JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

Hey guys, I have another goofy idea so be warned. I was thinking it would be very nice to have a way to monitor various temps of some of the smaller, less thought of car parts. Here's some:

power steering fluid temp
rear end fluid temp
tranny fluid temp - 6 speed

Then maybe add some of the more common temps to monitor, like:

engine oil temp
water temp

To me individual guages do not seem like the best choice. They would cost a lot and take up a lot of mounting space, etc...

Since I'm already running a PC with an LCD screen in the car why not use that? There are USB devices that can monitor multiple channels that can do this already made. I can have all the temps displayed as a digital number. I can also set alarms or have them change color as the temps start to get to whatever preset temps I set.

I'm just throwing this out there, but doesn't this make a lot of sense?

Have you guys seen any stand alone devices that work in a similar way?

As an example, here is a similar program running on my PC right now.


I can set alarms, custom name each reading, whatever. I want something like this for my car.

Shatterz

iTrader: (2)

Sounds like a cool idea, definitely original, **** you could even throw in the windshield washer fluid temp....j/k . But really that'd be neat, what do you use the PC in the car for at the moment?

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

It handles all the music right now. It can certainly do more, though. You have GPS navigation, internet access, satellite radio, it can interface with OBDII computers and monitor and log things. A simple push of a touch screen button can switch the music screen to a set of digital gauges to keep track of that stuff. Or in my case, I designed it to support dual monitors so I can keep the music screen up and have a second screen to always show the gauges.

I want to add coolers to the trans, rear end and PS and thought it would be nice to see if they actually helped or not. This idea is more in line with road racing or long distance high speed runs to make sure the car doesn't over heat.

Splitz

iTrader: (1)

Motherboard monitor huh?

your CPU temp is a bit high for a 2GHz processor, might want to consider water cooloing to help that out and to prevent any Windows Blue Screens.

Oh, this is a LS1 site, not a computer side

JasonWW

iTrader: (2)

It's an older 2400+ AMD actually and it runs about 18* above the case temp. It's no where near high. I've been building my own waterblocks and such since 600Mhz was the hot ticket, but I'm done with over clocking systems. CPU's stopped being the speed bottle neck a few years ago. I run a basic air cooled system now designed to be super quiet. You can learn more here:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/

My car PC runs even more quiet and cool as it's a newer core Sempron 3000+. The CPU fan stays off most of the time. In kind of the same way I studied various cooling designs for air and water and monitored temps all over the system I kind of want to do something like that in the car. Who knows how hot the rear end fluid is getting? By allowing it to run cooler it may increase the life of the gears or the friction material. Same goes for the trans.

Since neither of these 2 parts have an internal pump I was considering a passive cooling design for both. I think the traditional way to cool them would be to use a special pump, reservoir and heat exchanger then pump the actual rear end fluid through it. This just seems overly complicated and could change the fluid level in the actual diff. So a passive cooling idea would be a great step in the right direction.

Since you brought up water cooling it does give me an idea. I could make or buy a rear end cover of aluminum and then weld alumium tubing to the outside. Then run a cheaper and simpler water reservoir and water pump to circulate water around the cover and pick up the heat and then transfer it to the air to water heat exchanger under the rear of the car. It would be fairly straight forward to make a scoop to catch air moving under the car and run it through the exchanger. The best part is that if the cooling system gets a leak or maybe road debris knocks a line off or it just totally fails, then no harm done. Water will leak out and the rear end will just run as hot as it normally would.

Another advantage of the water exchanger is that it could also cool the transmission. I think the hot temps of both the trans and the rear are in the same ballpark so I could run one cooling system for both without fear of either part over heating or being damaged. It sounds like a neat project to me.

Oh, don't let me forget the engine oil, too. I would definetely like to cool it. That's a lot of heat to move. I'll have to think about it some more and see what I can come up with.

Splitz

iTrader: (1)

I've been running watercooling almost 4 months now, I bought a retail kit for like $300, what I love most about it that it is completely silent. The Case/Die temp is BELOW room temperature of 76degrees!

My wife is jealous, her computer is to damn loud!