I have room to install an additional gauge. Here's my dilema, 98 degree ambient temp, 19% pulley, and a heavy foot. I'd like to have a way of montoring the engine status to determine when I should back off the throttle a bit due to the progressive effects of ambient temp and high supercharger pressures caused by the 19%.

Oil temp could show when excessive stress is being placed on the motor and it is not capable of sheding the excess heat. But oil temp is a slow responder to change, therefore there would be at least a few minutes until it crosses a threshold on the upswing or downswing. Another approach could be to monitor intercooler outlet temp. When ambient exceeds 95 and the intercooler has been heat soaked, the charge temp could potentially exceed 200 deg and that could be used as a marker. This would be a much faster response, but wouldn't necessarily correlate the engine stress.

Any thoughts?

Regards,
Boris

 

I would do a EGT since you are using a 19% red. pully.

 

My many years in racing tell me ain't nutin better'n a oil temp gauge...nutin...... except of course oil pressure. EGT is good for tuning

 

kenchan,

I'd agree with pocketrocket, that an EGT is only useful for tuning. It doesn't tell me when I"m overstreesing the motor. Although the car is driven and modified with performance in mind, it is still a street car.

Pocketrocket,
I agree with oil temp, but oil pressure, wouldn't that tell me that I've crossed the limit and my engine is about to blow?

Regards,
Boris

 

Ok. :smile:

 

I have ECT (nav = no factory gauge ... GRRR!!), Oil Pressure, Boost, Intercooler inlet temp, and Intercooler outlet temp. The one I watch most of the time is the Intercooler outlet temp. Oil pressure I almost never check, in fact I'd like to replace it with a light/buzzer instead of a displayed value.

 

In high performance aircraft, engine condition is always monitored closely in the cockpit.

As mentioned in earlier threads, exhaust gas temperature (EGT) is a good indicator of your fuel air mixture. Mixture is adjustable from the cockpit in piston aircraft. Generally this is needed at altitude to lean the mixture for the thinner air (less ambient pressure). Leaner runs hotter - richer runs cooler. This function should be controlled by the MINI's engine control unit (ECU).

Another way to monitor engine stress is cylinder head temperature (CHT). In some aircraft, a thermocouple is placed under one spark plug for each cylinder and is read one cylinder at a time on a CHT gauge. On less elaborate installations, the "worst case" cylinder or the cylinder that historically runs the hottest, is the one with the thermocouple. This reading will tell you how well the head is cooling. Factors such as mixture, air inlet temperature (from the intercooler), spark plug type, head flow (valve sizes, porting & polishing, valve timing), and cooling system efficiencies (aircraft are usually air cooled - autos are usually water cooled) all come into the formula.

Oil temperatures are a result of frictions in the engine and combustion. The oil not only heats up as a result of doing its job, but carries off some of the heat of combustion also. If temperatures become excessive here, the oil may break down and no longer do its job. (a bad thing) If oil temperatures are consistently high, an oil cooler may be in order.

I personally like an oil pressure gauge in the mix. Not only will it tell me if the oil pump is working, it will also give me an indication of the condition of main and connecting rod bearings. If oil pressure decreases slowly over a period of weeks or months, it is an indication of bearing wear (and a major overhaul).

Hope this gives you some useful information.

KE3VP
SE PA
CR/W MC

 

Aren't you worried at all with winterized gas and cold temps in the winter time
with the 19% to monitor your A/F rather than your oil temp on the streets and flip that map switch to accomondate the condition?

Uncontrolled pump gas, low temperature... not a big deal on a SC?


Its kind of hard for me to boil my motor oil that high of a temp on the
streets even if I do drive her pretty hard from time to time...

 

So I saw a nifty little gauge pod with a boost gauge and an oil pressure unit on display at classic Mini......sheeeesh.....700 bucks installed....I swear... a lot of these vendors think we are a bunch of suckers.......only 500 if you install it. Call it 75 bucks per gauge, retail......150...... THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS FOR THE POD????? Sheeesh......