you can see just how bad these gauges can be on RobertinOK's current thread here http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89414&page=8 post 143 apparently you need to put your lights on if you don't want to be worried with low oil pressure
Seems odd that the FAA, which regulate aircraft in the US, fully allow, and years ago required mechanical oil pressure guages. Why? Because they are accurate, and they work without need of an electrical system, which until modern times was a requirement. If the parts are first rate, and are installed properly, there should realy never be a failure. Besides, the ID of the line is so small your not going to get much oil through it very fast.
I forgot to mention that aircraft also have vacuum and manifold pressure lines routed into the cockpit, as well as main battery bus. And in some, they even carry along a tank of pressurised O2 while fuel lines and selector valves are routed through the floor. If equipment is of high quality, and installed correctly, it generally does not cause trouble. Look at all the items that took up residence in a Apollo command module, and it was quite scarey.
100% agree with all that, and if automotive engineers, technicians, mechanics and components can ever be licenced, inspected and regulated to be as good as aircraft, there'd only be about 27 threads here!!
Agreed the ID of the line is very small, but FF has a point, on track it reaches 140+C, much hotter than boiling water, I certainly wouldn't want to have it spraying on me.
Unless someone put in the wrong line, the line usually used is a capillary line, about all it would do is ooze out slow. In addition, the line will be at least 6 feet of copper, and will rob the oil of just about all its heat before it comes out the end. In the event of a leak, it can in an emergency be bent into a kink and virtually stop all flow. And really, if you think a turbocharged aircraft engine dont make hot oil, it does.
The oil pressure capillary line in my situation when it split was a nylon type material. It split just behind the olive that goes into the back of the gauge. And the hot oil sprayed out at around 40psi,till i turned the engine off. And it made quite the mess over the windscreen. How much heat would you lose through the copper? A little maybe. Still hot/warm oil spraying on you would not be cool at all
I've had both copper and plastic lines break on a 427 Ford sideoiler I owned. The copper one broke at the olive at the block fitting, and the plastic one where Paps' broke, at the guage. The lines flexed quite a bit from torque movement and vibration, and the connection become the weak point. I ended up putting in braided stainless-covered brake line with AN fittings at block and guage, which solved the problem for good.
I was just going to post this, as I recall thats the type of line they use on aircraft. Only its possible its an even smaller line, been a while.
