Hi guys,
Thought i would share what i'm doing with some engine monitoring.
I used to have a nissan silvia which i had kitted out with some jap-spec gauges. The system is made by a company called defi.
When i sold the silvia i kept the gauge setup and when i got the sierra i decided to install them.
Rather than having multiple gauges across the dashboard, the system i had used a single LED display unit - call a defi-link display. This allowed you to connect up multiple sensors on the engine, and monitor them all from the display unit. It has a couple of other cool features as well such as a digital speedo, digital tacho and an audible warning buzzer which went off when pre-set limits are reached - eg water temp over 90 degrees, oil pressure under a certain amount etc.
The display unit looks like this:
I've mounted it on the dash in the console next to the clock, i removed the door to the console as one plastic hinge was broken and the other was nearly gone too.
There is also a small control unit which the sensors plug into which i've wired up in the glovebox, out of sight!
The sensors i have are oil temp, oil pressure and water temp. I used to have exhaust temp as well but i gave that sensor away to someone, i wouldnt use it on the sierra anyway. You can get all sorts of other sensors, like boost pressure, all you have to do is buy the sensor, install it on the engine and the display will be able to monitor it.
To mount the oil temp and pressure sensors i purchased a sandwich plate, i got it from just jap -
www.justjap.com, was $29.95.
The oil filter thread on the G13 block is 3/4 UNF, the same as the SR20det engine i used to have. I just ordered a nissan sandwich plate and asked them to make sure it was 3/4 UNF.
Just Jap sandwich plate
Here is a pic of the sandwich plate installed on my engine, with the defi oil temp and pressure sensors mounted:
Once i mounted the sandwich plate, i tried to put the Z172 oil filter back on, but due to the sandwich plate, it was hitting the engine mount and i couldnt get it on, bit of a pain as i only bought it the other day. I'll try a Z418 from a swift which is smaller, failing that i'll got back to the Z442 which the SR20det used which was a lot smaller.
For the water temp sensor, i had a look at the thermostat housing but wasnt sure i could successfully mount the sensor there, so i ended up purchasing a radiator hose adaptor off ebay, I measured the radiator hose and i came up with something around 26mm ID, the only place i could find selling 26mm adaptors was a guy from ebay Hong Kong, i'm still waiting for it to arrive but it will look something like this:
There is a couple more hiccups to overcome as well, the defi unit needs a electronic speed input which the sierra doesnt have - an aftermarket sensor should fix that - and i have to work out the wiring for the tacho input as well.
Once it gets here i'll put some more details up!
