I hope this helps to prevent some engines being cooked. COOLANT LEVEL SENSOR KIT from Ashdown Ingram, $157.30 incl GST. LINK - http://www.ashdowningram.com.au/CA2571B7001714EB/page/Products-New+Products-Accessories?OpenDocument&1=03-Products~&2=4-New+Pr oducts~&3=03-Accessories~%94target= I've fitted one of these coolant level sensor kits, it has an audible alarm and a warning light. So if the coolant all disappears in a hurry then I have a quick warning of potential damage to the engine. And of course those more common slow leaks will show up too. It also has a 4 second delay to cut down on nuisance triggering. Here's a pic of the kit - Part of the instructions - The Ashdown Ingram website also shows adaptors for tapping into the upper radiator hose to mount a level sensing probe but I got creative and made a probe using the upper radiator bung, stock TT radiator - The kit instructions mention that you may need to earth the radiator core in some cases. It needn't be elaborate, I did this to begin with - Out of curiosity I disconnected the earth wire, the sensor works fine without it in my case. You could try setting it up without the earth wire first. If the alarm goes off when the radiator is known to be full then add the earth wire. Placing the sensor module ; here's one option, put it in the passenger foot well with all the other modules - If you put it in the cabin then you only need to send one wire into the engine bay, for the level probe. As for routing the wiring and placing the buzzer and warning light - There are many many ways to do this, it really comes down to personal preferences and skills. When my dash comes out for the heater core replacement I plan to mount a flashing LED near the stock temp guage but for now I have a cheesy looking 12 volt indicator on a dummy panel where the Bose centre speaker fascia goes and the beeper is mounted to the rear of the dummy panel. Cheers guys, I hope some of the above is useful to you.
Brisz has one of these for his car as well. Very simple idea that could save alot of heart ache later. One of these and a TWD, no way you could overheat your engine. Out of all the VG's I have rebuilt, I would say 95% were dead from an overheat. Very few were actually worn out from old age, only a couple from a failure(1 bearing and another, detonation) and quite a few because the owner wanted upgrades/power. Overheating is the number 1 killer of these engines, this will do alot to alert you of a potential overheat.
Nice idea. Looking at the TWD's atm, along with this unit, as noted above. No way to not realise your out of coolant.
Electrolysis, good point Chad. I'm keen to hear more about this from others who have fitted any kind of level sensor. Most Tech articles about rubber mounted / electrically insulated from the chassis type radiators warn us not to ground the metal core or we'll encourage electrolysis. Although I started off by putting a ground wire on the radiator I removed it soon afterwards and the sensor module works fine so it's a moot point for me. ( And I know for sure that the sensor is working properly because I have a small but persistent leak The probe is 50 mm long overall and the alarm goes off about once a fortnight when I've lost about 160 ml of coolant. ) My thought is that the upper coolant hardpipe is so close to the radiator probe that there is a low enough resistance path for the sensor to take a reading back to the metal of the hardpipe via the passing coolant, i.e. the upper rubber radiator hose is a short length of insulation compared to some cars. So grounding the core to help that level sensor to function seems to be unnecessary on our Zeds. Member brisz has an identical sensor kit ready to fit so I'll ask him politely to post his findings when he's done.
I know Pregz had/has a very good setup and been using it for many years... Hopefully he'll see this and give us his thoughts
Built mine for around $10-20. Bought a Windscreen washer low level indicator from DSE for $3.50 on clearance, don't know if they're still available? Rebiult it incorporating a mini relay to switch on a warning light on the dash. The sensor is just a bolt (I used titanium) with the head cut off, mounted in an insulator block which is located in the radiator bleed port. Only 1 wire runs from this "sensor" to the circuit board. As soon as the coolant loses contact with the bolt/sensor it creates an open circuit, tripping the mini relay and turning on the warning lamp. The warning lamp is also hooked up to the Bulb Check Relay. The circuit is very simple, even I could make it! I'm sure I have the wiring diagram somewhere, however, we are moving house in a weeks time so everything is packed. I'll try and find it when we unpack. JP from UAS gave me the part number for a sensor that will fit in the factory bleed port; was from another vehicle manufacturer. I did this mod after my second heater core died and radiator started leaking - I replaced the entire cooling system. Still working after 8+ years.
Great Idea, but I don't think you've got the best spot for it. The bleed screw location can be inconsistant. You want it about 3/4 of the way down the radiator so that there is constant immersion and you absolutely remove false warnings. Unfortunately that would not really be feasible on a stock radiator and using the drainage plug would only give your warning when the shit has already hit the fan. Need an A/M alloy rad.
yes it does !!! a low water sensor is great. but a simple electric water temp gauge is worth its weight in gold. you can not only monitor temps but will have plenty of warning when the car is starting 2 heat up !! electrolysis is a big killer. do not earth your radiator or heater core !!
I contacted JP at UAS about the other manufacturer's probe that you mentioned in your earlier post. JP reckons he's not able to source them any more. Did you actually use one of them or did you stick with the one you made from a titanium bolt?
Totally agreed on the need for a temp guage, I'm using an ECUtalk unit for mine. But nothing is infallible. I've heard from others that their displayed temps have gone down rather than up when their car has lost it's coolant in some cases. And speaking from experience, the only time I've ever cooked an engine ( NOT a Z32 engine thank christ ) was when a lower hose failed. No warning of the loss of coolant, and the temp guage couldn't read coolant temp when there was none there.
If you've boiled all your coolant, or lost it, and your sensor is out of fluid, then your reading will be no higher than about 90deg. Whether it's aftermarket guage, stock guage, ECT, whatever...you need it to be in the fluid. That's why on a serious cooling failure and there's little or no coolant left, people see normal temps on ALL guages, thats why a fluid level sensor is so important, although more practical half way down the radiator or better yet in an expansion tank.
I love the smell of corpses in the evening... Going for a thread necro record here, but it's my own thread and it's for a good cause so farkyaz It's in response to this fairly recent thread - https://aus300zx.com/xenforo/index.php?threads/lost-coolant-but-didn’t-overheat.337737/ We all need a coolant level sensor on our TT's, we just do. Even after we've personally replaced or bypassed all the coolant hoses personally. Gah, some need it even more after they've personally replaced any hoses personally with the help and advice of their teenaged mates The probe I started with was 50mm long. Way too short. I was getting alarms on every right hand bend when the coolant migrated to the left side of the radiator. Inertia and all that. So I made a longer probe from a length of stainless "allthread" Then an even longer one. And again. Then replaced the radiator. Long story, no apology for the pun. AndyMac was right all along about getting the sensor lower/longer. He was maybe talking from a track beast POV where the G forces and inertia are BIG but I just wanted to turn or curve right without hearing a loud beep. All the later probe pics I took were uploaded to my server and not added to the thread becoz, shizz, but that was several computers ago. I'll mission finding and posting them if someone pisses in my pocket
Well I've read some posts saying that coolant pressure can show detonation as spikes as it forces tiny amounts of combustion gas via head gasket into the cooling system, so I'm interested to see if that is the case. Part 2 is just investigating how stable the pressure is, I assume that with a catastrophic coolant loss will be visible too.
That’s nice but wow a lot of $$. Can’t help but think adding a sensor to an aftermarket ECU (if one already fitted) would be the way to go
