Jeep Cherokee Oil Temperature Gauge

By Dino Savva

Summer temperatures in Saudi Arabia can reach 50*C or 120*F. An early warning of oil overheating can save your engine from serious wear. The Jeep Cherokee 4.0 does not have an engine oil temperature gauge from the factory.
I installed an Autometer Sport Comp 2-1/6" electic oil temperature gauge (140-300*F #ATM-3348) in the space to the right of the instrument binnacle. It fits there very nicely (see photo below) and has a factory look.

Installation

Wiring it up was easy since instructions are included with the gauge. I needed a brass 1/8" NPT T-piece adaptor to mount the sending unit together with the factory oil pressure sender to the side of the oil filter housing. The part no. for the T-piece is T252 (Le Mans Motorsport part no. LMA 056) and it can be bought at:

Vehicle Wiring Products

Unfortunately the gauge sending unit doesn't fit into the side of the T-piece by itself. To solve that problem, I had the 3/8" NPT brass adaptor that came with the gauge welded onto the side port of the T-piece.

Result

At an ambient temp. of 90*F (32*C), the oil temp. is 150*F (65*C) and the coolant temp. is 180*F (82*C) during highway cruising. In stop-go traffic, the oil temp. creeps up to 180*F (82*C) and the coolant temp. creeps up to 210*F (100*C). No worries about this engine overheating!