Thread: 1Gauge .. and some questions

Still no photos, will do ASAP.
Too busy today finding the adapters and copper washers and o rings to fit up the two new oil sensors(press and temp).
And to also change the silly top thermostat housing plug and radiator plug.
They both had this lunatic fitting like a massively oversized screwdriver slot, but rounded top(ie. no hex socket fitting). Trying to remove them took half the day, especially the radiator one inside it's little recess.
Got most of the adapters from HIS hose again, but the same bloke as yesterday stuffed me with an incorrect oil housing plug end.
The oil sensor thread is M10x1 as many of us know, and that's what I asked for. I have no idea what he gave me(maybe another M12 fitting), had it all apart to start fitting, and of course it was wrong. Had to get it all together again to get back out there to get any right adapter end.
M10x1 is super hard to find, even for them.
The other bloke at the counter came up with the goods tho.
The other adapter I wanted, just to make the ability for fitting more flexible was one of those easier to find long M10-1.8NPT adapters.
But I needed this one more for the ability to plug the original oil sender back up too(needed the M10x1 female thread).
So I lost half the day stuffing about, and of course when I got home to fit it all up, I got about 1/2hr before the rain started in the afternoon.
I did some of the wiring up in the rain, but I desperately needed some food and a coffee
The other issue I struck was the type of temp sender that the 1Gauge bloke sent in the kit. They were both the long VDO 320.021 types.
Good for the coolant as the extra length helps to keep it in the coolant.
But for the oil, its way too long, and it bottoms out on any fitting we tried to find.
Went into Bursons and Repco to find any other VDO sender and found one at Repco. Doesn't work!
With engine idling, and after a short drive around the block, no reading on the oil Temp. Swapped out the oil and water feeds and gauge is good, so the sender is the issue.
Found a local source for a shorter version of the VDO sender needed(320.028) and will try to get there tomorrow to get one.
Not looking forward to the prospect of doing it all over again tomorrow.
Damn!... I hate diesel oil and grease on my hands arms, head, ears .. etc !
Problem now is that I'm back at work, so will eat into my Disco tinkering time!

Oil pressure readings seem to indicate about mid - high 30's (PSI) at idle, and roughly 60-70(PSI) at traffic constricted speeds.
Attachment is a graph of the Oil pressure log for the short drive.

Boost is ok at 18 psi. Factory is 15 - 17 ish.


Egt temps with the probe located pre turbo in the egr blanking plate have a max temp of 720 celcius before the pistons melt.
If you set the alarm for 620 you should be fine.
Mine easily goes to 550 getting onto the highway.

Thanks jboot.
Just wanted some figures to work with.
My first diesel, let alone 300 tdi.
So far I'm liking it.
Have worked on diesels for ages, old D series truck, dad's cruiser and brother's trucks .. but never owned one myself.

Coolant temp in this cold(sub 15?C) weather so far seems to be settled at about high 70's. And this is only in a 5-10min drive around the block and some idling before, during and after .. so one more variable to keep in mind.

Good stuff. Looks like a very comprehensive gauge.
You're probably already aware, but highest egts will be on long stretches of heavy load eg uphill towing or lugging a higher hear than necessary. In quick runs the coolant temp, intercooler and manifolds etc are all at low temps to start with and will absorb the heat until they settle which keeps the readings lower until then. I've seen anything up to 50 deg higher than initial peak under sustained load 3-5mins sort of thing.
I'd suggest setting any alarms a reasonable amount higher and then monitor or check your logs for to start with.

Steve

Thanks for the comments Steve.
I plan on doing a bit of a run up to Ballarat as soon as I can manage some free time.
There's a long uphill run about half way that is approx 5 mins, and the car struggles up this section at about 80-90(depends on ambient I think).
D1 is auto, so it's hard to balance throttle with the auto kicking down and just revving for no real advantage, and the car labouring up too much.
Today's first proper run, about 15mins of freeway and the coolant temp settled at about 83-85 for most of the way(about 15-ish ambient).

