you can fix the hole for new sender when you have more time. I think products made by this company can help you. The products can be ordered on line at Amazon or others.

Blue Demon BDTP-125-01T Triple Play Low Temp Aluminum-Zinc Brazing Rod 1/8" x 18" 1 Lb Tube​

Cast iron block, so AL rods will not work.

Not a JB Weld fixable problem, either.

 

[GeorgeDes]

I would try a little bit of a PB Blaster soak and then see if you can easy out the broken off portion. If that won’t work, perhaps a bit of heat will break it free enough with the ez out.

 

[Scott Danforth]

use an easy-out and back it out.

or hammer in a torx bit and turn out

worst case, grease up a left handed drill, or pressurize the oil galley drilling with compressed air when drilling to blow chips out vs letting fall in. then chase with appropriate pipe tap

 

[Mi_fiveo]

The adapter came out of the engine block with no problems. The elbow broke off inside of the adapter. I tried an easy out but it split the adapter in half instead of removing the broken piece. I actually had a brass 1/4” npt plug and it fit in the engine hole nicely. I have tightened it down but have not had time to test run it yet. That should get me by until the new parts come in. Luckily I didn’t break anything off in the actual engine itself.

 

[Mi_fiveo]

[No message]

 

[GeorgeDes]

Ok. Now I see how it broke. The one I had on the 5.7GSI broke exactly the same way. I was able to find suitable replacement parts at Autozone. The only thing they did not have was the exact duplicate of the part that screws into the block. They had something similar though. It was slightly longer but worked.

 

[Scott Danforth]

go to NAPA or Lowes or Home Depot or Ace Hardware they have those brass parts in stock as well as steel

nothing special about the parts

the 45 degree elbow is what broke

get a new bushing (the male-female part) and a new 45 degree elbow. what you have is a 45 degree street elbow

that combination is because there is not enough room to screw the gauge sender directly into the port on the block

its angled because of the distributor

you can get a 1-1/2" long close nipple and a 45 degree elbow as well.

 

[Mi_fiveo]

I checked at Home Depot and didn’t see anything that size. I might swing into Napa and see if they can match it up. I received my new oil sender already. Thanks for the tips.

 

[GeorgeDes]

On the 5.7l it was pretty tough to get a wrench on it because of the distributor. I ended up purposely snapping my sender off so I could get a wrench on the piece that screws info the block. I replace with a tee fitting so I could attach a mechanical oil pressure gauge so I could figure out if I had a dash gauge issue or sender issue. Turned out it was a wiring issue in the end.

 

[Mi_fiveo]

Wiring to the gauge? I keep getting low oil pressure after cruising and then dropping down to neutral. Like clockwork, oil pressure alarm starts going off and gauge shows low oil pressure. Hoping the new oil pressure sender fixes that issue. I tried cleaning up the wiring on the old sender first and it didn’t help.

 

[GeorgeDes]

Try removing the original wire and running a separate new line to the gauge. Cleaning up the contacts on the original wiring only helped intermittently on mine. I replaced the sender and also the dash gauge unit. I knew the oil pressure was good because I had tee’d in a mechanical gauge. The new wire fixed the problem so there was obviously a break or bad corrosion internally in the original wire

 

[Scott Danforth]

if both your gauge and oil pressure switch elsewhere on your motor indicate low oil pressure. that is two different sources

most likely you have low oil pressure

install a mechanical gauge and read your oil pressure prior to re-installing the oil sender

what grade of oil are you running?

 

[GeorgeDes]

Agree. I left the mechanical gauge in place for a while to ensure the oil pressure was indeed not the issue. This pointed me to a sender, wiring or gauge issue. I was not going into limp mode, but the telltale alarm on the dash gauges was beeping and the light flashing even though mechanical gauge registered fine. There is a separate oil pressure sender that feeds the ECM. If the oil pressure was faulty this sender would have registered that and put the engine in limp mode.

 

[alldodge]

A GL doesn't have an ECM so there would be no limp mode

 

[Mi_fiveo]

I’m running Sierra Sae 30 synthetic oil per the manual.