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Once I get oil temps from the sender in the oil filter bracket I will see if I need to blank off the radiator a bit more. It certianly does its job well, probably too well! Any thoughts on the optimal oil temp for a k-series on track? its comma 5w-50 thats in it.

ok so I am back from my first race weekend and I had a situation to mimick the rocketing pit temps (red flag while on a fast lap, little warning to cool down and into pits). I am happy to report that my car is now stable and shows none of the issues before when I had to cool for minimum 1 lap to not get rising temps. From this I can only imagine it was directly related to heat soak from the exhaust into the water rail causing the temp senders to rocket. The car sits at 63 degrees C on track coolant temp (its logged via the vbox), returning nicely to 80 - 85 when in the pits which the fan catches fine. The oil witch is currnetly only shown on the dash gauge from the dry sump bellhousing tank temp sender sits at 80c on track. So although the smaller laminova (90cm instead of 180cm) I fitted takes quite long to heat up the oil and only gets it to 65, it sits at 80 - 90c on track when the coolant is 60. I was quite happy with these temps. Next oil change I will get add a oil temp sender in the oil filter housing and get the vbox to log this too so I know what its doing. I think the bellhousing dry sump tank gets cooled via air flow under the car so I am expecting the logged oil temps may be higher than the dash gauge.

If you have the air temp sender in cylinder #4 throttle body like mine was I would say it’s worth removing. If it’s in the backplate and you don’t have any issues at idle it’s probably not. As far as I could tell if the throttle is open anything above idle it should be reading correctly with the airflow over it. Only idle seems to let the air temp over read

I still have the 180mm version. I am going to see how the smaller one performs first and can have the option of changing out if I need more oil cooling. I'm hoping this one will be the right balance and allow the oil temp to climb above the coolant temp.

I wouldnt have thought it would need a remap, the heat soak sets in when the car is idling and it creeps up quite dramatically. I think I saw about 70 degrees C outside ambient once in the old position looking at the emerald software. As soon as you blip the throttle the cool air rushing over the sensor brings the temps down quickly. The emerald seems to be less sensitive to ambient temps than the old MEMS ECU. As it turns out I had a few other things done and the car needed a remap anyway. Ian - the car now reads a true outside temp and is unaffected by engine temps / heat soak. The main reason I moved it was to get a better airflow in my throttle bodies.

This is how my installation ended up. I havent had the car out for a run yet so cant comment on temps. from idiling it seems to bring oil up to about 12-15 degrees behind coolant. I'm hoping it will allow the oil to overtake the coolant temps on track. I will also install a oil temp sender in the filter housing so I can data log temps. The guage reading which is taken form the tank seems to run a bit cooler than the readings I take from the hoses. I'm guessing there is a reasonable amoun of cooling that gets done to the dry sump bell housing tank just through air cooling while on track.

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/sites/default/files/images/users/1260/IMG_0949.jpg /sites/default/files/images/users/1260/IMG_0951.jpg Decided on this in the end. No heat soak, is reaonsably sheltered, wiring loom can reach etc. Just made a bracket out of aluminum angle and fitted it.

I think my pressure switch may be broken. I had the car warmed up, oil at 75 degrees c / 40psi. I couldnt get the dash light to go out. I had the adjustment screw fully in and out. One spade goes to earth the other goes to the tacho shift light. I checked with the multi meter and the resistance from chassis earth to one spade is 0.2 ohms and I cant get it to rise. Am I understanding this correctly? the tacho shift light I am using I presume was an ECU switched earth. The pressure switch should go to earth when the oil pressure is too low, which is adjustable by a screw.

Revival, unfortunately not. It was in my spares box for a few years. It doesn’t have any markings other than 12V LED.

Ok just finished testing. The original wiring from the tacho showed 7.8V at the alternator. So there is definitely something up with the tacho and the LED inside. I wired up a LED to a 12V igintion switched live and placed in the dash then used the original wiring from the bulb to the alternator. Hey presto! 10.7V engine off, about 0.6V when running and alternator charging and dash light off. Thanks everyone! bodged wiring now removed.

I should have the car running tomorrow for testing and give back results. I think I know which way to go. If I re-instate the original wiring and its an internal fault in the tacho meaning I cant use it to allow the alternator to charge then I will use a new warning light on the dash and feed it 12V (teed off the tacho 12V supply), then off down the original brown yellow wire which will be disconnected from the tacho. I actually had a low oil pressure light in the dash which is now redundant which I will use. I was never quite happy with its viability as its partly hidden by the steering wheel so I moved the low oil warning light to my tacho using its inbuilt shift light. Its a bigger brighter more prominent light. shift lights are taken car of by a ACES unit so it was no loss. I will update once tested. Bodge wiring and its cable tied route through my engine bay will then be removed.

Hi revilla, I got this response from WOSP : Me: ‘’I purchased WOSP alternator part# LMA226 last year. The alternator only has B+ and lamp as connections. What is the minimum voltage (or current) that needs supplied via the lamp circuit to allow the alternator to provide voltage?" WOSP: The alternator pulls 3.5amps via the lamp circuit to excite the alternator. Ideally a 3W bulb and no more than 5W. If the customer is running an LED bulb it may provide too much resistance to provide the alternator with current to excite therefore it may need bypassing by a resistor. We supply these if necessary.

