Folks - here's my first-ever question here. I have a Zenith w/30 hrs and Garmin G3X and Rotax 912. It came with a VDO 80 psi gauge, and it worked well for the first few months. It was one compatible with Garmin G3X/GEA 24. Seems to not work above 70 psi though. Note it is the old cheapy one, and uses resistance not voltage.
Problem: The last 3 or 4 flights the pressure starts in the 50/60s at startup, but then at full power it goes 68,69 psi then RED X. And for most of the flight I have the red X for oil pressure - which to me is dangerous. Then when I'm landing and back on power, it starts to return with a good pressure number. I have heard these cheapo VDO $40 gauges aren't worth crap, and that when they start to fail, they start reading high - and since I get the Red X, it tells me the high oil pressure is to high for the garmin for that particular sender. So I'd like to switch oil pressure senders.
Here's what the Garmin G3X manual says:
The following sensors can be configured for the Oil Pressure input on the GEA 24 or GSU 73:
• Kavlico P4055-150G (0-150 PSI) • UMA 1EU150G (0-150 PSI) • Rotax 456180
• Rotax 956413 • Rotax 956415 (This one is no longer made and is old) • Jabiru (VDO 360-003) This is what I have now
After some checking I see UMA is just for Lycomings/Conti's. And for the two rotax sensors: 456180 and 956413 these require resistors and ground changes/rewiring, and wires to bus that I really don't want to undertake. And they are like $250. One of these even has you retap the case for new threads - I do NOT want that!
That leaves me with the question for this group - Has anyone flown a rotax with the Kavlico P4055-150G (0-150 PSI) sender? It's compatible with Garmin G3X, but I don't know about rotax 912. I can either buy another cheapo VDO and simply swap, or buy one of the two expensive rotax ones and take off my windshield, top panel and more just to do all that work, and hope there's no retapping - OR, maybe that Kavlico might work. It's just really unclear in the manual. Thanks for the help!
Bert
