I swapped the oil pressure gauge in my 83 Dodge van for a gauge out of a 79 Dodge van since I like the looks of the 78-79 gauges better. The original gauge would read oil pressure from middle-high on the gauge when cold to low-normal when hot. The pressure would increase when RPM went up. The 79 gauge reads low-middle on the gauge when cold, and drops to low-low-almost-off-the-gauge when hot.

Fearing I had some internal engine problems, I installed an aftermarket electric oil pressure gauge and it reads 60 PSI cold and drops down to 40-45 PSI hot, PSI going up to 80 when RPM increases.

So, now for the question. Were the oil pressure gauge sending unit or operating range of the gauge different between 79 and 83 Dodge vans? I always thought that all mopars with a factory oil pressure gauge used the same sending unit. Is my gauge faulty? Do I need a different sending unit?

Thanks!

This same thing happened to a friend with a Jeep. Did you check rockauto.com to see if different sending units are listed?

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Joshua

Rockauto says same sending unit for 83 and 79. I am leaning towards the voltage regulator on the instrument cluster at this point, or maybe the 79 gauge is just bad.