Engine watch dog

[roverfj1200]

About to fit a engine watch.. Any pointers like where to mount the sensor and where to come through the firewall. Cheers

[ontheway]

About to fit a engine watch.. Any pointers like where to mount the sensor and where to come through the firewall. Cheers

Interested in the logic of what it would add. I get the impression that the cars already happily throw errors and go into limp mode with their standard sensor arrays.

[101RRS]

About to fit a engine watch..

What version/sensors you got with it - just the block temp sensor or the low coolant level sensor or the additional sensor to go on something else like the gearbox or the combo unit with everything.

If just the block sensor then mount to the block or head but away from coolant passages as coolant temp can influence the readout.

I have a combo unit on my Rover V8 - block sensor mounted to a bolt that holds the valley cover. The coolant low level sensor is in the top radiator hose so that if there is a catastrophic coolant loss it sounds immediately. With the temp sensor on the block away from the coolant (eg thermostat) housing you can see coolant temp change on the temp gauge but the waterwatch temp of the block remains relatively steady.

Garry

[roverfj1200]

What version/sensors you got with it - just the block temp sensor or the low coolant level sensor or the additional sensor to go on something else like the gearbox or the combo unit with everything.

If just the block sensor then mount to the block or head but away from coolant passages as coolant temp can influence the readout.

I have a combo unit on my Rover V8 - block sensor mounted to a bolt that holds the valley cover. The coolant low level sensor is in the top radiator hose so that if there is a catastrophic coolant loss it sounds immediately. With the temp sensor on the block away from the coolant (eg thermostat) housing you can see coolant temp change on the temp gauge but the waterwatch temp of the block remains relatively steady.

Garry

I got the engine guard one with 2 sensors.. I use the car to tow. I understand the 3 litre diesels can have the coolant housing on the front fail.. For this reason a second line of defence seems warranted. I am yet to have a good look round but thought maybe someone would know a easy way to get the wires into the engine bay.. Cheers

[ontheway]

I got the engine guard one with 2 sensors.. I use the car to tow. I understand the 3 litre diesels can have the coolant housing on the front fail.. For this reason a second line of defence seems warranted. I am yet to have a good look round but thought maybe someone would know a easy way to get the wires into the engine bay.. Cheers

You can probably leverage the Traxide instructions / posts as they are 319/320 specific. But there is a primary grommet with capacity.

[haydent]

This is a topic ive wondered about too, as i recently bought 2 (get good discount) of the engine guard, with temp and extra sensor wire (eg stock oil sensor splice),

Primarily for my td5, and I have it running on that and it works well, I put the temp sensor on under a oil cooler housing bolt.

Im considering putting it on the tdv8, but havent looked for anywhere to mount the display yet. For the firewall, where i ran my electric brakes though was pretty easy, there is a big rubber grommet for the steering shaft i think it is, just put a small hole near the edge and thread through.


Interested in the logic of what it would add. I get the impression that the cars already happily throw errors and go into limp mode with their standard sensor arrays.

I too would hope and expect that the car would throw up obvious errors and chimes if it was getting too hot or lack of oil, but do I want to just assume that ... And even if it does have a high temp alarm, it might be higher than i like, would be great to know what it was. It would also be good to see the actual temperature of the engine, rather than the standardised middle of the gauge for +-20% deg c (guessing) display.

Tempted to make a custom CAN based display/monitor too, as theres plenty to monitor there, but that is a bit of time too....

[gruntfuttock]

What about an oil temperature gauge?

[haydent]

What about an oil temperature gauge?

engine guard kind of acts like that

[gruntfuttock]

engine guard kind of acts like that

Ummm, i don’t think so as engine guard monitors the temperature of the block, monitoring the oil temp tell you just how hard your engine is working internally and the coolant temperature goes up with the oil temp but not at the same rate, at least that is my understanding.

[haydent]

i put mine on a bolt of the oil cooler. but wouldnt a block bolt be indicative of the oil temp ?

[gruntfuttock]

i put mine on a bolt of the oil cooler. but wouldnt a block bolt be indicative of the oil temp ?

Personally I don’t think it would be anywhere near as effective, as the engine guard is dependent on the oil heating the block/bolt that it is attached to where as if you monitor the oil temperature it will tell you way before the engine guard will. Of course you do have to look and monitor it.
That’s just my thoughts.

[haydent]

Personally I don’t think it would be anywhere near as effective, as the engine guard is dependent on the oil heating the block/bolt that it is attached to where as if you monitor the oil temperature it will tell you way before the engine guard will. Of course you do have to look and monitor it.
That’s just my thoughts.

interesting point, yes it would move a bit quicker, would you add a connector to the oil pressure port or what ?

[knp]

On our D2 I found an existing wiring loom through the firewall and used that. Just make sure you choose the most difficult and awkward location like I did just to make it all that more interesting. 😂

[gruntfuttock]

interesting point, yes it would move a bit quicker, would you add a connector to the oil pressure port or what ?
I would put it In anywhere really that you can get to and put a T piece in without having to become a contortionist.

[haydent]

I would put it In anywhere really that you can get to and put a T piece in without having to become a contortionist.

problem being that is still going to be off the flow so delayed, plus you are just creating another possible leak as i found out after cracking my oil cooler temp sensor port and having to replace the case.

maybe you could t on a turbo or vacuum oil feed though havent looked

engine guard shows some photos of one install option that would be better, and that is just hose clamp to the body of your oil filter, good flow, only thin metal between sensor and flow and no mods needed.

although one draw back of this install if doing it that way with only one sensor might be if you have no oil flow it wont work, but if that happens i think your engine will seize before you overheat it ?

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