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I am currently on my 2nd VDO oil pressure sender. The first one failed high several years and a few hundred hours ago. My current sender just spiked for a few seconds high, but settled back down for the remainder of a flight this weekend. So I figure I need to start planning on a replacement. I went back in these ZenithAero and the Jabiru Australia support threads to review the various oil pressure discussions. One that interested me was mention that Arion Aircraft was selling a sender relocation kit. I have a message into them about it. In the meantime, I was wondering if anyone here had any actual experience with the Arion or any other kit. I have a Dynon D-180 that only sends one wire to the VDO sender while relying on the engine case for ground return. Any relocation scheme will need to take that ground path into account.
Thanks,
Dave Gallagher 601XL/Gen 2 Jabiru 3300
Tags:
Hello David,
I also had issues with the oil pressure sender - two failures. I mounted the third one off-engine in 2011 and it is still working 1,600 hours later. I used barbed fittings with hose clamps on both ends of a rubber oil line - no kit needed but if you can find one it would save you a trip to the hardware store and auto parts store I guess. Yes the sender needs to be grounded. I can't help with that because my sender is attached to a remote bypass oil filter. I grounded the bypass filter's mount to solve that problem.
Steve
Steve,
Thanks for the response. I see you mentioned having a bypass filter, so your set-up must include a return line. ACS has a Rotax 912 pressure sender relocation kit, which dead-ends at the sender. One part of the installation process is purging the new hose of air by turning the engine with the starter and the hose open, going into a plastic bag to catch oil, then connecting the sender. The engine-side fitting also includes a small orifice to preclude rapid draining of engine oil should the line or sender physically fail.
I'm sure I can source this myself as you did.
Dave
Yes, I have a return line that runs to the oil pan. I drilled a hole for that.
How strange that they think it necessary to purge air from a dead-end line. The air would harm nothing.
I do know of two aircraft that had the remote line come loose during flight. One was an RV10 which crashed as a result. The other was a 601 which managed to get back to the airport. So failing to properly clamp the hose can be hazardous to your health.
Steve
If your Dynon allows for calibration of custom senders (My MGL XTreme does!), I highly recommend the "Swift" solid-state sender sold by Aircraft Spruce. After going through 3 VDO senders, I switched to the Swift and have not had a problem since. It's solid state - no moving parts - so in theory, there's nothing to wear out and should last indefinitely. However, as I said, you do have to have an EFIS that allows calibration of the sender and it will require a voltage source. It does not, however, require re-location and that eliminates a hose and more leak-potential connections. I don't know if it has an internal signal filter, but the output on my engine (Jab 3300) is rock-solid and when I calibrated it, it was accurate to +/- 1 psi across the entire scale! More information here: Solid State Oil Pressure Sender
John
N750A
John,
I have followed your solid state sender discussions. Unfortunately, the Dynon D-180 installation manual only supports four sender types and the set-up instruction asks you to enter a number of 1 thru 4 to specify the type as follows: #1 Dynon P/N 100411-002 or Rotax 912 pre-installed-prior to mid-2008, #2 GRT HPS-01, #3 Jabiru pre-installed, #4 Rotax P/N 956413 mid-2008 and later. Unless any of those are like your sensor, I am limited in my choices.
I am OK with sticking to the Jabiru VDO type as long I can extend the life. I will continue to look into remote mounting options.
Thanks,
Dave
So I just incorporated the Aircraft Spruce Rotax oil pressure sensor relocation kit (P/N 05-11919) onto my Jabiru. The 34" line the Rotax uses works just fine for the 601XL if you use the firewall shelf as the mounting point. The only issue I had was the 1/8NPT fitting only screwed 3 threads into the NPT thread on my new VDO sensor. A quick chase of the sensor threads with an NPT die fixed that. I did a leak check engine run today and all connections were dry. Oil pressure read as expected.
The fitting where the old VDO sensor sat has a small orifice restrictor in case of line breakage.
I mounted the new VDO sensor on the front of the 610XL firewall shelf. I double P-clamped the sensor.
The sensor case ground is a bare wire double wound around the case and secured with silicone tape under the p-clamp. I added a double strand of safety wire around the sensor and through the clamps for piece of mind against slippage from the clamps.
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