So I did the oil press sender from stock to the VDO 360-006 80 psi sender. The good news is the gauge actually moves now. Just the range isn't much. Would it help to put a resistor in line, if so what would you reccomend? I havene't checked to check if they have another sender that would give the gauge a greater sweep. Thoughts?

 

Search might be your friend....

http://www.miata.net/garage/opg2/index.html

Or if you're really ambitious

http://www.mazda-speed.com/faq/opg/

 

Thanks Gary, yeah I ran across those when I was thinking of doing this a couple of months ago. I suppose I was in denial about what it was going to take to do it right. Maybe there's something like a 0 to 40 or 0 to 60 psi sender that would be an alternative.
This place has a ton of choices.

http://www.wellsve.com/custom_search...hp?showall=yes

I'll try talking to their technical assistance to see if they can suggest one.

 

I went the same route.

Buy a sender - check (the same 80 psi VDO)
Move needle for more sweep - check
Do the resister change for better response - check
Finally surrender and dismantle, removed damping grease and rewind - check

It's a bunch of fiddly work but in a couple of hours you'll have a full range fully responsive gauge.