I'd like to tee it into the turbo feed line. Will this see enough flow to get an accurate reading? I know it should ideally go in the pan, but it would be much easier to put it in the feed line (not a miata, the stamped steel pan would need a bung welded in). I was thinking I would do some kind of heat insulation around the feed line/ sending unit, to keep airflow over the line from artificially dropping the reading. Any opinions would be appreciated.

 

Mine is actually T'd into my feedline, at least for now until I pull my engine in hopefully 6 months. I'm not sure what it is supposed to run at, but on a 70* day, cruising around, my oil temp gauge says like 165*? According to my gauge, the temp never went above 195* while cruising around on a really hot day. I would recommend putting it on the sump of the pan, but since I was too lazy to drill my pan and tap a hole, I used the feedline as a temporary solution.

 

I imagine oil would be quite a bit cooler after travelling through that long exposed hose.

YOu can do what I did - I just thermal epoxy'd a bulb-type oil temp sender onto the rear of the pan. Temps are the same as an old in-the-oil drain sender I had previously.

 

Mine is in a sandwich plate at the oil filter. FWIW, I see the same temps as people who have theirs in the pan.