Why cant you just buy one of those adjustable thermostat switches. Wire it into one of the ports on the pump, or even on the elbow by the thermostat. And have it hooked up to power a buzzer and light, once it reaches your selected temperature. That way even if its not the EWP thats failing, if your overheating you will know it.

Because even with the EWP warning system everyone is buying off of that guy from the other board, if it goes off, the first thing your gonna do is shut the engine off, turn the key to on, and see if the pump is working. Its the same thing you would do with this set up, except this would be alot simpler, and would help with any overheating problems. Plus I dont think it would be that hard to drill and tap a hole for a thermostat switch.

 

How about just wiring it to a relay for an engine kill? Then, you won't even have to think to turn it off.

 

I have thought of doing this. I saw the other site as well and figured it could be done pretty easily. My waterpump just took a crap and I am thinking of an EW, but wanted some kind of warning system in case of failure. I check my gauges often, but still like to have that as a back-up.

 

I used a Flexalite fan control for my fans that has a soft start feature and gradually ramps up to full speed. This eliminates the surge on start up and allows a reasonable sized wire. I had the PCM programmed to turn on the primary fan circuit at 205* and the secondary at 225*. I wired an amber dash light to the 205* circuit and a red light to the 225* circuit. Also had the A/C pressure input to the fans programmed out so it is pure temperature input. The Flexalite unit also has a terminal to hook up a manual switch to the fan.

 

You wouldnt really have to wait for it to overheat to shut it off. Just set the thermostat switch at a reasonable (But above average) coolant temp.

And it would work better than measuring voltage or current to the pump becasue the motor could still work, while there is another mechanical failure with the pump (Impeller comes off or something). If its located right on the elbow that goes into the thermostat, it would heat up almost as fast as the water in the block and heads do.

 

The warning setup is pretty straight forward. The hard part is finding the thermo switch that turns on at 230 degs and will work in our heads.

 

Yea but couldnt you taop into the cooling system elsewhere?

Like in the elbow where that covers the thermostat? It would be a little easier, just pull it off, drill a hole, and tap it out.

 

Sure...any way that gives you a consistant and accurate reading should work just fine.

 

you guys are forgetting that if the pump fails, the water is going to quit circulating, so the water in the block that is boiling, isnt gonna make it to the elbow with the water that the thermostat switch is in... that water is gonna be about the same temp as whatever it was when the pump failed....

make sense?

 

Good point...glad you brought that up. You would build in a delay that might mean bad mojo for the engine.

So I guess that the temp switch in the head is still the best solution.

 

yup. I just ordered mine from spartus on the impala forum. Just pay him the 50 bucks and be done with it!

 

Well if you were going to go through all that, couldnt you just wire a switch to the preexisting temp gauge in the head?

Find a table of the values versus temperature, and get some kind of switch that only opens once it reaches a certain voltage. Then you could design something that just piggy backs off the temp gauge in the head.

 

Also, even if the water pump failed, I would think that the elbow would heat up withing seconds of the heads heating up. I mean, im not sure, but heat does transfer through water/metal pretty fast.

 

I'd like to see some schematics for some of these systems. i can wire it up easily, but i'd like to see if/where people are piggy backing the fuse and power supply. how would you get into engije shutoff? that'd be a thing to do. buzzers and stuff are annoying to me. i'd be interested in that type of system. i was thinking of running a coolant temp sensor thing but i don't know yet.

 

This is true... but I bet its a matter of seconds aswell between when the pump dies and damage is done to the engine. dunno...