Next part is to sort out the oil temp probe .. which I buggerised a bit.
Temp probe supplied was a long version type, but all the fittings I got/had wouldn't allow it to seat.
So I now have to get shorter temp sender for it on Monday to get that up and running.
Then the last thing I need to do is rejig where I've placed the LCD(display). The actual brains box, I located on the driver's side drop down panel(fuse box area) for the easiest way to access the mSD card.
But the LCD I slotted into the small blank square overhead above the interior light. I chopped out the blanking plate so that the screen sits inside it. That blanking square was already hacked by one of the previous owners who had a compass fitted there .. holes galore.
But in that location it's hard to get an easy eyeball of the LCD. You're eyes are off the road for too long to be safe.
I'me going to work out a way to locate it on the smaller blank square above the rear view mirror forward of the interior light. Should be easier to view quickly.
Just need to find a suitable jiffy box that looks nice and make it a neat and clean looking fitment too.
I have a later shift tomorrow, so I should have time to take a few pics too.
(as long as it doesn't bucket down again).

Personally, I'd put it much closer to the the standard instruments ( and your normal driving line of sight). I'd suggest just doing a temporary mount with bluetac or double sided tape and drive with it to see what works. What works in the driveway often doesn't on the road. Recessing into the mount or adding some form of shading to keep the sun off the screen helps with seeing them too. A lot of traditional gauges already do it either with an extended bezel or in the pod/case.
Steve

I want to kee the dashboard area as clean as possible .. so I wanted a more factory looking fitting for it.
The area I want to keep it in is perfect, and could be done better than my hack job with a half blunt stanley knife!
But, (as the pics will show), the previous owner already hacked the small blank piece up in the console, so my hacking it would do it no harm.

1.
Unit I got was the "4WD version" comes with a license for dual battery setup. basically will show the main battery voltage, and the smaller value will be the secondary battery voltage.
It comes with all the sensors/senders you would need.
Two temp sensors and one oil pressure sender as seen above. I didn't take a photo of the coolant sender, as it's the same as the oil temp sender.
I fitted the coolant sender into the top of the thermostat housing via a brass plug with 1/8NPT adapter.
I had to get all the adapters.
Note that the bloke send out two VDO 320.021 type senders for temps.
One of those but a 320.028(shorter version of the .021) would have been better, for the oil temp. The extra length of the coolant sender is good for when coolant drops, but a PITA for the oil as an extension is needed.
I'll have to get a .028 type oil sender as the one I got thinking it's better doesn't work.
(the one you see in the photo isn't the one I got in the kit, I bought that one on the hypothesis that it's a VDO and it will work, it doesn't)

2.

Image of location of LCD(off).
That blank plate is made perfect for the job in terms of size of the area and ease of fitting there, but the location makes it hard to read the LCD quickly.
That's not the same as it can't be seen, and when an alarm is reached, where the square is inverted in colour, it's easily seen.
I'm yet undecided as to whether I move it or not.
So it should be noted that it's easily seen and read, just not if you want a quick glance(as we tend to do sometimes )

3.

LCD display with the ign on.
Car hasn't been started since overnight, V readout says 12.1, my other voltage readout says 12.2. The other one is always 0.1v higher, but is connected directly to the battery as it's also a USB power port(always on).
I'll connect the multimeter to see which one is more accurate, but it's of no consequence.. 0.1v is neither here nor there really!
Large numbers are the values, smaller numbers are the max value for any given session.
Only the V readout is different in the sense that the large number is main, small number is secondary(when I get a chance to fit a secondary battery system.
Each session lasts as long as the ign is on(or unit is on).
I have it wired via the ignition, but there's no reason you can't wire it up to a manual switch if that's more suitable!
Each session creates a log file, which is set to be named LOGnnnnn.csv, where nnnnn are a series of 5 numbers,
Those numbers are just basically from high to low.
ie. the first log will be LOG00001.csv and then it just increases from there.
Kind'a annoying when you do many short trips, but not really a big deal.
You can reset this number value in a configurable text file on the mSD card.
it's really easy peasy stuff to do any settings configs, use a PC, or tablet or phone .. whatever can read the files off the card(.txt format).
ONLY thing I'd prefer about the LCD is that if it were black on white(not white on blue) AND if it could invert to white on black for the dimmed setting.
Dimming is set via a wire connected to the dash lights when on.
Overall, I'm 99.9% happy with the LCD itself, and 75% happy with where I placed it.
4.

