Lambda Sensors & Coolant sensors
Turbo Mini Forums

hello,

i will be buying a wideband lambda gauge and sensor, where is the best place for the sensor to go in the exhaust system?

and

coolant sensors, i need a sensor for the gauge, i need a sensor for the ecu. i saw at mitp that johnk had a sensor in the thermostat housing...is that the only option?

cheers

wolfy

i have put mine near the gearstick easy to get the cable in to the car. inovate said it would be ok pritty much anywhere as long as its after the turbo

"Tuning should be a compromise between what is possible and what is necessary"

10)Thou shalt always quest for more power

I'm putting my ECU coolant sensor where the heater tap is in my head (I'm dry decking so lots of flow there) and my additional temp gauge in a hose joiner in the top hose.

My lambda sensor will be in the Y piece on the LCB.

I've got temperature sensors in the thermostat housings on two cars. Works Ok for me but in the head would be best for the ECU.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Wolfy, Ive Have a AEM Wideband gauge and Sensor for sale, Its only done a few hundred miles. I lost the sensor during my rebuild, so bought another kit, only to find it packed away safely. I comes with Black face and bezel, Im after £110, I also have a matching Boost Gauge for only £70 & Oil pressure gauge £70. £200 for the lot.

Class C 3rd Place Avon 2011 14.18 @101mph

Matt send me some pics mate!

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

The sender for the ECU really has to be before (below) the thermostat as the ECU needs to know how fast the engine is warming up to adjust the mixture accordingly.
The dashboard gauge sender can be after the thermostat (ie, in the housing or hose) but won't read much until the thermostat opens.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Is there an option where i can run the gauge and ecu from the same sensor?

The AEM Gauges have 0-5v outputs for the ECU.

Class C 3rd Place Avon 2011 14.18 @101mph

the inovate lc-1 controller has 0-5 for the ecu aswell

"Tuning should be a compromise between what is possible and what is necessary"

10)Thou shalt always quest for more power

On 30th Aug, 2011 Sprocket said:

On 30th Aug, 2011 Rod S said:
The sender for the ECU really has to be before (below) the thermostat as the ECU needs to know how fast the engine is warming up to adjust the mixture accordingly.

I'm with you rod, its text book page one!

There is a certain engine tuner that fits the coolant sensor in the very top of the thermostat housing, above the thermostat

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Obviously there will be some heat transfer but it certainly will be a long way off the actual bulk coolant temperature until the thermostat starts to open (unless you have a leaking thermostat or one drilled with holes).

In MS (and presumably other ECUs) you could re-draw the warmup curve to match the offset in temperature read by the ECU to actual temperature but it seems alot easier to me to put the ECU sender where it sees the actual temperature and leave the warmup curve as it should be.

Just my way of doing things :)

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

And that is the correct way to do it. ECU sensor in the head.

However, if you are faced with the dilema that you want to retain the standard temperature gauge and do not want to bastardise a head by drilling for an extra sensor, then fitting the ECU sensor in the thermostat housing is the next best thing.

It will read correct whenever you turn on the ignition, hot or cold. It will also be right when the thermostat is open. just during warmup it will be a few degrees behind which you can overcome by modifying the warmup enrichment table to suit.

What we really want is a sensor with a M10 thread with the same characteristics as the standard Rover sensor.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

There is nothing complicated here, and I would rather the tamp gauge be a bit hazey rather than the coolant temp sensor for the ECU.

Why favour a good temp gauge reading over a good coolant temp reading for the ECU? Simply use an SPi coolant sensor in the hole in the head where the gauge temp sender used to be, then fit the gauge temp sender in the thermostat housing. Its that simple!

You can tune round stuff, but why make things overly complicated? I'd expect cold running will be poor in comparison, but then, the engine is not cold for long so the problem quickly goes away.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Lets not bent out of shape here,

I think we all agree that in an ideal world, the ECU sensor should see the actual temperature before the thermostat - that way it can let the ECU run a fairly standard warmup curve for enrichment.

If you have to put it after the thermostat, the warmup enrichment is likely to be wrong or you will have to alter the curve in the ECU.

And if you choose to put the ECU sender before the thermostat in an A series head, you will most likely have to sleeve/bush the head as it isn't metric. (I did).

Having the dash guage after the thermostat depends on how you want to fit it - mine's in a hose adapter a long way from the thermostat housing as I'm using a front mounted radiator. But top of thermostat would be fine if you could drill/thread a suitable hole.

Basic rule is ECU sender would be best before the thermostat, put it anywhere else and you will have to deal with it in software or ofsett the readings somehow else.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

if your tuning the warm up enrichment which i presume we would, does it really matter where the temp sensor goes with regards before or after the stat, both will see the temp rise and allow you to map the enrichment to it??

there are many less than ideals in the 5 port injection settup but you guys are mapping around that yeah?

Yes i moved to the darkside

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