Low coolant alarm. Which one?

[PeeBee]

I have added the Redarc to my monitoring instruments as well. I also monitor temps on and off the radiator, plus on and off the oil cooler.

[mudski]

Mark, check the spade connector on the sensor to make sure it has good clean contact.

Yeah checked all that John. When the sensor is going off I earthed it direct to the -ive on the batt with no joy. The only thing I haven't done it remove the entire sensor wire down to the unit itself to inspect it for any damage.

[Hodge]

I saw this thread it has reminded me that my Redarc unit has died. It keeps going off by itself so now its unplugged. Issue now is I cannot find the receipt to claim it under warranty.

Serial number Marko?? I've found redarc to be very flexi and honorable with their warranty etc... Ring em up have a chat, you may be surprised.

[mudski]

Serial number Marko?? I've found redarc to be very flexi and honorable with their warranty etc... Ring em up have a chat, you may be surprised.

Yeah I will do. Just copped the daughters flu she had for two weeks. So this weekend is written off to do anything.


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[rusty_nail]

Yeah I will do. Just copped the daughters flu she had for two weeks. So this weekend is written off to do anything.


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Wouldn't have happened if ya didn't bail Saturday mate! I was in Thomastown at 830 the following morning too!

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[mudski]

Wouldn't have happened if ya didn't bail Saturday mate! I was in Thomastown at 830 the following morning too!

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But my own bed sooo cozy! And I had something nice to snuggle up too.

[Cuppa]

Just returned this thread as I want an alarm to fit to the OKA.

I was happy with the 'Engine Saver' in the Patrol, mostly because I could just screw the sensor into the TD42i's bleed hole, so no drilling or hose cutting required.

Of course the Cummins motor in the OKA doesn't have a nice convenient air bleed hole I can utilise.

Soooo.... in the interests of avoiding cutting & drilling, potentially creating leak points, I'm looking at the 'Engine Guard' which is an Overheating alarm, not a low coolant alarm. (It does have a coolant temp sensor which requires cutting or drilling, but I see no point in having this in addition to their cylinder head mounted temp sensor, at least not for detecting 'catastrophic' engine wrecking overheating as a result of a burst hose whether that be coolant or oil.

I already have a low coolant sensor in the coolant expansion tank, but this is more a reminder sensor than an alarm sensor, mounted low in the tank & pumped in from the top of the motor. When it activates it lights up the 'check engine light on the dash.... a light which can be triggered by any number of issues. Determining the cause requires button pushing on the speedo to navigate to 'Faults' where an error code can be read, & then checked against a list of error codes in a manual. By which time if it's telling me the coolant is low there' a good chance the motor will be cooked if I haven't stopped.

An alarm with an audible as well as a visual function is needed. The 'Engine Guard' has both, AND importantly gives a constant readout of the temperature so you always know that it is working.

In addition the Engine Guard can have two temp inputs, so it will allow me to also monitor the temp of the Allison auto transmission- a bonus.

The only possible downside of the Engine Guard is the potential for up to a 20 second delay to the alarm going off if a coolant hose bursts, but I am assured that a motor wouldn't 'cook' in that time. A low coolant alarm might be triggered slightly quicker depending upon where in the system it were mounted.

[PeeBee]

Cuppa I have used a number of the engine guard devices for water, oil, gearbox, diff, transfer case and even air with the right sensor. I like them, locally made in Cairns, the owner is receptive and happy to discuss and even walk away from an applicationif it wont deliver.

i am using the redarc radiator level alarm and its very sensitive. On corrugations it can fire off though, especially with the cross flow tanks instead of top and bottom tanks. Right now I am using the engine guard to monitor fuel temp on the tank retrun circuit. Once I get the latest cooling mods resolved I intend plumbing the interchiller circuit into the fuel return line - have the heat exchanger ready to go, to ensure the fuel temp remains less than 25 deg C. the recent NT trip had fuel temps at 48-50 on return and this is wasted power - 45DegC is the limit according to all the literature.

Two different technologies , each with their advantages, but dont think you can go wrong with the engine guard product.

[pollenface]

I have the Engine Guard 2 probe version. One probe on the front of the motor where coolant exits (next to factory temp sender) and another on cold side of radiator near thermostat housing.

I note there is a 10c difference between temp reported on the front of the motor and that reported by the ECU via my OBD2 scanner thingo. I set the alarms for 100c ... which would mean actual coolant temp would be 110c