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Race technology DL1 Data Logger (classic I think). Its the one with the aluminium chassis and carbon fibre plates not the plastic one. Comes with: 256Mb CF card USB to CF card reader Magnetic race technology aerial Spare sensor input connector (in addition to the one the unit comes with incase you want to switch between cars)All software can be downloaded from race technology website. £230 which includes tracked postage.

PM sent

Revilla, I have some tests from last night. Battery voltage = 12.15V, all checks done at alternator end of wire or on spade connection of alternator ---- Not connected to alternator spade (Open circuit) Brown yellow original wire = 10.0V "bodge" Fused ignition live = 11.9V Fused ignition live with bulb = 11.9V ------ Connected to alternator spade and measured at spade Brown yellow original wire = 7.5V "bodge" Fused ignition live = 11.7V (humming heard from alternator) Fused ignition live with bulb = 0.71V ----- Brown yellow wire + "bodge" Fused ignition live both connected to alternator spade = 11.9V Brown yellow wire + Fused ignition live with bulb both connected to alternator spade = 0.72V ----- I dont have the car ready for starting and doing running tests yet. BUt if you let me know what else needs done to problem solve I can hopefully do it soon. Thanks for teh continuing assistance!

Revilla thanks for a thoroughly comprehensive response, much appreciate your time looking at this. To answer your initial bullets You are measuring the voltage on the alternator end of the Brown/Yellow wire every time?I was using a multimeter with needle probe to insert into the tacho connector where the Brown Yellow wire enters. I will repeat the test at the alternator end tonight. You are using a multimeter to measure the voltage between this wire and a known good earth every time, e.g. you connect the red multimeter lead to this wire and the black lead to say the battery negative terminal?Yes back to battery earth each time When this is not connected to the alternator, it reads around 10V relative to earth?Yes When this wire is connected to the alternator, it reads around 5.6V relative to earth?Yes I have a caterham warning light bulb, I think it is just a traditional bulb rather than a LED I could use for your test. Its this one: https://caterhamparts.co.uk/other/986-warning-light-red.html?search_query=warning+light&results=175 I think what you are suggesting is what I have been using as a work around but with no bulb. I have a individual wire run from my aero ignition switch with an inline fuse that goes to the alternator bulb spade. I ran the car with this for approx 9 months. With the original bulb light wiring disconnected. Ideally I would like to get the original wiring working again (with no additional lines). I will get some results up later in the week. Thanks for the offer of making test cables, I have made a few already to help with this. I will make a wire extension for the alternator bulb spade so I dont burn my hands on the exhaust and also extend the original wiring and bodge job wiring so that I can the car running and switch between each alternator bulb feed and try each on its own and in combination with car off / running etc and post the results.

This I presume is whats happening to me but there is maybe a fault / corrosion inside the tacho that is making it worse (10V with no warning light on, 5.6V with warning light on). How do I install a parallel power resistor? Is that the same thinking as my suggestion to bridge the 12V feed with the "bulb" wire to the alternator but done properly? Caterham has my tacho out of stock, and ideally i'm after a work around rather than a new tacho.

This is my tacho here, it looks like it is an LED for the warning circuit https://caterhamparts.co.uk/gauges/219-tacho-0-8000-rpm-052000-to-082001.html?search_query=tacho&results=15 The car isnt running just now, should be later in the week so I can check. From memory when first diagnosing the problem the bulb circuit attached (WOSP alternator) = 14.4V at idle. With the bulb circuit removed it was 11.5V. That was after my new 12V feed run from ignition to alternator. With the original wiring (and OEM alternator) I didnt manage to get the alternator charging at all. 11.5V at idle, and it wasnt charging when driving either. The car came to a halt as the battery died. That led to the new WOSP alternator, it also didnt charge until a new circuit was put in from ignition to alternator "Bulb".

Jonathan it’s the WOSP that’s installed at the moment and it’s the one I want to keep. The photo on the scales was prior to fitting. I do have the old EU2 alternator still in the for sale section. But being heavier I don’t want to refit. ideally I’m looking to decommission the original wiring and stop using my extra 12v feed to the alternator I had wired in last season. I know from testing last year that the WOSP doesn’t charge without the 12V lamp feed it looks like my Tacho is the source of the problems. I would like to bridge the 12v in feed with the lamp circuit at the tacho plug. But now sure if that has any unforeseen circumstances.

If its an issue internal in the tacho. Would I be able to bridge the input 12v wire (green) with the "lamp" (Brown / yellow) wire by soldering a link just behind the tacho input plug? That way whatever is happening inside the tacho pulling down the voltage wouldn't matter?

Thanks for the connector heads up, I have just been using a heat protected spade. Ordered now!

/sites/default/files/images/users/1260/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_11d98.jpg It only has B+ and the lamp.