[hodson]

Cameron,
You can fit a brass fitting to a steel sump by brazing or silver soldering. The heat from the engine should not get anywhere near the temp required to unbraze or unsolder the fitting. The brazing will still be prone to vibration and may come loose later on, depending on how good the brazing is.

Another way to get around this problem is to drill a hole in the sump and put what is called a bulkhead fitting in place. this fitting has a nut shaped flange on the inside and a screw up nut on the outside. these fittings are manufactured for hydraulics and gas usage to very high pressures. We use the gas types up to 10,000psi (700bar) without any problem. They are available in Stainless Steel, Brass, Steel, Monel and many other materials. I would suggest that you use a steel fitting from a hydraulic supplier as you may get some galvanic corrosion from dissimiliar metals such as Stainless Steel etc.

The type of fitting you will need has a female end on the outside of the sump and it doesn't matter on the inside. Most of these fittings will come in BSP, NPT, or Metric with the hydraulic fitting typically coming in BSP or ISO (JIC). You will need to check the thread size and type on your sensor.

If you have any trouble getting one of these give me a call as we use them all the time here and can get them relatively easily albeit you should be able to get it off the shelf from Enzed or Pirtek. My phone number is (07) 47213522 Colin Hodson.

Hope this helps.