duratec water temperature

[Pat the Plumber]

Out yesterday, and the stack dash is usually on the oil temp and oil pressure reading.

It had been ticking over for a while before i climbed in and adjusted everything, helmet on and the red warning light came on for high water temperature.

The water display it was still climbing at 101 and peaked at 106 before i managed to drive off.

Question is, i couldn't hear the fan due to wearing a helmet, but is this normal. it dropped when in "normal" driving conditions, i kept my eye on the gauge and it constantly rose to the 90's, but settled down to 86/87.

When i was rebuilding i opted for a cheaper version fan rather than the "spal", so would it be prudent to change to a better quality fan that has been tried and tested.

When it was on the rolling road there were no issues at 8.5k revs

[Jonathan Kay]

I'd start by checking that the fan comes on when it's told to. Where's the sender and how many wires are attached to it?

Any recent changes to anything?

Jonathan

[Shortshift]

Clearly it makes sense to chack that the fan is coming on but I think you'll find that's normal on a Duratec (well, it is on mine, anyway).  Fan kicks in (IIRC) at 106 and out again at around 98.  Easy to test - just leave the car to idle when stationary.  Don't worry!

James

[Pat the Plumber]

Does that mean I have to change the settings on the stack so the warning light doesn't come on. 

[slap_ed]

My 2011 R400 ECU trips the fan on at 98 deg and off at 96 deg. This is reported by easimap.

The water temperature gauge at this fan switching on point is reading 81/82 deg. I'm thinking that the mapping in the ecu is way out of sync with what its water temperature sender is saying. At no point does my infra-red temperature gun find any water at 98 deg. It's much nearer to the water temperature gauge reading. 

I've recently changed the thermostat from the originally fitted one to the race r300 83deg one and now my fan is not always on... result.

[Shortshift]

Ah - Slap_ed's post above triggered a recollection of many hours (long story) spent logging runs with Easimap last year.  I've dug out the plots and can confirm:

On my car, on Easimap the fan switches-in at 98 and then switches off once the temperature has reduced to 94.  So a delta of 4 degrees.  However, the corresponding figures on the Stack dash read somewhat differently - with Easimap at 98 the Stack is showing 106...  And with Easimap at 94, the Stack is reporting 102.  So your Stack showing 106 is inline with my own experience; the fan should just be kicking-in at that point.

I don't think I've ever seen a red warning lamp on the Stack dash but I guess that it would be triggered by a signal (presumably at a pre-set level) from the ECU.  If you go to the SBD website you'll find the pin-outs for the MBE ECU that's used in these cars which will confirm that one way or the other.

James

[Pat the Plumber]

I'm running an Emerald now, family duties today, will check mid week. Many thanks