From my understanding the current wiring configurations for E-WP Failure dont work that great. They have kept me from getting an electric WP replacement for far too long. Now I am no electrician but supposedly they measure the wrong voltage and/or dont work correctly at all for general pump failure, only power failure. I also know that a company was making a system to monitor them but it was as much or more than the pump itself. Although I am not worried about what doesnt work but what can work.

Could you somehow rig a warning light and/or sound system to alert you once your engine temp crossed over a engine temperature and/or interval like 190-200 or 200-210?

To break it down even further lets say you rig it off of the fan timing, which seems like a easy concept to me. For instance you have your fans programmed by Madwolf to turn on low at 190 and high at 210. From what I hear Most E-WP engines dont reach 200 unless there is a fatal problem with the pump. Now, when the low speed fan is triggered a light turns on to let you know your reach such an engine temp. When the high speed turns on a buzzer or horn sounds to let you know its reached the level in which you need to shut it down. Would that at given engine temperatures give you enough time to shut down your car and get it off the road?

How would a manual fan switch effect the warning system? If you turned the fans on you'd just get the light or tone right?

Is this a worth while idea or are there flaws that I am too simple minded to understand?

I have a good friend who is an eletrician and will be bouncing the idea off of him, but I thought I'd throw it out on here first.

-Dustin-

 

i know for a fact that you can hook an LED system up to your fan wires and the lights would come and go as the fans turned on and off. and i would think that you could hook a simple buzzer to this setup as well. and yes, with a manual switch you would activate both the lights and the buzzer, but if you have the pcm reprogrammed for different/lower temperature settings for the fans to come on, the purpose for a fan switch is non existant unless you would like to have the ability to keep them on at the track or something. in which case you can leave your wp running without the engine on as well. so in this situation, the lights or buzzer from the manual fan switches shouldnt become a driving irritation. my engine never really exceeds 170 degrees with the E-waterpump. so that isnt a bad idea to have a LED activation on the high speed temperature fan turn on in my case. mine are set to come on at 190. i wouldnt want a buzzer, but the light would be a good indication to pay closer attention to the temp gauge for whatever reason. good idea i think.

 

Good points, basically exactly what I was thinking. I'd like to keep the fan switch for just that, the track. But I also understand that folks rarely see 180 with E-WP's and sometimes even have problems getting the needle past 160. The buzzer is just a suggestion for drivers who maybe dont pay attention to lights and as a last resort warning. If I did this I'd have the fans programmed lower to give me more time to get the car to safetly before shutting it down. I would more than likely just place LED's somewhere close to the dash or intrument panel so I could notice it. So far these seems like a sound idea. Of course unless your fan programming fails for some reason, but the likely hood of that happening with E-WP failure would be rare, but as always would include me Thanks for the response. I am hoping I am not the first to do this, maybe someone can chime in with parts and a diagram.

-Dustin-

 

ive actually installed the leds into the fan switches before. i did this originally to remember to shut those things off. on occasion, in noisy environments, i would leave the fans on and kill my battery. hence the led's. the blue LED's are extremely bright, even in the daytime. and i think would work very well for this application. shoebox has diagrams on how to hook the LED's into the fan switches. so if you didnt use switches, you could just hook LED's positive line into the fan power lines (theyre not actual power wires, but i guess more or less computer activation wires. you know what i mean!) under the hood by the pcm and ground the other LED wire. i believe radioshack sells small, low powered buzzers that would work well for this situation. i think i would have to have an inline silencer (power cutoff switch) for it though. very interesting and completely possible. i think i will try this for my wp setup. ill probably only do a LED for the high speed fan though. my low speed comes on at 170 and therefor the light would be on all the time.

 

Yea, it sounds easy...maybe too easy It makes me wonder why few or none have done it before. When I do this I think I'll get my fans reset at 170 and 190 then have the blue LED light mounted somewhere. I know what blue you are talking about it kind of messes with your eyes its so bright. I have LED's on my current manual fan switch, green and red. They only work when the key is in the "ON" position so I cant kill my battery on accident. The lights both stay light when not in use and red only is low, green only I think is high. They are mounted in the ashtray so I dont really see them. Either way this sounds like a solid move for saving your engine if the E-WP fails.

Now its time to get one. If you want to know where to get a CSI unit for $135 PM me since I get in trouble for saying a nonvendor in the forums. Not a bad investment for a possible 10rwhp/tq and a cooler running engine.

-Dustin-

 

Dustin - go to the Impalassforums.com site and search for Handyman - he is my cousin and can get you in touch with the guy that he bought his warning system from. The guy sells them right from that site and include LED warning lights and a very loud siren. We installed this into his Caprice and it works like a charm - I will be installing this type of warning system as well since I ordered my CSI wp last night. PM me if you have trouble finding it and i'll give you a hand with it - i'm pretty much local to you.

 

with watercooling in the computer world, alot of the good pumps have RPM monitoring on them. It would be good if the electric water pumps had RPM monitoring on them, so you could know if the pump was spinning or not, and have a light that tells when the rpms drop below a set amount. As for a seal breaking and starting to leak coolant, you chould have some sort of alarm for the corresponding temperature increase. I think the RPM monitor would be wicked though, simple case fasn have rpm monitoring. Its just a simple matter of a pulse that gets translated into a number value.

 

what type of device is this that you speak of? as in, does the led warning lights and siren/buzzer go off if the water pump loses power or if the water pump begins to deteriorate in actual water pumping volume? or perhaps if the vehicles temperature gets to an abnormally high reading?

manic- i like the idea of the rpm monitoring system as well.

 

It's funny I just saw this thread. The www.impalassforum.com is currently down, so I'm over here loitering.

Anyhow, I'm the guy that has been selling the warning kits..

HOW IT WORKS: The kit provides a way to monitor that your electric water pump has power, and if the engine temp exceeds 230 degrees… If the pump relay or fuse quit working(loose + power) then the Green LED will go out, and the buzzer and RED LED will turn on. Or after pump failure, within seconds the engine temps will rise, and once they reach 230 degrees the red LED and buzzer will turn on. You will then have seconds to pull over and turn off the engine. Hopefully saving you from expensive engine repair.

I'm using two LED's, a 85db buzzer, a 230 degree temp sending unit, and a relay in the kit. I include pretty much everything needed to complete installation such as all crimp connectors, shrink tubing, wire, convoluted tubing, etc. I also provide step by step instrsuctions and a detailed color coded wire diagram.

Basically I've done the job of hunting down the parts for you. To date I've sold around 30 kits and sell them for $57 shipped. When I get five confirmed buyers I order up enough supplies to do 10 kits. Lately, every three-four weeks I've been doing a batch of 10.

-Tom

 

And there you have it

It's a cool kit - great quality - easy install - and the buzzer is pretty loud.

 

i really like the RPM monitor idea! if anyone knows how this could be setup, i'd really like to hear about it!

 

Yea I'll definately be looking into that fella on the Impala forum. I would like to do the E-WP sometime in the near future. Darkhorse, I'll be calling you soon.

-Dustin-

 

No problemo

I just got my parts yesterday - hoping to weld the SFC's tonight so that I can tear the front apart. Grease is taking care of my WP housing for me so I should be able to put it back together mid next week if all goes well.