This is the main control unit.
It's super easy to set it up/locate it/wire it up/etc.
Connections are small PC board connections.
The kit tho doesn't supply enough connection ports! He sends out some silly small banana plugs that don't fit!
No biggie, as the connection ports are cheap to get($2).. but the problem is where to get them!
Jaycar no longer stocks them, but may have some small bags of stuff that may contain some.
My two local Jaycar's didn't have any 4 port connectors.
The larger main connector(+ve, -ve, light and Aux) connector port is easier to locate.
I found the smaller(actual port size is 3.81mm) can be found at Altronics($2).(Also on ebay).
Wiring up is easy peasy. I used some spare 5 core trailer wire to keep things neat through the firewall, out to a dead end lead, where I then took off wires to each sender.
Makes it easy to remove if I ever have too(eg. sell car.. etc).
Note that I have a tag on there for y=+ve:r=-ve.
That's for the K-type thermocouple(again supplied in the kit).
I had no idea which one was +ve or -ve, so just guessed(and you guessed it.. WRONG! ). switched them around and all good to go .. so I marked them for future reference!
5.

This end shows the mSD card port, manifold/boost pressure and the ethernet cable connection.
The eth cable connection is only for the connection to the LCD.
That is, you place the control unit wherever is suitable, then run the eth cable to the LCD which is placed wherever is suitable.
The kit comes with a 2m normal eth cable.
They're extremely stiff and inflexible and thick.
I had some, but purchased more of the nicer and more flexible flat cables.
I had a few lengths available, but wanted as best fit as possible.
At about $2 each, I'm not going to bicker and quibble .. just wanted a nice fit.
Turns out I didn't have the perfect fit 2m length(all used in my house). I had 3m and 5m left over but they would have needed lots of coiling up somewhere.
So the run from the upper console down to the fuse box lid worked out to be 2m, via the driver's pillar
Main priority was to have easy access to the mSD card slot on the control unit.
That's probably the major function of this unit(over others I've read about).
While I keep an eye on as many gauges as I can(I drive trucks for a living, so used to it) .. I'm not that eagle eyed to keep an eye on it 5 times per second. The log is easily viewed on some device, although a PC is best.
A program called DBPlot(free) is recommended to view the log file as a graph .. again all too easy to do.
Vac hose nipple is way too small!
Good for requiring a small hose to fit through the firewall, but finding fitting for those hoses is 'harder' .. most shops don't have them in stock.
Once all the parts are got tho .. no issues.
I'm wondering tho, using such a small hose .. does it affect accuracy of the actual pressure?
I fitted a t piece junction to the manifold blanking plug and blanked off the other end.
Will get a pressure gauge one day soon to confirm it's pressure readings(and leak test it too).

Note that you can add aux ouputs to the control unit and the LCD unit if you so desire.
I'm really only interested in the inverted max alarm for now, but I think one day I may try an electric thermo fan for the radiator.
The unit has the ability to control external devices upon reaching an alarm.
ie. say X temp is reached, you can run one of the Aux outputs to the thermo fan to switch it on(or two.. or whatever).
The kit also came with two LED's in chrome bezels, that could be fitted to the LCD's aux outputs for more visual warnings if required.

I have to say, I think it's a great unit.
I'm pretty much 99.9% happy with it(other than the colour of the LCD).
I love the logging features, and it's ability is about as much as most of us would ever need. The price is good($468 for the twin voltage 4WD version) and so far both my questions about the device has been answered well(ie. good support from the supplier .. Daniel).


If you have any questions about the unit, setup etc, I can try to help, but any tech questions Daniel at 1Gauge is the best option.

.. now where to get a less chopped up blank plate for the contole.