is there really such a thing as "reliable power" for the track? I guess reliable can be a relative term.

I see reliable as an endurance racing car, capable of being on track for hours and hours. I don't think even a stock evo is capable of that abuse.

 

thats on e85 fuel.

ah yes original question.
it all depends on ur total package and supporting mods etc. Most of my stuff is monitored via ecu and then relayed to the race dash.

we mainly monitor for oil pressure over rpm thats the most important. With our link g4 we can do a table of pressure over rpm. And if it drops below a certain pressure at a certain rpm the engine cuts.

we do the same with water pressure incase u lose a radiator or water hose which warns u before u run out of water and cook a head like we did once.

also the obvious like water temp we monitor and flex fuel sensor.

theres not much more else u can do apart from dont push it too hard. We have a race tune low boost at like 18psi and a push to pass button at 30psi. If u tried to race at 30psi all the time ud cook it.

theres not much more else u can do. Unless u get carried away with a motec or sumin. Just accept things can break on track. I race with evos that have stock turbo etc n full standard drivetrain apart from a better clutch. And evos like mine with drysump and dogbox etc. The more power u try push the more everytjing else is likely to break

 

Water temp, oil temp, EGT, and testing will tell you the limit.

 

"reliable" is subjective. Do you need it to last a season? For the life of the car? Everyone has a different opinion of what reliable means. Is it a race car? A street car that is taken to the track?
First, we gotta determine what we realistically want from the car. then we:

BOOM. Done.

 

Those three things tell you when it's gonna melt (cooling is generally the biggest issue with power). After that how long components last at a given stress (power/torque/rpm) level is up to you decide how "reliable" you want your racecar to be.

 

I'd say Fuel Pressure, Oil Pressure and wideband as well for track use so you can shut down when things start going south.

And some sort of bright **** warning light to alert you. As much as people think they will, they usually don't look at gauges unless in a straight.

I've had a driver do a whole lap with water temps through the roof and only noticed something wrong once the head melted through and the car turned into a steam boat.

 

I was assuming that if you're at the point of seeing the level the engine will live at that you've already got fuel and oil starvation sorted out.


I was speaking strictly to what you need to know to keep the engine alive once you have a sorted out package that doesn't have starvation issues.


Having warning lights certainly helps. I try to glance at temps every chance I get.

 

I always thought it would be interesting to have a fail safe system that looked at oil pressure, fuel pressure, knock, AFR, etc. and put a limit on them that once exceeded would attempt to cut boost to WG pressure and timing to a safe level. Could have some sort of initial warning level then a full de-tune limit.

Oil pressure would have to be something relative to an assumed normal for a given rpm perhaps, or including the differential to also check rate of change.

Seems an input to the ECU could be done talking with mrfred about some other things ECU related at one point.

 

For that level of safety, and true motorsports EMS would truly be the easy route to go.. And at that point, more cost effective than trying to add a data logger to the stock ECU, and make it all work together.


The stock ECU does have the ability to drop boost with AFR and Knock I believe.

 

Thinking about it, this would be pretty easy with an arduino for watching data and either outputting a high or low bit for the Ecu map switch. If I was doing more track stuff, I would certainly start looking at making something like that.

Arduino's are easy and pretty robust. Could easily have a status output and a reset button on a panel if needed. Could also do some other things like using the interrupts log steering angle and output to RaceCapture. Lots of things open up if you get creative.

If youre into raspberrypi you could have a display for digital gauges instead (can do the same with arduino and RCP) and then get real fancy with warning colors, flashing lights, danger to manifold, and whatnots

 

Diamond plate floor boards too?

 

We sort of have that setup using our Race Caputre Pro and RPi display. rpm vs oil pressure is calculated and will flash warning if it gets too low.

Failsafes are a good idea but there are a lot of parts that can fail without any sort of warning. All depends on power level and the abuse it goes through.

 

Fail safes prevent a preventable failure mode, going lean and/or knocking due to various reasons and melting the topend, low oil pressure spinning bearings, etc. A straight up engine internal mechanical failure is something there is always a risk of; losing a rod bolt, failing a rod or crank, dropping a piston skirt, etc..

 

Yeah, it seemed like a way to prevent what can be prevented. In the heat of the moment, your probably not looking at the rate of change of oil pressure or the climb of coolant temp. Seems like you could do something to automate that.

Of course it could just be doing something for the sake of doing something. Which is totally fine too!

 

With my racecapture I can config any datalogged item (or equation of such) to trigger outputs. Basically any failsafe you would want is possible.

I can turn on/off fans, disable boost, start playing Run DMC, cut throttle, change maps, flash lights, etc etc

It's a fraction of an aftermarket ECU, and pretty much all aftermarket ECU's for the 10 take away ayc.

Of course with something like a Motec you can do engine operation level changes based on inputs, very easily, but again, $3k+, lose AYC.