Oil pressure connection

[chaterlea25]

Hi All,
Regarding flexible pipe and banjo connections for the oil pressure tapping
I would look at stainless braided piping and fittings,
 These brakepipe fittings come in all shapes and sizes
I dont know how the flexible brake pipe would work with the higher temperature
involved with the engine side of the setup
If you have an SRM type conversion a tapping can be made where the pipe is pressed in
and welded over,
Just my ?0.02 thoughts
Regards
John O R

[nigeldtr]

Hi Alanp,

I play a lot with model steam locomotives so I have a lot of copper pipe and fittings kicking around. Probably the stiff hydraulic plastic pipe is better but just need to take care with the exhaust. I mounted the pressure gauge on a bracket which was fixed to the petrol tank front mounting and is actually just below the top yoke so there is no "twisting" I can see the gauge by leaning forward a little, please see the pictures.

Regards

Nigel

[nigeldtr]

Sorry one of the above pictures was incorrectly added - please see below.

Nigel

[alanp]

Thanks for the help on this one gentlemen.
I've just taken the timing side covers off and I think that the engine has had an SRM conversion. It appears to have a needle main bearing and the oil supply to the crank appears to come from the pump through a tube in the inner timing side casing (with small o rings either side of the casing) to the outer and then up to an oil seal which sits in the outer and feeds oil into a tube in the end of the crank shaft. If this isn't an SRM conversion, perhaps someone can tell me, I've never seen one? If it has been done on this engine it would have been about 9 years ago (2 owners back from me) and I don't know if the SRM have altered the design of their conversion since then.

However, JOHN, I can't see where ..'the pipe is pressed in and welded over'. Can you give me more idea of where this is please? Is this the small tube which I mentioned above which goes through the inner casing?

It does seem that, for those of us with a rev counter drive taken from the oil pump which blocks off access to the nice convenient flat face at the side of the pressure relief valve area (as used by lucky Muskrat), we could either come in at 6 o'clock under the PRV, (like Nigel) or into the casing flange just below the PRV breaking into the oil hole feeding up to the PRV from the pump. I'll check on casing thickesses to decide on the optimum approach.
Alan.

[A10Boy]

Alan

From What you describe, that is indeed a Divimead / SRM conversion - lucky you!    You can find many happy hours of reading in the forum on that subject. [use the search facility].

If I discovered I had a Needle Roller conversion, I would re-consider fitting an oil pressure gauge. Obviously its all about confidence in the engine, and the SRM conversion would give me that confidence assuming the engine is in good condition, but thats a personal choice.

[chaterlea25]

HI Alan,
Yes that sounds like an SRM conversion, there should be a job number engraved on the inside of the casings,
If you follow the line of the pressed in pipe towards the front of the crankcase it should be possible to find the spot where it was drilled, not easy as their guy is a seriously good welder!!!!
You can also drill into the outer cover and through the welded in block to the oilway going to the crank, even though now knowing you have an SRM bottom end I wouldn't
bother

Cheers
John O R

[alanp]

I've found a good supplier for oil pressure pipes and fittings it's www.speedograph-richfield.com. They're in the UK and if you get onto their site and select Instrument Fittings all will be revealed. Don't be put off by the very long lengths of made up piping they list since if you call them you'll find that they will make up whatever pipe length you want. As a result my plan is - 1/8"npt-27 thread in the casing flange, adaptor in the casing with a Smiths type male outer end, copper pipe with Smiths type connections on both ends from this casing adaptor up to an adaptor in the frame area at the front/behind the tank, from this adaptor to a flexible pipe which will feed around the steering head to the gauge mounted between the speedo and rev counter, all with Smiths type connections.
Well, those are the parts I've ordered, so I hope the plan works out.
Again, thanks to all those who contributed to my enlightenment!